The adoption levels of digital technology in the manufacturing sector is lower in the UK than in other countries. One of the main barriers to this is the 'human element'. For example, the digital skills gap, employee resistance, or a lack of senior management support or vision.

To help address this, Vaggelis Giannikas has joined an inter-disciplinary project called "Made smarter innovation: Centre for people-led digitalisation". The team are working with the manufacturing industry to help equip people with the skills and knowledge needed for digitalisation.

The project will run until February 2025, and has a budget of £5 million.

Their aim is to "be the world leader in providing people-led solutions to enable the manufacturing sector to have right-first-time digitalisation".