A quality assurance process of the Model-Based Design assets of the HUBCAP platform

Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) are innovation ecosystems playing a boundary role in supporting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) along digital transition. Recently, several pan-European networks of DIHs have been arising. Each of them is characterized by a specific set of assets (services, skills, competences, technologies, etc.) and is able to provide one or a combination of the four typical DIH functions (support to find investments, skills and training, test before investing, innovation ecosystem and networking). To effectively provide these assets, DIHs are developing digital platforms to showcase, sell or deliver their assets, adopting a dedicated business model. The HUBCAP ecosystem (composed of DIHs, technology/tool providers and users, and academic partners/RTOs) has recently developed a digital platform offering Model-based Design (MBD) assets (models and tools) to be employed for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) development. The platform is enriched with a sandbox enabling virtual collaboration among potential users of the new technologies to be developed. The sandbox represents a key means to defuse the mistrust around MBD, traditionally needing strong technical and specialized skills and competences to be used and applied. However, to foster an effective and successful provision of MBD assets and to ensure the quality of the content related to the MBD assets offered in the HUBCAP platform, a dedicated process, to be integrated into a wider governance mechanism of the platform, is needed. Therefore, this paper, grounded on the network requirements previously defined by the HUBCAP stakeholders, proposes the assurance process for the quality check of the MBD assets offered by HUBCAP and shows its application to its portfolio. The process turned out to be effective to evaluate the assets offered, triggering an iterative continuous improvement process of their related content and allowing to assign a quality badge to each of the assets complying with the established quality threshold.