Balázs Barta graduated at the University of Economics in Budapest. He worked at multinational companies for almost a decade in various senior management positions. He earned executive management degree in Paris (Insead) and in Philadelphia (Wharton), and summa cum laude PhD at the Institute of Material Sciences and Technologies, University of West Hungary. Balázs Barta established Pannon Business Network in 2006, involving 10 regional institutions, clusters. PBN is focusing on applied research-and-development and training of companies. Since its foundation, PBN implemented 75 international research and partnership projects with 450+ international partners, also servicing over 200 manufacturing companies. In 2016 established its digital innovation hub, with on-house engineering team and infrastructure. Competences cover robotics, data science, extended reality and 3Dtechnologies. In January 2021 PBN was awarded the best DIH in Europe, by DIHNet consortium. For 2 years PBN is a dedicated member of the EIT community, as EIT Manufacturing Hub Hungary.