"Industrial Data Communication" and "Embedded Control" are two important and rapidly evolving automation technologies in the industry and the "broader economy".

Our economy - with lots of (relatively) "medium" technology companies, and many manufacturing companies - will benefit from competitiveness gain, energy efficiency, ... when appropriate innovative automation is used. Modern automation technology preserves and strengthens our existing industrial economy in the region, and creates opportunities for new applications and businesses.

Both "Industrial Data Communication" and "Embedded Control" require much education and training for engineers in industry and services. However, there is a lack of industry-oriented high-level training, there are no "competence centers" in the 2 Seas project area, and there is little or no inter-regional cooperation among the universities in these disciplines.

The Interreg IVa project i-MOCCA aims to remedy this shortcoming in a 3 year "2 Seas" project that involves partners from the coastal areas of the United Kingdom, France and Belgium. The project goes in close collaboration with industry, professional associations, universities, ..., and will develop a number of free trainings, test configurations, demonstrators, .... The Flemish academic partners are KAHO Sint-Lieven (Ass. K.U. Leuven) and Howest (Ass. UGent).