INCOBRA - Increasing International Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation between Brazil and the European Union

Specific Challenge:

In order to make use of the rich potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) in real-world scenarios, technologies and tools developed so far need to be demonstrated in controlled environments with the ultimate goal of validation. Given the specific nature of this Call, widely replicable pilots are targeted in view of solving specific societal challenges, in the context of EU-Brazil cooperation.

Given the considerable amount of work carried out on M2M/IoT and Cyber Physical Systems architectures (e.g. IoT-A), platforms (e.g. FIWARE, CRYSTAL, SOFIA) and standards (e.g. oneM2M) over the last few years, pilots are encouraged to exploit this previous work where applicable. The goal is to further demonstrate the generic applicability of these architectures, platforms and standards and to identify where standards are missing or should evolve, as well as relevant pre-normative activities.

Pilots aim at validating IoT approaches to specific socio-economic challenges in real-life settings. Pilots' objectives include user acceptability, technology assessment and optimisation, business model validation, approaches to sustainability and replicability. They should be implemented through close cooperation between users and suppliers with the active involvement of relevant stakeholders on the demand side.

Scope:

IoT finds applicability in a broad range of industry, business and public services scenarios. Specific focus will be on implementing pilots incorporating the whole value-chain, and involving all relevant stakeholders, in particular end-users. Where relevant, institutional involvement may be appropriate.

The joint call would support three pilots each addressing a distinct area among the following areas of interest for EU-Brazil collaboration:

• Environmental monitoring
• Utilities: smart water management
• Utilities: energy management at home and in buildings[1]
• Smart assisted living and wellbeing
• Smart manufacturing: customisation

Expected Impact:

Pilots should empower citizens, both in the public and private spheres, and businesses, as well as improve the associated public services where appropriate. Pilots are not only expected to validate technologies and architectures for a specific set of use cases requirements, but also the related business models to guarantee the sustainability of the approach. Security and privacy aspects relating to access to and processing of collected information need to be properly taken into consideration.

Improved sharing of information, approaches and solutions, as well as expertise through:

• pilots on both sides and across the Atlantic, involving end-users.
• establishing common benchmarks;
• contributing to standardisation and to open-source and open-data repositories
• linking with ongoing work in the IoT Focus Area.

Budget: 1.500.000 per pilot (4.500.000 total budget)

Participants in the EU collaborative projects are required to conclude a coordination agreement with the participants in the coordinated project funded by the RNP (Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa - Brazilian National Research and Education Network).