AIOTI Vision and Recommendations: European IoT challenges and opportunities 2019 – 2024

AIOTI has prepared its priorities for the new political cycle in the EU (2019-2024), that started with the election of the new European Parliament in May and with the new Europan Commission that will start on 1 November 2019.

Our Vision and Recommendations

We believe that future EU policies, and in particular those that are within the work programme of the next European Commission, should be built around:

1. The definition and support of a human-centric approach ensuring safety, security, privacy and trust, as the basis of the identity of “Made in Europe” IoT technologies and applications, ensuring a non-discriminatory presence in the European market and participation in R&D&I programs.
2. Progress in the digitisation of European industries according to market and societal needs, with special attention paid to closing a digital divide between EU regions and the Member States.
   • This includes developing new IoT-enabled technologies addressing societal challenges like energy efficiency, climate-change, carbon-neutral smart cities, security of food supply and heatlhy water, which are currently at the core of the Horizon Europe missions.
3. Leveraging IoT data, enabling cross-sectoral “data marketplaces”, providing true interoperability, lowering regulation barriers, etc. to unlock the full potential of innovation IoT-based applications.
   • This includes establishing a cyber-security strategy for safeguarding IoT technology and applications, whilst ensuring privacy by design.
4. Advancing in the convergence of IoT with other enabling technologies such as next-generation connectivity, AI, edge computing, to sustain and extend European leadership in the digital innovation space.
5. Dialogue with industry representatives, such as AIOTI, to build a bridge between the European Commission and EU Member States to disseminate IoT knowledge and in particular to:
   • share and streamline information on IoT related policy, regulation, research, innovation and standardization areas that are led by the European Commission and/or those led by EU Member States and
   • shorten the decision making process at EU and the Member States level on IoT related issues.

That means that existing successful initiatives, including the Digitising European Industries and Digital Innovation Hubs, should continue to be supported within the new context and with new impetus to accelerate testing and adoption of IoT-enabled applications.

Within the framework research programme, European partnerships that include Smart Networks, Intelligent Connectivity, IoT Applications and Services should be developed and adequately financed. Through a public-private partnership model, AIOTI can lead and make significant contributions in this field, bringing our expertise and membership  breadth and reach.

In addition, to pursue successful IoT public policies, the EU should further promote access to data to deliver public interest solutions, enable the development of new commercial business models, build European data lakes and ensure the security, safety and privacy of data.

The value that IoT can provide is determined by interoperability of systems across domains, creating a network effect. Specifically on IoT standardisation, where AIOTI has a demonstrable track record, the work performed to date can be used to further promote the implementation of standards and protocols across industries. Guidelines can be produced for the future proponents of project proposals associated with IoT related calls financed by the EC. The aim will be to build on existing standards, while identifying gaps and continuing to contribute to relevant standardisation activities.

Finally, AIOTI can deliver on a number of actions that are directed at improving the visibility, relations and synergies with other political stakedholders. These would include:

1. Maintain the database for research and innovation projects that are funded by the European Commission and/or EU Member states related to IoT
2. Develop and provide a roadmap with conclusions of significant IoT related projects, e.g., IoT LSPs, that are funded by the European Commission and that could enable further deployment, research, innovation and standardization in Europe
3. Develop an active information loop with Digital Innovation Hubs
4. Design, develop and structure regional workshops to disseminate the national and EU level IoT related initiatives, bridging all related research and innovation IoT related initiatives while leveraging the best practices of successful IoT related initiatives
5. Support the Member States and the European Commission in fostering dialogue on the IoT related themes as outlined above as well as addressing Horizon Europe priorities
6. Actively propose intraregional or intra Member State regulatory sand boxes related to IoT.

In order to enable such enhanced exchange and collaboration, AIOTI proposes the creation and operation of the European IoT Hub, that can be (co)-financed by the European Commission to achieve the objectives listed above.

The full text of the priorities could be found here.