ACTIVITIES :: Future of the Internet :: Europe leading the way :: Future Internet Forum
Future Internet Forum of Member and Associated States
The progress towards a common Future Internet (FI) requires not only the mastering of core technological developments, but also a better networking of knowledge, people, skills, and users within Europe, taking into account the specificities of Member States strengths and ambitions.
There is an untapped opportunity to use European level initiatives to leverage the application and deployment dimension of the FI, whilst further investigating the possibility to put in place federating instruments such as ERA-NET, Public-Private Partnerships and Knowledge and Innovation Communities of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.
During the ICT 2008 Event in Lyon the National ICT Directors asked the Commission to create a "Future Internet Forum" (FIF) to allow Members and Associated States to share best practices and experiences, overcome fragmentation of efforts and to look for synergies across the programmes and initiatives funded at the national and EU Levels.
The FIF kick-off meeting took place in Prague on 12 May 2009 in the context of the Future Internet Assembly. With 20 countries around the table, the first steps for building a common European strategy on Future Internet have been successfully taken.
1. The Future Internet Forum (FIF) is composed by representatives of the Member or Associated States initiatives and activities on Future Internet. It consists of either high-level officials from the competent ministries or experts from a public or private institution mandated specifically to represent national Future Internet (FI) initiatives.
2. The FIF is an informal group to allow Member and Associated States to:
• share knowledge, experience and best practices,
• identify key national actors, activities and institutions,
• devise common approaches and complementarities between the various frameworks.
3. The Forum will bring together the Member and Associated States having a running or planned FI national initiative. Any Member or Associated State can join the forum at any time.
4. The FIF will endeavour to ensure that any developing R&D strategy is consistent to or complementary with existing and planned relevant national R&D and innovation strategies, which could be funding and driving developments at a national level.
5. The focus of the FIF is on R&D and innovation policies related to the Future Internet. In this respect, its role and responsibilities are complementary to existing groups and forums such as the FP7 ICT Committee (ICTC), the FP7 IST Advisory Group (ISTAG), the CIP-PCP Committee, the i2010 High Level Group, etc, with which the FIF will strive to promote collaboration and exchange of information on a regular basis.
6. The FIF does not replace existing channels and groups foreseen in the legal framework for expressing official Member and Associated States positions at EU level related to R&D and innovation policies.
7. The FIF will meet twice a year, possibly in the context of European Future Internet Assembly conferences;
8. The European Commission will act as a facilitator of the Forum and will provide organisational support, including the payment of travel and subsistence fees, when required by the Member or Associated State representative.
Detailed objectives:
• Share knowledge and experience about on-going national initiatives, e.g. national FI programme descriptions, planning, project and consortia descriptions, strategic positioning, etc.;
• Assess the current European Future Internet state of development and progress towards a stronger European footprint in the global context;
• Support a coordinated and coherent approach to the development, deployment and support of FI technologies and services;
• Provide input to the strategic direction for the Future Internet, elaborating priorities with European added value, propose concrete measures to enhance Europe’s competitiveness (e.g. identifying common FI application and service drivers, promote FI R&D and innovation, encouraging procurement of R&D services, fostering the emergence of lead markets, etc.), and identifying needs and opportunities for the post-downturn economy;
• Make recommendations regarding priorities and resource requirements to ensure that European Future Internet efforts are well placed to take advantage of innovations and best practices;
• Enable appropriate communication and consultation within the wider Future Internet community as appropriate;
• Sharing information on key support/test infrastructures of European relevance, including information on national, regional and local investments in experimental facilities and test beds, infrastructures for innovation, etc.
• Identify major application and services drivers and requirements of interest to Member and Associated States, including specific needs for interoperability with national regulations, customisation to regional and local environments, demand for skills, support to education and training, etc.
• Discuss FI related topics in relation to the FP7 ICT Work programme and provide joint inputs to the Commission by the end of 2009.
• Report progress regularly to the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Committee and the National ICT Research Directors;
• Contribute to a publication summarising Member and Associated States FI initiatives and activities;
• Encourage the establishment of permanent National Future Internet Forums as the key actors holding, driving and interconnecting Future Internet-related activities at national level and as main interface with the EU and the FIF.
Members
• Austria - Future Internet Austria
• Belgium - IBBT
• Finland - ICT SHOK
• France - Groupe de Reflexion Internet du Futur - GRIF
• Germany - G-Lab
• Ireland - Future Internet
• Italy - TERIT
• Luxembourg - IPV6 Council
• Spain - Spanish Technology Platform convergent towards Future Internet
• Sweden - Ambient Sweden
• The Netherlands - Future Internet
• UK -
Internet Centre Imperial
Newsletter
Work in progress.
Future Internet Forum
Budapest
18 May 2011
Future Internet Award
17 December 2010, Ghent, Belgium
Call for Applications – Deadline 15 November
Fourth FIF meeting
30 September, 2010, Brussels, Belgium, back-to-back with the ICT2010
conference
15 April 2010, Valencia, in parallel with the Spanish EU Presidency
Conference "From Economic Recovery to Sustainability" and the
Future Internet Assembly
Presentations made at the meeting
Second FIF meeting
23 - 24 November 2009, Stockholm, in parallel event to Future Internet Assembly
Presentations made at the FIF meeting in
Stockholm
Kick-off meeting
12 May 2009, Prague, in parallel event to Future Internet Assembly
The presentations made at the last FIF meeting and the 1st Future Internet Awards winners
The presentations made at the last FIF meeting in Stockholm
National initiatives compendium
•
Future Internet Assembly
•
ICT Committee
• CIP Committee
•
IST Advisory Group (ISTAG)
•
i2010 High Level Group
•
European Regulators Group
