Innovation Forum on Future Internet Technologies and Services (NET-FIT)

This Thematic Network is created in a year when, within the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technology development of the European Union (EU), an open call will be launched within the Future Internet initiative with a budget of 300 million euros. The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) integrates, through its President, the Future Internet Forum (FIF) established within the EU on May 12, 2009 (see Launching of the Future Internet Forum in Prague), which consists of representatives of Member States and Associates, and whose activities are focused on R&D and innovation policies to enable Member States and Associates to share good practices and experiences in this area, in order to overcome the fragmentation of efforts and to seek synergies across programs and initiatives funded at national and EU levels. The role and responsibilities of the Future Internet Forum (FIF) are complementary to other existing groups/committees, such as the National ICT Research Directors Forum, the i2010 High Level Group, the CIP-PCP Committee, the FP7 ICT Committee (ICTC), the IST Advisory Group (ISTAG), etc. (the representation of Portugal in the first three groups/committees is assured by the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and in the first two of them the representative of Portugal is the President of UMIC). The FIF will seek to promote collaboration and exchange of information on a regular basis with those groups/committees. 

The topics of the Future Internet were extensively covered in the Science 2009 – Meeting with Science in Portugal: Topics of Future Internet Highlighted, as they had been in the Science 2008 – Meeting with Science in Portugal. 

The European Commission published on October 28, 2009 the Communication “A public-private partnership on the Future Internet”. On March 12, 2010, at Acropolis, Nice, France, an event open to build constituencies was organized under the name “The Future Internet Public-Private-Partnership: When smart technologies connect people”. Within the Spanish Presidency of the EU, a Future Internet Conference is planned for Valencia, Spain, on 15-16 April 2010. For more information see the European Commission website on the Internet and the European Future Internet Portal.

In the Innovation Forum on Future Internet Technologies and Services (NET-FIT) program, it is scheduled a presentation by a representative from the Directorate of Emerging Technologies and Infrastructures of the Directorate-General of Information Society and Media of the European Commission who was invited by the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) for providing direct information about the opening of the call which is planned for mid of this year for projects on the Future Internet Public-Private-Partnership, in order to promote the preparation of proposals with a strong Portuguese participation in this call.

In future, the Internet will not only integrate a optical fiber backbone, very wide and generalized access to wireless broadband, large information systems, as it will integrate sophisticated social networks, smart objects, cyber-physical systems based on sensors and vehicles equipped with advanced communications.

To maximize the benefits of these Next Generation Networks, the Thematic Network NET-FIT shall promote an interdisciplinary approach, in which engineers, scientists, economists or psychologists can collaborate actively towards the development of new equipment, software architectures and practical applications. Sensitive to the risks of info-exclusion, these technologies should generate new products, services and business opportunities for all kinds of users.

The Thematic Network NET-FIT will be based on the research projects and postgraduate training in progress under the Carnegie Mellon – Portugal Program. More than 100 researchers and 150 postgraduate students are currently involved in this program, which aims to continue attracting talented students and researchers from around the world to ensure the necessary critical mass and high impact contributions on science, technology and economic development.

The Carnegie Mellon – Portugal Program was initiated on October 27, 2007 under the action Partnerships for the Future which is part of the Portuguese Government initiative Commitment to Science for Portugal’s Future . The main areas of research and teaching of this program are precisely on Future Internet Technologies, namely Next Generation Networks (NGN) for high quality reliable services, cyber-physical systems for ambient intelligence, human-centric computation, technological change in ICT analysis and public policy.

For more information see: Carnegie Mellon – Portugal Program, Information and Communication Technologies Institute, ICTI, http://twitter.com/cmuportugal, http://cmuportugal.blogspot.com, New R&D Institute Created in Madeira within the Carnegie Mellon – Portugal Program, 4th Meeting of the Governing Committee of the CMU – Portugal Programme  - 07/11/2008.