Leveraging the Future Internet - Public Private Partnership for the Environmental Usage Area

Abstract

In order to address part of today’s grand scientific challenges and political agendas related to future Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the Information Society and Media Directorate General of the European Commission provided a novel scheme for innovation projects funded by the European Commission: the Future Internet Public-Private-Partnership (FI-PPP) as part of the Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development. Eleven projects addressing the first of three intended program phases have been launched in Spring 2011. They comprise a large project dedicated to core Future Internet (FI) technology that is called FI-WARE; eight Usage Area projects, which deal with the requirement capture and functional component specifications of diverse application domains of the FI; and two support actions, one for capacity building, the other for collaboration support within and beyond the FI-PPP Programme. This paper explains the inner workings of the FI-PPP Programme, especially in relation to the Environmental Usage Area project, called ENVIROFI. This paper explains the overall relevance of the FI-PPP in terms of future eEnvironment services and Public Sector Information in Europe. It also outlines how the required contributions to the FI will be implemented, especially by detailing the interaction between ENVIROFI and FI-WARE. An outlook to a possible future of environmental ICT in Europe is included.