The Internet of Things (IoT) is on a trajectory to connect 45 billion things by 2020. So the European Commission
created the Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI) to develop a dynamic IoT ecosystem in Europe. In large part, this aims to leverage the unique opportunity of new markets to invigorate Europe’s industry, address demographic changes, and transform growing cities into bustling innovation hubs. 

ST is one of the 21 founding members of AIOTI. Supply-chain partners and competitors are among the others.

In already completed phase 1 efforts, the alliance has already defined the reference for the new IoT Large Scale Pilots (LSP) program, which the European Commission plans to deploy this year. One of the EU’s Horizon 2020 work programs (the European program for Research & Development), the LSP program has received $100 million in funding. Its goal is to evaluate a set of use cases around five main projects on a large scale. These projects–Smart Living for Aging Well; Smart Farming; Wearables; Smart Cities; and Smart Mobility–are all closely aligned with ST’s strategic interests. As a result, the company has made significant contributions to the set of reports published by the AIOTI that provide recommendations and guidelines related to the LSP program.   

Going forward, ST has been appointed as a technology enabler for three of the projects: Smart Living, Smart Farming, and Smart Mobility. We will continue to participate and contribute to the other projects, as well.

The AIOTI will continue to make recommendations for future IoT research in the context of new Horizon 2020 programs for 2018 to 2020. And ST will continue to use the AIOTI to drive the ecosystem as we trigger and enable our technologies to respond to end-users’ needs.

Technology for technology’s sake doesn’t necessarily produce commercial success. However, identifying unaddressed needs and use cases while sharing state-of-the-art technology end-users can trigger innovation and evolve quickly from proof of concept to large-scale industrial deployment. As a result, AIOTI is aiming for success by considering each AIOTI workgroup as a cockpit where participants drive the ecosystems and ensure they provide the appropriate structure to serve end-users’ future needs.

The Alliance is organizing an important matchmaking event to be held in Brussels in mid-February. The private event requires an invitation, which can be requested here.