Towards a vibrant EU IoT ecosystem

Over the last decade, the Internet of Things (IoT) has undergone rapid and extensive changes becoming a key enabler of digital transformation across many sectors and driving the adoption of data-driven decision-making systems, remote management solutions and automation processes. The IoT approach evolved into a paradigm that integrates a broad set of technologies, each of which are advancing at a rapid pace. Increasingly, IoT technologies and solutions, in combination with Cloud and Edge computing, are leading profound transformation across a variety of sectors and supply chains.

In this complex and articulated context, European stakeholders are mobilising forces to ensure the foundation of a digital transformation continuum able to strengthen the European data economy and ensure the rapid restart of our society. This requires the growth of a vibrant and sustainable ecosystem structured as a community of communities for European players to join forces and align on core priorities, by overcoming their main diversities (of interests, backgrounds, and contexts).

Within this context, the EU-IoT Coordination and Support Action ambition is to act as a "hub" facilitating liaisons, collaborations, exchanges and promoting accordingly the activities and outcome of the various relevant projects and initiatives. The ambition is to support the development, harmonisation and consolidation of a common research, innovation, and policy roadmap for NGIoT in Europe that can guide efforts and translate into a concrete set of actions, processes and tools facilitating interaction and collaboration and grounding a vibrant and sustainable ecosystem.

This document represents a preliminary step to build and ensure the growth of a vibrant European IoT ecosystem, and it includes:

• A critical mapping of various relevant efforts and initiatives.
• A guidance framework to capture experts’ input, together with main outcomes of the first EU-IoT Expert Groups (EG) workshop and Advisory Board (AB) consultations.
• A structured presentation of input gathered from ongoing EC projects that highlights major trends and priorities mapping them into the same framework used with the EG.
• A wrap-up view on how the EU-IoT plans to act as a living hub connecting the various forces and stakeholders for the growth of a vibrant and sustainable European IoT ecosystem.