Berlin, Gran Canaria, September 14, 2022 — 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 the opening of five new FIWARE Innovation Hubs (iHubs). FIWARE iHUB UPB (Colombia, South America), La Lonja de la innovacion (Huelva,Spain), Nivid Technologies (Sterling, North America), Madinah Innovation Lab (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Asia) and iHub Base (Tokyo- Minto-ku, Japan) is proudly presented to the FIWARE global community at the Grand Opening Ceremony of the 8th FIWARE Global Summit in Gran Canaria (Spain). FIWARE iHub network keeps on growing with the arrival of these new iHubs adding up to 31 iHubs around the world.
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.
FIWARE iHUB UPB (Colombia, South America): UPB is a private university in Colombia with its main campus in Medellin, where it was founded in 1936. As of June 2022, the UPB holds the top 4 universities in Colombia and Top 30 in LATAM. Currently, the university has campuses in other Colombian cities, such as Bogota, Bucaramanga, Monteria and Palmira. As of January 2021, the university estimated its nationwide student population at 26,000. The UPB mission covers three important aspects: social projection, academic issues and applied research. The focus of their activities is related to solving practical problems all around the city of Medellin and the Antioquia region. Currently the team of the iHub makes part of important projects in the area of social appropriation of technologies, directly with the office of Medellin’s digital innovation secretary.
FIWARE iHUB UPB will bring solutions to solve the problems of the Medellin city and region based on three main pillars: (i) Carry out a complete diagnosis of the needs of the population, (ii) take advantage of the city’s developments, experience and installed capacity, to propose solutions to said needs; and (iii) offer their potential to train the public and to consolidate a true technological ecosystem around the concept of smart city.
iHub Base (Tokyo Minto-ku, Japan): iHub Base was founded by NEC Corporation, a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. NEC has been a Platinum Member of FIWARE Foundation since its foundation. With the iHub Base aiming at accelerating the creation and horizontal deployment of smart cities, NEC participated as a representative company in the construction of the Smart City Reference Architecture, a public-private collaboration led by the Cabinet Office to create a common blueprint. NEC also participated as a representative company in the Cabinet Office’s research work on a super city data collaboration infrastructure, developing common APIs and data models to promote the spread of super cities.In Minato Ward, Tokyo, NEC also conducted a demonstration experiment of smart street lighting in the Roppongi area. Through the activities of the iHub Base, the team of professionals will promote regional development and solve social issues in Japan. In order to achieve these goals, iHub Base will be based in Tokyo for the following three reasons: close collaboration with central government ministries and agencies, ability to disseminate information to all regions of Japan, and acceleration of social implementation.
Madinah Innovation Lab (MIL) (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Asia): Al–Madinah Al–Munawara Region Development Authority (MDA) is keen to develop a comprehensive and strategic Smart City Strategy, Master Plan, and Roadmap that include the City’s vision, mission, and goals associated with being a Smart City by achieving initiatives, timelines, and potential business models for the Madinah Innovation Lab. Being a FIWARE iHub, MIL is going to achieve five major goals: 1) Engage the local companies in different Madinah Innovation Lab-related programs and build the connection of various stakeholders (companies, academia, public administration at a local level; 2) Gather the people to be involved (networks, organizations, groups, or communities), mobilize their energy and commitment, and turn problems into opportunities; 3) Support for the engagement of local companies in international events and programs from the FIWARE Foundation; 4) Benefit from the outputs of laboratories at the local and regional levels; 5) Provide connection with FIWARE Acceleration Programmers to establish partnerships and develop joint activities at a local level.
Moreover, MIL focuses on coordination in the Al-Madinah Al-Munawara region to enhance institutional excellence and involve public & private sectors in supporting the region’s development and providing sustainable services that contribute to the region’s quality of life, innovation, and flexibility. This will be implemented by planning and developing of the region in the urban, demographic, economic, developmental, social, cultural, environmental, transportation, infrastructure, and digital fields, aiming to provide the region’s needs for services and public facilities.
La Lonja de la innovacion (Huelva, Spain): Develops the first Port Authority’s iHub as a the reference space for companies accelerating FIWARE technologies for the port domain on a global level, offering companies services and training that guarantee them a validated, tutored and piloted arrival on the market so that they can become integrated products and services of the logistics-port ecosystem. The main purpose of this iHub is to attract projects from the verticals Port, Logistics, Water, make them grow and integrate them into the ecosystem of the port of Huelva. Additionally, it supports the creation of new startups and companies in the city.
“As we all know, ports are increasingly faced with the need to embrace digital transformation to remain competitive.The iHub La Lonja de la Innovación aims to help the port of Huelva to grow and enter in the digital world by attracting and accelerating projects of interest for the port. At the same time, the start ups obtain an ideal place to carry out their tests and pilots in a real environment and are taught in various fields, including FIWARE technology,” – commented Rocío Diaz Pereira, Head of iHub.
Nivid Technologies (Sterling, North America): Nivid Technologies is an experienced and well established Federal contractor delivering services to various government agencies including State of Maryland (Department of Labor), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Fairfax county, to name but a few. The organisation has a GSA contract and other master contracts with the University of California and Minnesota (Department of Administration). Nivid Technology regularly attends expos, conferences and industry days organized by government agencies to meet with authorities and present their solutions and services. With the existing regional connection with commercial entities and government agencies, the team is confident in quickly staffing the iHub center with the required resources and creating the required visibility through diverse channels. Being active in IoT solutions and services in the Sterling region for more than three years, Nivid Technologies drives activities as a FIWARE Evangelist by organizing joint network and educational events with FIWARE and contributing to the iHub school, market adoption and to the community.
Moreover, Nivid Technologies is aiming at setting up a lab with the required infrastructure for local entrepreneurs and developers to use it as a test bed, to validate smart use cases and utilize FIWARE architecture components to accelerate deployment and monetize their data for better returns on investment. They will leverage the FIWARE platform’s technical capability to accelerate use case developments, which will speed up their go-to-market (GTM) strategy.
About FIWARE iHub
What is a FIWARE iHub? – A center devoted to the adoption of FIWARE technologies, aiming to drive it within a certain business area while linking it to an educational and innovative ecosystem. It offers or facilitates startups, SMEs and bigger companies the access to a global market. Focusing on improving their competitiveness by using the open source technology, it promotes the diversification of the local and regional economies.
A FIWARE iHub is made up of one or more competence centers where a number of activities will be carried out to foster the development of the FIWARE ecosystem at a local level. These activities include technical support, consultancy, coaching, training, testing, certification, etc. on FIWARE technologies, the promotion of FIWARE in different events, the engagement of local companies in different FIWARE-related programmes and building the connection of different stakeholders (companies, academia, public administration, etc) at a local level.
