EC provides €300m to ‘smarten’ systems
- 2 November 2009
The European Commission has unveiled its strategy to put Europe at the forefront of the development of smart internet powered infrastructures.
It has called on Europe’s governments and ICT sectors to take advantage of the increasing demand for innovative applications of the internet to make existing infrastructures, like healthcare systems, smarter.
The Commission has said that it will launch a partnership between public authorities and major ICT players with a budget for 2011-13 of €300m available for projects in the near future.
The figure is expected to be matched by the industry and will complement the €200m, yearly IT support into ongoing research and roll-out for underlying internet technology.
Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, said: “The internet can help face the challenges of the future and holds the key to lifting Europe’s economy out of the crisis.
"Online applications and technologies can improve transport in cities, which will soon house 70% of the world’s population.
“And with an ageing population, the internet can make our health care systems more efficient and treat patients from afar.”
The Commission has proposed an EU-wide internet innovation strategy linking governments and industries across Europe which will improve key infrastructure by enabling them to better process massive amounts of real-time data in their daily tasks.
It hopes that the fund will “smarten up” infrastructures in areas affecting daily life like healthcare and transport.
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