From idustrial core to AI-driven factories, Industrial test-bed with digital factory and wider reach to steel, whitegood and automative industriy and it v.chain

MESS and its Technology Center, MEXT, together represent a rare and powerful combination of industrial reach and hands-on technological capability, making them a highly attractive partner for EU-funded research, innovation and demonstration actions. As Turkey’s largest employers’ association, Türkiye Metal Sanayicileri Sendikası (MESS) provides direct access to the heart of European-connected manufacturing value chains in automotive, steel and white goods, while MESS Technology Center (MEXT) operates as a large-scale industrial transformation hub where ideas are tested, validated and scaled in real production environments. MEXT’s Digital Factory—comprising fully integrated discrete and continuous production lines, advanced AI and HPC infrastructure, a private 5G network and over 200 validated digital, green and AI use cases—functions as a real-world testbed for Horizon Europe projects, enabling Test Before Invest activities, pilot demonstrations, digital twin validation and AI model testing under operational conditions. With experience from more than 900 manufacturing companies across 15+ sectors, MEXT brings proven expertise in industrial maturity assessment, baseline analysis, KPI definition and impact monitoring, translating diagnostics into actionable transformation roadmaps aligned with EU twin-transition objectives. This technical depth is reinforced by a strong capacity-building dimension, with over 32,000 training participations delivered through hands-on, factory-linked programs that ensure research and innovation outcomes are effectively adopted by industry, especially SMEs. Combined with MESS’s unmatched dissemination power and ecosystem reach, MESS and MEXT are ideally positioned to lead or strongly contribute as pilot and validation partners, technical experts in AI and digital twins, and dissemination, exploitation and communication leaders, ensuring that EU project results move beyond experimentation and generate measurable, scalable industrial impact.