The Coordinated Support Action (CSA) Next-Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) has on the 23rd of June 2021 released a report on “IoT and Edge Computing - Opportunities for Europe: Takeaways from the NGIoT workshops on IoT and Edge computing towards the NGIoT IoT Research and Innovation roadmap, 2020/2021”. The paper's main author and editor is DITCOM's senior scientific advisor Adriënne Heijnen, with centre leader Martin Brynskov a part of the author and editor team. 

The report builds on knowledge from previous strategies, white papers and other work, and various workshops on IoT and Edge computing within smart manufacturing, smart energy, automotive industries and mobility, agrifood and rural communities, health and care, and smart cities and communities. These workshops were held in collaboration with the European Commission DG Connect (IoT Unit, E4), AIoTI, Artemis, HIPEAC, Eclipse Foundation, and so the content is built on the takeaways from both these collaborators, as well as the many speakers and attendants. 

The report gives an overview of potentials of IoT and Edge Computing for Europe through the subjects of:

• the trends within IoT and Edge Computing, 

• such as the move from static monitoring to dynamic intelligence 

• technology enablers, 

• e.g. 5G and 6G networks, Cloud technologies, 

• the market potential,

• the vendor landscape and the public sector.
  
  

It then focuses on what opportunities can be realised for Europe in the future, e.g.:

• the technologies that should be prioritised, 

• opportunities, challenges and priorities in key application areas, such as smart energy 

• cross-cutting barriers and measures to overcome these

• perspectives on open data architectures and (meta)operating systems

• open platforms and open source and recommendations for these

• the transition from value chain to value network

• recommendations and next steps for Europe
  
  

The contents of this paper will be further shaped through engagements and discussions with key stakeholders in the coming months and integrated into the upcoming “Roadmap for IoT Research, Innovation and Deployment in Europe”, authored by the NGIoT CSA consortium and foreseen to be published in its final form in October 2021. Stakeholders and communities around IoT and Edge are invited to engage with the findings and to join the discussions through the NGIoT webinars and the NGIoT website. 

For further interest, please visit https://www.ngiot.eu/report-iot-and-edge-computing-opportunities-for-europe/ to download the full report for free.