E-CLIC aims to develop research and innovation networks related to broadband media services in order to stimulate the commercialisation of the region’s knowledge base and encourage the development of new employment opportunities.
E-CLIC aims to enhance the provision of broadband services that are perceived as the engine for stimulating economic growth and employment. A ‘cluster' of eight Broadband Media Centres will be established to create NSR competence and increase critical mass in the sector and promote cooperation between businesses, research and education organisations.
University of Applied Sciences of Oldenburg, Ostfriesland and Wilhelmshaven
Initiative D21
The Netherlands
University of Groningen
Hanzehogeschool
Groningen Internet exchange
Belgium
Howest – Department PIH
United Kingdom
Norfolk County Council
Norway
University of Stavanger
Innovation Park Stavanger (iPark)
Rogaland Kurs og kompetansesenter
Background and Aim
Aim The overall aim of E-CLIC is to stimulate innovation through the establishment of eight new European collaborative innovation centres for broadband media services, and to develop the capacity for growth and employment across the NSR through collaboration in a North Sea cluster.
Background Broadband access is essential to the prosperity and future development of Europe's rural regions, and broadband media services are a prerequisite for effective business and a must for the growth of jobs on which regional economies depend.
The European Commission has declared access to broadband as an important aim in the i2010 initiative. Broadband availability is a prerequisite for the provisioning of broadband services. These value-added services are perceived as the engine for stimulating economic growth and new impetus to the IT sector.
Broadband allows individuals and businesses to communicate and access services regardless of their geographical location. By its very nature, broadband bridges distances and is particularly beneficial to the development and attractiveness of remote and rural areas. Broadband internet services are among the fastest growing sectors in the worldwide economy, and rural and peripheral regions have great opportunities to fully participate in the development of these services.
The ambition of the NSR is to gain top position in Europe as the most advanced region in the development and provisioning of innovative broadband services. Building on the successful Interreg IIIB project BIRD (Broadband Access for Innovation and Regional Development), the E-CLIC partners have launched an initiative of supporting innovation, development and provisioning of innovative broadband services.
E-CLIC will move forward by stimulating services that make use of the increasing availability of ample bandwidth and other infrastructural facilities. A crucial instrument for attaining this position is the establishment of a connected ring of collaborative innovation centres.
Expected Outcomes
8 European Collaborative Innovation Centres around the North Sea for Broadband Media Services based on Triple Helix model of Innovation,
Create a LivingLab environment & integration between LivingLabs for content and dissemination purposes,
New products and services for e-Government, e-commerce, e-Health and e-Learning,
Further broadband access in participating regions, and in particular in rural areas,
Transnational database to achieve a pool of resources in different disciplines for the multimedia industry,
Transnational co-operation in the field of content production, especially content for the HD TV & IPTV market, including multimedia content,
Transnational programmes for involvement (and exchange) of students/company/public service,
Development of the next generation E-CLIC model as a strategic plan for regional development in Europe.
April - September 2010
The E-CLIC Mid-term Conference was held in June 2010 in Hanover, in connection to the annual congress of the partner initiative D21, a national initiative for digital media and society. All E-CLIC centres were represented, together with some 300 visitors from enterprises, universities and ministries in Germany.
E-CLIC Borås has developed a new infrastructure for citizen centred e-services "e-me". The results are tested in collaboration with E-CLIC Värmland and ISSI, as a Living Lab for E-CLIC Borås. In addition, 14 case studies as well as a few prototypes and innovative productions have been completed in relation to service development, content production and broadband access. In addition, several new case studies started. A mid-term evaluation report for the E-CLIC project has been carried out and a draft report for an E-CLIC curriculum was developed.
E-CLIC Groningen and E-CLIC Kortrijk organised official opening ceremonies of their centres. The date for the grand opening of the E-CLIC Living Lab in Hanover was set to 8 March 2011.
October 2009 - March 2010
The E-CLIC partners have been very active over the last period and the E-CLIC centres' activities (including the Living Lab/Pre-Incubator activities) have been very popular with lots of young people and companies who have experienced services development, media production and wireless technology.
The project partners have attended two transnational workshops during this period, "Entrepreneurship Week" in Stavanger, Norway (12-16 October 2009), and a joint meeting between the two projects E-CLIC and Smart Cities in Bremerhaven, Germany (8-11 December 2009).
The E-CLIC centres have also been involved in student exchange activities at CeBIT 2010 in Hannover. The work on student exchange programs have resulted in the establishment of a communication platform, http://e-clic-tv.ning.com.This will be used for all further student exchange activities.
Several transnational and regional initiatives regarding services development, media production and wireless technology resulted in Case Studies, Prototypes or Media Productions. During the reporting period six Case Studies, one Prototype and two Media Productions have been completed, and a Database for WP-project ideas has been developed. E-CLIC Newsletter no 3 has been produced, the website www.e-clic.eu has continuously been updated and E-CLIC can now be found on Facebook, Twitter and WordPress.
April - September 2009
The E-CLIC project has made sound progress during this reporting period. A transnational workshop in Kortrijk was connected to the Multimania 2009 conference with 1200 attendees. Several WP projects for services development, content production, broadband access and quality assurance have started. Various case studies are successfully underway, one joint student project about developing methods for security testing (DICE) is completed and two Case Studies have been carried out. Erasmus agreements have been set up between most of the centres, which in future may be an important step for the possibility of an exchange of students between the E-CLIC centres.
A main activity has been the completion of the set up of the LivingLabs in the E-CLIC centres Värmland, Hannover and Norfolk. The LivingLab environment in Värmland for instance consists of a multi-radio multi-channel wireless mesh network and the network can now be accessed remotely by external partners. In the E-CLIC Hannover LivingLab the focus is on Multimedia. Norfolk has developed their E-CLIC centre as a LivingLab with focus on content production, like for instance HD-TV. In Kortrijk a Pre-incubator has been set up that already houses one company and several students working on small business projects. A priority list of possible e-services and main stakeholders has been developed within and WP3 projects have been initiated to develop the two first services on that list.
The E-CLIC Wilhelmshaven centre is established and the focus has been on contacts with companies and development of prototypes. The development of an E-CLIC centre in Groningen continued in order to initiate activities in the centre such as the development of serious games. The partners within E-CLIC Rogaland have been busy planning for the Entrepreneurship Week, which took place in the beginning of October.
One successful ongoing WP project is the joint transnational project with Värmland, Groningen and Rogaland on Enabling WiMax offshore mesh communications. The project has received a lot of requests for more information from interested companies and research & development institutions. The project believes that there are great synergies between this initiative and other on-going initiatives and programs in the North Sea Region and Baltic Sea Region.
The project website www.e-clic.eu is updated with new activities and the new centre E-CLIC Hannover is now presented there. The planning for the E-CLIC mid-term conference has begun, which will be held in Hannover in May/June 2010.
Until March 2009
After a successful project kick-off, the main focus during the first period has been on establishing eight E-CLIC centres around the North Sea. Physical infrastructure and software have been set up in the centres and several initiatives on services development, content production and broadband access have been started, both on regional and transnational level.
The first, of a total of eight, transnational workshops - Wireless 4D - has been carried out in Karlstad, Sweden, in co-operation with the international M4D conference.
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