We are yet again at a critical stage for Europe. With the threat of geopolitical instability coming from several dimensions Europe needs to not just assert its presence on the world stage, but moreover needs to assert its digital sovereignty to further its vision of a single digital market. The need for a European leadership role for the Next Generation Internet is clear. NGI MOVE is to inspire Europe to become a leader in the co-creation of the NGI in a more human centric, societal and economic beneficial ecosystem of researchers, high tech start-ups, industrial and government leaders as well as grassroots communities and individuals. The vision is to create a NGI that is at the service of people and stimulates business opportunities, centred on European values and competing globally. Our message is pragmatic cybernetics, balancing extreme centralisation and extreme decentralization where data stays with citizens. The main activities of the project are driven by the following activities: Connecting the Next Generation Internet Ecosystem is the primary activity, in that it identifies and engages with the most brilliant researchers, entrepreneurs and individuals. Co-creating the Next Generation Internet Ecosystem is all about creating content that fuels the community and motivates people to engage. Three sub-activities are to co-create: (1) the organisational model around the NGI flagship initiative. (2) the concepts and models that make up the characteristics for the NGI flagship initiative. (3) a number of NGI scenarios that can drive a vision and common basis for discussion amongst the many diverse stakeholders. The final activity is to launch the NGI Ecosystem. In essence this is the tangible outcome of the project that provides the basis for the NGI flagship initiative beyond H2020. In essence it delivers a brand, a model organisation and set of tools to support the ecosystem as well as the people that are active participants in shaping the NGI.

TagItSmart sets out to redefine the way we think of everyday mass-market objects not normally considered as part of an IoT ecosystem. These new smarter objects will dynamically change their status in response to a variety of factors and be seamlessly tracked during their lifecycle. This will change the way users-to-things interactions are viewed. Combining the power of functional inks with the pervasiveness of digital (e.g. QR-codes) and electronic (e.g. NFC tags) markers, zillions of objects will embed cheap sensing capabilities thus being able to capture new contextual information. Beside this, the ubiquitous presence of smartphones with their cameras and NFC readers will create the perfect bridge between everyday users and their objects. This will create a completely new flow of crowdsourced information, which extracted from the objects and enriched with user data, can be exploited by new services. TagItSmart will create an open, interoperable cloud-based platform with all the tools and enabling technologies, which will address the challenges related to the lifecycle management of new innovative services capitalizing on objects “sensorization”. TagItSmart will empower all steps involved from creating smart markers, Functional Codes (FCs), to supporting secure and reliable acquisition and consumption of such contextual data, while preserving user privacy, to the provision of generic functionalities and a service composition platform which will allow even inexperienced users to create and deploy their FCs based services while maintaining system efficiency. To boost the platform adoption, a set of industrial use cases will be used as a baseline for development, while additional stakeholders will be engaged through a co-creation Open Call approach. A carefully planned engagement activity will ensure the establishment and sustainable expansion of the TagItSmart ecosystem fostering long term innovation and exploitation capabilities well beyond the project duration.

NGI Forward brings together a consortium of leading organisations in the NGI and the internet space more broadly to help further the Next Generation Internet as the key European entity and space for radical new thinking on the future internet, by both conducting and bringing together the latest thinking and cutting edge research, and reaching a critical mass of Europeans through our ambitious engagement strategies. Our main aim is to articulate an ambitious vision for what we want the Next Generation Internet to be, involving diverse voices in the process. We set out a clear set of next steps towards this vision through the development of technology, value and policy roadmaps, and build a network of the key European stakeholders we need to empower in order to achieve these goals. Employing cutting-edge data methodologies we continuously identify newly emerging technologies, social issues and communities likely to play a key role in the shaping of the future internet. Understanding these emerging dynamics allows us, and by extension the European Commission, to become involved in shaping their development early on, embedding key values for the Next Generation Internet in the process. We build a strong and vibrant community of key stakeholders (innovators, researchers, policymakers and the general public) surrounding these topics to drive forward the NGI, involving both leading internet thinkers and well-established innovators, as well as young talent and otherwise untapped talent pools. Through leading edge qualitative and quantitative research (such deep learning, ethnography and futures methodologies), we map out the main research and policy needs and opportunities surrounding these topics, empowering our stakeholders group to take action.