TWELVE CATALAN RESEARCH CENTRES AND UNIVERSITIES COME TOGETHER TO PROMOTE THE INTERNET OF THINGS SECTOR

• Twelve research centres and universities have created the FEM-IoT group to offer solutions to technological challenges in the Internet of Things and promote the competitiveness of the Catalan industrial sector.

• FEM-IoT is one of the nine groups accredited by the Government of Catalonia to develop and transfer emerging technologies to the market.
• The project has been jointly funded by the European Regional Development Fund as part of the ERDF Operational Programme 2014-2020, with a donation of €2M.

Barcelona, 11 March 2020

Twelve Catalan research centres and universities have created the FEM-IoT group to promote research and transfer in the area of the Internet of Things (IoT) as a strategic field with great potential within the ICT sector. Although it is an emerging market, the wide range of applications offered by IoT technologies means that demand is expected to increase dramatically in coming years, to increase the competitiveness of the Catalan business sector in areas such as industry, cities or smart mobility.

Given that the IoT is based on a combination of connected technologies, the twelve centres that are involved in the project are leaders in the development of IoT solutions in areas as diverse as connectivity, sensors, computing, cybersecurity or optimisation of energy consumption. Therefore, the group will be able to generate a model of coordination to share, collaborate and establish common research strategies and results transfer. The main aim of the group is to join forces to better adapt to the demands of this technological market, avoid the fragmentation of solutions and guarantee interoperability.

FEM-IoT is comprised of the i2CAT Foundation, the leader of the group, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), the Rovira i Virgili University (URV), the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), the International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE), the Telecommunications Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTTC), the Computer Vision Centre (CVC), the Eurecat technology centre, the LEITAT technology centre and the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC).

Two projects for Smart Cities

The group will promote two research projects to work jointly on future IoT challenges in Catalonia, specifically in the area of smart cities.

The first project, called “Infraestructures de Carrer Connectat” (Infrastructures of the Connected Street) and coordinated by the i2CAT Foundation, aims to design a general, integrated architecture that can respond to all connectivity needs and services in a smart city. The project will analyse how this infrastructure model can accommodate the mobility and latency requirements of connected vehicles and, in the future, of autonomous vehicles and drones. As well as working to reduce the fragmentation of existing solutions, the project will develop low-consumption technologies as a basis of connecting the thousands of devices that will be rolled out in cities of the future.

The mass collection of data is one of the main characteristics of IoT platforms in the urban environment. To promote effective sharing and use of these data, FEM-IoT will launch a second project coordinated by CIMNE, called “Valorització de les dades de la IoT” (Appraisal of IoT data) to unify hardware and software standards. This project will initially focus on two use cases in Barcelona: the control of energy flows in the streets and the control of mobility and intensity of transport.

FEM-IoT is one of nine emerging technology groups accredited by the Government of Catalonia. It is jointly funded by the European Regional Development Funds as part of the ERDF Operational Programme 2014-2020 with a contribution of 1,997,659 euros.