On 3 May 2011, the European Commission (EC) launched the first phase of a public-private partnership to build the Internet of the future. Half of the €600 million funding has been made available by the EC over 5 years, with the other half put up by Europe's research organisations, public sector and industry.
In the PPP's first phase (2011-2012), €90 million of EU financing will be provided, matched by companies, research organisations and the public sector. The goal is to create a toolbox of services enabling large scale trials. Known as the FI-WARE project, this toolbox comprises a set of core platform tools needed to build innovative future Internet services, such as privacy, real-time processing and cloud computing. Eight case projects (each receiving roughly €5 million in funding over 2 years) will lead the developments and explore the future Internet in:
- ENVIROFI - environmental data in the public domain;
- SMARTAGRIFOOD - making the food value-chain smarter;
- FINSENY - reaping the benefits of electricity management at community level;
- OUTSMART - making public infrastructure in urban areas more intelligent and efficient;
- FI-CONTENT - networked media, including gaming;
- FINEST - increasing efficiency in international logistics value-chains;
- INSTANT MOBILITY - personal mobility;
- SAFECITY - making urban public areas safer.
The second phase (2013-2014) will be the large scale trials of innovative and complex Internet services and applications in a wide range of domains across Europe. The third phase (2014-2015) will be dedicated towards transforming these trials into fertile digital ecosystems and connecting them to their regional innovation policy.
Further information:
- Digital Agenda: Commission and European industry join forces to build the Internet of the Future http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/525&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
