Chapter One
interoperability is maintained, a common understanding among the different nations involved is pivotal. Integration of results from other disciplines: basic ICT, robotics, nanotechnology, biomedicine and cognitive sciences provide a rich source of inspiration and applications for developing the Internet of things further on. Finally it should be mentioned that IoT connects largely to other fields of activities like Cloud approaches, Future Internet, Big data, Smart Cities, and specific European Member State initiatives such as Cyber-Physical Systems.
Fig. 4: The Internet of Things innovation arena (Source: IERC 2011)
The Cluster’s reply In this dynamic environment, a few years ago the European Commission created the IERC - Internet of Things European Research Cluster, which today comprises around 40 projects. The role of the Cluster, which has established an excellent reputation, is to provide a light-weight portfolio management approach for overcoming isolated, redundant research and knowledge barriers. The latter often result due to structural and organization boundaries where the actors are confronted with disperse competencies and conicting interests. It can be recognized that with the overarching vision of a future 16