Berlin, 11 May, 2023 – FIWARE Foundation, the non-profit organization that encourages the adoption of open standards using Open Source technologies for the development of smart solutions on a global basis — announces two new FIWARE Innovation Hubs (iHubs): North Iberia FIWARE iHub (Logroño, Spain) and Marso FIWARE iHub (Bogotá, Colombia). The FIWARE iHubs network keeps on growing and with the arrival of these new iHubs, 33 iHubs are meanwhile operative around the world. These two iHubs are now becoming part of the FIWARE global ecosystem offering professional training, resources and expertise that help local and regional stakeholders as well as their partners and customers to succeed in their digital transformation. North Iberia FIWARE iHub and Marso FIWARE iHub will be proudly awarded with the certificates during the Grand Opening ceremony at FIWARE Global Summit, taking place 12-13 June in Vienna.
Serving as innovation and business growth engines, FIWARE iHubs support companies, cities, developers and academia in their innovation and digitalisation journey by offering easy access to Open Source technologies, business development support, and community networking, thus accelerating regional business opportunities and expansion. By breaking the traditional barriers for technology enablement and business acceleration with the usage of Open Source solutions and standards, FIWARE iHubs encourage the development of scalable, interoperable and disruptive smart digital solutions across domains like smart cities, mobility, industry, agrifood, energy, water, and tourism, among other areas.
Think global, act local
FIWARE iHubs have a successful track record in facilitating collaboration between scientific research, non-for-profit, public and private businesses, providing training and mentoring, as well as fostering an entrepreneurial culture and new paths for business to flourish. They demonstrate how to build communities that, in turn, enable local digital businesses to thrive not only at a regional but on a global level. Spanning across a range of industries, the new joiners to the FIWARE iHubs network play a clear role in delivering on these goals.
North Iberia FIWARE iHub (Logroño, Spain): AERTIC, the official representative of North Iberia FIWARE iHub with the ICT cluster of La Rioja, maintains a close relationship with the Government of La Rioja and Logroño City Council. Since 2017, AERTIC has been holding a collaboration agreement with the government of La Rioja that provides it with an annual budget allowing the cluster to carry out activities to boost and promote the activity of ICT companies in the Spanish region, such as the creation of this iHub. AERTIC is a member of the Riojan R&D Council and belongs to the Riojan innovation system as well as the Business Federation of La Rioja (FER), an organisation that brings together more than 3,000 through more than 70 sectoral associations.
Laura Urbieta, Cluster Manager, comments: “The creation of the iHub seems to us a source of innovation and internationalization opportunities for the companies in our cluster and it will mean an increase in competitiveness for the ICT sector and the region alike.”
North Iberia FIWARE iHub is planning to support the local entrepreneurs, developers, and the local economy by implementing five main goals:
- Access to and the dissemination of FIWARE technologies;
- Mentorship as well as workspace and infrastructure support;
- Collaboration with local stakeholders: the iHub will collaborate with local stakeholders such as universities, research centers, industry associations, and government agencies to create a supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurship and innovation;
- Outreach and community engagement: The iHub will engage with the local community through events, networking opportunities, and outreach activities to raise awareness about the benefits of FIWARE technologies and promote entrepreneurship and innovation;
- Providing access to FIWARE technologies;
Marso FIWARE iHub (Bogotá, Colombia): Marso FIWARE iHub (Marso FIHUB) seeks to accompany the national and local governments of Colombia in ICT-supported Smart Cities projects and offers an open innovation space to test and develop technological solutions powered by FIWARE for smart industries.
Alexander Ricardo Andrade, Head of Marso FIHUB, says: “Colombia has actualized the Digital Government Public Policy and this new version has the smart cities strategies as an important result to be applied in the local governments and territories. Part of our team has been government consultors and designed the pillars of the new public policy. Now we have the skills to deploy the conceptual framework of Digital Government and FIWARE, the standard adopted by the Colombian State for the Smart Cities projects in the country. This activity will be done with the cooperation of the private sector, universities, and the citizens.”
Marso FIHUB will develop two main pillars to contribute to the development of Smart Cities and Industries in their region. The first pillar is the constant participation in the main technology events that convene companies, entrepreneurs, governments and universities to share the experiences of their team and the importance of standards and technologies such as FIWARE to achieve the digital transformation of the different sectors. The other one is participation in spaces for debate, consultation, design and monitoring of sectoral public policies that support the development of Smart Cities in Colombia.
Marso FIHUB has been already exploring joint work with the main public technology park, accelerators, and startup communities in Govtech. They give active support by participating in meetings to review the digital government and smart cities’ public policy, accompanying and exploring pilots of smart city projects with local governments in the region. Also, the team of professionals is implementing three main activities that will help to achieve its strategic goals:
- Participation in FIWARE events with the public and private sector, and universities;
- Exploration across open innovation methodologies, opportunities and challenges of the local governments that may be solved with ICT tools on FIWARE-based solutions;
- Constant participation in the ICT Ministry’s process to deploy Smart Cities projects in Colombia through Digital Government Public Policy.
With its strong regional connections, Marso FIHUB is a significant part of the Intersectoral Smart Cities Group led by the National Planning Department and participates constantly with the ICT Ministry in Smart Cities Projects around the country. Besides, the iHub has access to more than 200 local governments in different regions of Colombia that implement Sysman Software and professional services.
FIWARE iHubs global network will be presented at the FIWARE Global Summit, where their representatives will participate in the dedicated sessions such as “Cross Border Collaboration at the core of the digital transformation Digital Innovation Hubs” and “FIWARE iHubs – Empowering local presence of FIWARE communities worldwide”.
