AIDIMA acts as a coordinator of the INNOVAFUN project - one of the six Europe INNOVA Standards Networks projects - which aims at building industrial consensus on the innovative funStep standard-based solution, facilitating the integration of open standards in the furniture industry and identifying new products and services for a better improvement in business processes among furniture stakeholders.

The award was handed over at the occasion of the 3rd International Conference on Interoperability for Enterprise Software Applications that took place in Madeira, Portugal, on 28th & 29th March 2007.

The SMART-fm project has successfully resulted in the development of the ISO10303-AP236 International Standard, which can be considered as a remarkable contribution to interoperability in the furniture industry, especially to SMEs. The project was also congratulated by the ISC of its efforts in disseminating the project results through the IMS program, funStep, and the ISO TC184/SC4 meetings.

Mr Kwan Rim, Ph.D., Chairman of the International Steering Committee of IMS and Chairman of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Korea added:

"We recognize the efforts led by Mrs. Maria José Nuñez (AIDIMA, Coordinator of INNOVAFUN Project) to bring software vendors, manufacturers, retailers and technology developers together in order to meet competitive demands for the future. We also recognize Dr. Ricardo Jardim-Gonçalves (UNINOVA, Partner in INNOVAFUN Project) for the scientific achievements that contributed to the success of the project ". 

Optimising the supply chain operations through higher standards is crucial for the industry so it may respond to the growing international competition and facilitate the access to the market for innovative solutions and products. Although targeted to the furniture industry, INNOVAFUN will deliver results to be used as a reference also in other services and industries targeted by the six Europe INNOVA Standards Networks.

This was the core subject of the debates and panel discussions held during the Europe INNOVA Standards Networks' first thematic workshop ‘Standards and Innovation’.

This interesting workshop organised in Madeira on 29th March 2007 brought together experts and innovation specialists from all over Europe to discuss about the use of standards as a driver for innovation.

>Presentations are available here

Contacts:

AIDIMA - Asociación de Investigación y Desarrollo en la Industria del Mueble y Afines
C/Benjamín Franklin, 13.
E-46980 Paterna, SPAIN

María José Núñez - mjnunyez@aidima.es
________

UNINOVA - Instituto de Desenvolvimento de Novas Tecnologías
Campus FCT/UNL - Quinta da Torre
P-2825 Monte de Caparica, Portugal

Ricardo Jardim Gonçalves - rg@uninova.pt