ceFIMS · Coordination of the European Future Internet forum of Member States

The limitations of the present Internet require global investment to develop a Future Internet (FI) capable of meeting the unprecedented demands of the Knowledge Society. It is strategically important for Europe to engage fully in the conception, research, development and innovation of the FI. Other regions recognise the potential of the FI and have launched major initiatives, such as NetSE (US), AKARI (Japan) and AsiaFI (East Asia), targeting novel Internet architectures and the Network of the Future.<br/>Europe is already one of the leaders in Internet research and adoption and wishes to lead the definition, standardisation and implementation of the FI. However Europe will achieve its FI potential only if there is good coordination of FI research activity across Member State (MS), regional and transnational levels. Otherwise, duplication of effort reduces net output and value for money across all FI programmes, and the full benefits of networking between EU-funded and national researchers are not realised, fragmenting the original research objectives and achievements. The EC already informally hosts the Future Internet Forum (FIF) at FI Assembly meetings. ceFIMS (Coordination of the Future Internet Forum of Member States) will provide functional ongoing support to the FIF to create synergies between research programmes funded by the Member States and promote outreach to similar EC-funded research.<br/>In the short term, ceFIMS will facilitate FIF activity by providing a Secretariat and support structures and by establishing the ceFIMS FI portal. In the medium term, it will foster knowledge sharing via the FI Forum, the establishment of expert working groups and the development of a Research Roadmap on behalf of the Forum. In the longer term ceFIMS will create a sound basis and implementation framework for a project such as FI ERA-NET and greater awareness of Public Private Partnership (PPP) among Member States. The ceFIMS website will become the major portal for FI research in Europe.