Partnership Building Open Event: "The Future Internet Public-Private-Partnership"

Registration has opened and may be carried out online (at registration), although it is recommended you register immediately due to possible logistical limits on participation. Contributions may be made via the Internet on how each organisation could contribute to the initiative (at The Future Internet Public-Private-Partnership: When smart technologies connect people).

Future Internet-related topics were examined in depth in Portugal in 2009 at Science 2009 – Meeting with the Scientific Community in Portugal: Topics of Future Internet Highlighted, as indeed they were in 2008 at Science 2008 – Meeting with the Scientific Community in Portugal (text in Portuguese) . They were also recently examined at three events organised by the Carnegie Mellon - Portugal Programme on 22, 23 and 24 February 2010, respectively: Critical Infrastructure Safety and Protection Innovation Forum,  Future Internet Technologies and Services Innovation Forum, Interactive Media Services and Technology Innovation Forum. A Future Internet Conference was held in Valencia, Spain, on 15-16 April 2010 as part of the Spanish EU Presidency. For more information, go to the EC website on the Future of the Internet and the European Future Internet Portal.

Through its President, The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) is part of the FIF – Future Internet Forum, which was set up in the scope of the EU on 12 May 2009 (see Launch of the Future Internet Forum in Prague). Here representatives of Member States and Associate Countries meet. Its activities focus on R&D and innovation policies to enable Member States and Associate Countries to share best practices and experience, to overcome the issue of fragmentation of efforts and to endeavour to forge cross-cutting synergies for programmes and initiatives that are funded at national and EU level. The FIF – Future Internet Forum’s role and responsibilities dovetail with those of other existing groups and fora, such as the National ICT Research Directors Forum, the i2010 High Level Group, the CIP-PCP Committee, the FP7 ICT Committee (ICTC), the FP7 IST Advisory Group (ISTAG), etc. (Portugal is represented in the first three by the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), and represented at the first two by the President of UMIC), with whom the FIF shall try to encourage regular collaboration and information exchange.

The Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) is also part of the Concerted Action Coordination of the European Future Internet Forum of Member States, which was approved in February 2010 under the EU’s 7th Framework Programme for Research. Its objective is to provide support for dialogue between governmental/ministerial bodies and research councils and funding agencies. It also aims to develop and strengthen Future Internet programmes in the different countries and ensure collaboration at the transnational European level, the goal being to share effort and reach a critical mass to foster Future Internet research in Europe. The consortium for this project includes, in addition to UMIC, WIT – Waterford Institute of Technology from Ireland, the NWO – Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research from the Netherlands, the University of Luxemburg, the NKTH – National Office for Research and Technology from Hungary and the AETIC – Asociación Empresas de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicaciones from Spain. A Secretariat will be provided to support this activity and to promote the exchange of knowledge between the different actors. It will endeavour to set up a website, which will become the main portal for Future Internet research in Europe. In this project, UMIC is coordinating the Working Package for setting up project infrastructure. It is its job to set up the Steering Committee comprising the members of the Future Internet Forum. Also part of the Package is the WIT's job of setting up the Secretariat, developing and maintaining the web portal and formalising the Future Internet Forum.

Additional information on European Future Internet activities can be found on the EC website on the Future of the Internet and the European Future Internet Portal.