Articoli

FabSpace 2.0 in Universities 2.0

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FabSpace 2.0 is the open-innovation network for geodata-driven innovation by leveraging Space data in Universities 2.0. Its Work programme topic addressed INSO-4-2015: Innovative schemes for open innovation and science 2.0 (b) Academia- Business/Public/CSO knowledge co-creation Coordination and support action.

The FabSpace 2.0 project aims at making universities open innovation centres for their region and improving their contribution to the socio-economic and environmental performance of societies. To achieve these general objectives, the FabSpace 2.0 project offers to concentrate on one research area with high expected socio-economic impact: data-driven innovation, with particular attention to Earth observation data.

In the six European regions covered by the consortium, partner universities work together with co-located Business Incubation Centres of the European Space Agency (ESA BICs). ESA BICs aim at inspiring entrepreneurs to turn space-connected business ideas into commercial companies and provide technical expertise and business-development support.

This project began on March 1st 2016 and will last 3 years. It is under the lead of Univ. Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier (UPS).

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the FabSpace 2.0 project are to:

  • Set up and operate at University a free-access place & service where students, researchers and external users can make use of a data platform and design and test their own applications.
  • Train the users to improve their capacity to process data and develop new applications.
  • Network students, researchers, entrepreneurs, project managers in industry and public authorities, civil society organisations and other representatives of civilians, consolidate user needs and industry requirements, foster the co-creation of new innovative solutions, support further business development.
  • Exploit, sustain and disseminate the concept.
ACTIVITIES

The Work Plan will be implemented within 6 Work Packages:

  • WP1 – Setting up and operating regional FabSpace services
  • WP2 – Enhancing human capital among the targeted groups of users
  • WP3 – Animation and Networking for innovation and entrepreneurial discovery
  • WP4 – Exploitation and dissemination
  • WP5 – Communication
  • WP6 – Management
RESULTS

The major impacts of the project can be summarised as follows:

  • Make universities & research organisations more involved in innovation activities, through the development of interactions with innovators in industry and the public sector, with an increasing socio-economic impact
  • Boost innovation skills in public administration
  • Equip researchers with innovation leadership knowledge
  • Raise awareness of the potential of co-creation of new solutions and other open innovation activities.
 https://www.irit.fr/FabSpace/
Click here for more information about the ESA BICs.
[posted by ebn innovate network website]

EO Lab in Tor Vergata and ESA Bic Lazio will create the Italian FabSpace

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The Fab Space 2.0 project (led by the French university Toulouse III Paul Sabatier) was approved under the Horizon 2020 program: 3,5 million euros to create innovative and space-oriented fab labs in 6 European countries.

Universities are the protagonists and in particular those of France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Greece. They will become (even more) centers for innovation. According to the project partners, Fab Space 2.0 will concentrate in a single territorial area of ​​research and innovation also the decisive contributions for a strong socio-economic and environmental effect: innovation guided by geo-information data, mainly derived from Earth observation space missions.

Universities must adopt the new role of innovation co-creators in the context of Science 2.0. They must realize the future scenario in which open data come into play in a creative environment: there, the developers who come from civil society, industry and academic research, public and territorial administrators can meet, work together and co-create new tools and new business applications.
So here is the new type of fab lab: the FabSpaces. They will be a key point in which to find large varieties of data (including ‘spatial’ data) and free tools for data processing and software, all for designing new applications. A real innovation realized thanks to the knowledge of data. The link between universities, industries, public administration and civil society will be reinforced by local and European initiatives for application development. Around 1,500 European students and researchers are expected to use FabSpaces.

 

 

In Italy, the protagonists are the ESA BIC Lazio incubator and the EO LAB – the Tor Vergata Earth Observation Laboratory.
The laboratory of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, with the coordination of Professor Fabio Del Frate of DICII – Department of Civil Engineering and Computer Engineering, will be responsible for the creation of real and virtual laboratories that will use the latest web technologies for both training and technology transfer in the fields of geoinformation and Earth Observation, all in close connection with the progress of scientific research.

“The financing of the project (356 thousand € will go to Tor Vergata / EO Lab) – says Fabio Del Frate – is a source of great satisfaction because it enhances the activities of our University and our Department especially in the field of Earth Observation“. “At the same time – continues Del Frate – the utmost effort will be needed to achieve, in collaboration with the other organizations, the objectives presented in the proposal. In particular, as a university, the ability to significantly strengthen the role of meeting point between training, research and technology transfer in the aerospace and geo-information sectors, focusing on the new generations of students and the requests coming from society civil“.

 

Some useful links:

Fabspace 2.0 website
Tor Vergata Computer Science, Control and GeoInformation Doctorate