Photo: Günther-Oettinger-Alliance-for-Internet-of-Things-Innovation

EC launches new alliance between IoT players

27 March 2015

by Richard Forster

A new platform to boost Europe’s potential in the Internet of Things (IoT) field has been launched by the European Commission (EC) in Brussels during the Net Futures 2015 conference.

Günther H. Oettinger, European Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, officially launched the Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation, along with other partners, including Bosch and Philips. The Alliance brings together different industries, sectors and some of Europe’s largest technology and digital companies.

Its main remit, through various working groups, will be to promote interoperability and convergence between standards, facilitate policy debates and prepare a Commission’s initiative for large scale testing and experimentation, tabled for 2016.

Thibaut Kleiner, Head of Unit, Network Technologies, European Commission
Thibaut Kleiner, Head of Unit, Network Technologies, European Commission

“One of the working groups is linked to smart cities,” Thibaut Kleiner, Head of Unit, Network Technologies at the EC’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks told Cities Today.  “But we are not planning to duplicate the European Innovation Partnerships which is also a very important vehicle for connecting cities. What we are aiming for is to really exploit the technologies that are coming out of IoT research and innovation, to try and build a new ecosystem.”

According to the EC nearly five billion things will be connected by 2015, reaching 25 billion by 2020, helping citizens save energy, reduce traffic jams, increase comfort, and get better healthcare and increased independence. Revenues in the European Union from IoT are estimated to represent €400 million in 2015 and are set to increase to more than €1 trillion by 2020.

The first major priority will be to expand membership of the alliance to include a greater number of small companies, startups and other entities interested in participating to then create large-scale pilots. One pilot is planned in the area of smart cities of which the focus will be on citizen-centred services to be then built upon and replicated.

“The way we see smart cities is a very significant laboratory for IoT,” added Kleiner. “Very often people don’t realise that there is already a lot of technology available so we are encouraging people to try to innovate on the basis of these platforms, to try to make sure we look at technology and solve problems and make it relevant for citizens.”

For those interested in becoming a member of the new alliance see: http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/news-redirect/22046

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