The strategy will be backed up by a partnership between public bodies and industry, with €300 million available for projects in 2011 – 2013, to complement the €200 million the Commission is putting into the field annually via Framework Programme 7.
Public services such as health, transport, environmental monitoring and energy management are currently sustained by complex and often aged infrastructures. These infrastructures can be made smart, that is, much more efficient and sustainable, by integrating the internet into their basic functions and processes.
As ever, the new levels of efficiency and productivity this promises will only be possible if technological roadblocks are overcome. The vision is that the Internet of the Future will connect physical objects such as cars or mobile devices with infrastructures, for example traffic management systems, so that massive amounts of data can be used in real-time to make them operate more efficiently. In the US, Japan, Korea and China, the Future Internet has become a strategic priority.
Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media said, “It is Europe and its businesses that should seize the opportunity and develop these technologies and applications which can tremendously increase the economic and social efficiency of day-to-day processes.”
As the internet connects to billions of sensors and online mobile devices the infrastructures it is monitoring need to be smart enough to use such huge amounts of data in real time.
Smart systems are being piloted in regions and cities throughout Europe. Stockholm, for example, has invested in a smart traffic management system which cuts travel time, boosts public transportation and reduces carbon emissions.
The Commission urged governments and industry to work together and said it will kick-start this public-private partnership with a call for proposals in 2010. Altogether, €300 million will be invested, to be matched by industry.
The Commission’s current support for Future Internet is funding around 90 projects, involving more than 500 European entities At the same time, a number of Member States have launched national initiatives and the ‘Future Internet Forum’ has been set up to coordinate these efforts. Five European Technology Platforms are working on Future Internet-related technologies.
The Commission says the time is “now ripe for a more focused and integrated partnership between stakeholders, targeting common industrial goals.” A group of European ICT companies has defined the content and structure of a public-private partnership in a report, on which the strategy is based.
For more information, read the report from the National ICT Research Directors Working Group on Future Internet: http://www.future-internet.eu/fileadmin/documents/reports/FI_Rep_final__281108_.pdf.
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