“The Future Internet is integral component of Smart economy” – Lenihan

Lenihan highlights Economic Opportunities from the Development of the Future Internet

Mr Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, has today (Thursday, 3rd December 2009) highlighted the economic opportunities for Ireland from the development of the future Internet at the “Irish Future Internet Forum” held in the Digital Hub, Dublin.

Minister Lenihan said: “Over a short space of time the Internet has dramatically transformed the way we live and do business. It has had a significant impact on society and economies world-wide. The Internet has played a key role in spurring innovation in many sectors such as travel, shopping, tourism, on-line banking and entertainment to name just a few.”

He added “With an estimated 1.7 billion users globally now, it is crucial for Ireland’s economic recovery and future success that Irish companies and our academics play a leadership role in the development of the Future Internet by identifying strategic priorities in research and innovation in this area. The Government, with significant investments through Science Foundation Ireland, has already generated positive momentum from top-class research that focuses on various aspects of the Internet. We must all ensure this momentum is maintained for Ireland to be a true leader in this regard for it is clear that the Future Internet is an integral part of the Government’s Smart economy.“

The theme for the event was “Assuring the protection of critical information and enabling security and trustworthiness in the Future Internet” and it was attended by over 100 people.

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Note for Editors:

Irish Future Internet Forum - The Irish Future Internet Forum, set up in 2008, is made up of a consortium of Irish industrial, academic and Governmental agencies whose objective is to provide a platform that supports open discussion and knowledge sharing between Irish policy makers, funding agencies (Science Foundation Ireland), industrial players and academic researchers concerning the challenges and opportunities associated with the emerging 'Future Internet'.

The Irish Future Internet Forum is crucial to ensuring Irish leadership in specific areas of the Future Internet design and deployment. This forum will improve academic and industrial collaboration in the field bringing coherence and coordination across Ireland of such research programmes. The scheme will also enable the Irish national systems to take on tasks collectively that they would not have been able to tackle independently.

The event attracted a number of international speakers including Mr. Jacques Bus, Head of Unit at the EU Directorate General on Information Society and Media.

Further information on the event can be obtained from: http://www.futureinternet.ie/FutureInternet/index.php

Science Foundation Ireland supports number of top-class research centreswhose research focus includes different aspects of the overall theme of Future Internet. The particular SFI funded centres in this regard are:

SFI Centres for Science, Engineering & Technology (CSETs)

• Digital Enterprise Research Centre (DERI) at NUIG
• CLARITY at DCU/UCD
• Centre for Telecommunications Value Chain Driven Research (CTVR) at Trinity College, Dublin
• Next Generalisation Localisation – CNGL at Dublin City University

SFI Strategic Research Clusters

• FAME – Federated Autonomic Management of End-to-end Communication at Waterford IT
• CLIQUE – at UCD
• StratAG – Strategic research in Advanced Geocomputation – hosted by NUI Maynooth

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