European boost for Imperial involvement in developing information and communication technologies of the future

Imperial leads a UK partnership linked to the European Knowledge and Information Community for strengthening the information society of the future

Tuesday 22 December 2009
By Natasha Martineau

Mobile air pollution monitors, sensors for collecting personal medical data and new approaches to cyber security are just some of the areas of research from Imperial College London that will feed into a new European consortium announced last week.

The consortium, known as the EIT ICT Labs, aims to provide Europe with an unprecedented proliferation of internet-based services and strengthen education, research and innovation for future information and communication requirements. It was announced last week as one of three Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) set up by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology's to boost innovation in Europe and contribute to the goals of the future EU 2020 strategy. Imperial is also a partner in the Climate KIC, which aims to combat climate change and its effects on a previously unseen scale.

Imperial's contribution to the EIT ICT Labs is as the lead organisation in an associate partnership from the UK that also includes University College London, BT, HP Labs and IBM.

Professor David Gann, Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at Imperial, and co-lead of the UK partnership, said: "I am delighted that we have been selected to contribute to this exciting European initiative. This gives us a welcome opportunity to build up our capability towards strengthening the digital economy, and to build on London's status as an international city of science.”

“At Imperial College Business School we are working to create the conditions for entrepreneurship to thrive. Imperial has a pipeline for exciting new digital technologies and we are working on new ways to take them to market. For example, the close relationship between Imperial College London and the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust through the Academic Health Science Centre gives us a unique opportunity to take discoveries on personalised healthcare and translate them rapidly into medical advances for patients. A wireless digital 'plaster' that monitors vital signs continuously and remotely so that patients could be free from their hospital beds is a good illustration of how we might benefit from current research."

Professor Chris Hankin, Director of Imperial's Institute for Security and Technology, and another co-lead of the UK partnership, said: "The launch of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology is one of the most exciting developments in Europe at the moment. We are looking forward to contributing to the EIT ICT Lab by developing new Masters programmes and new research that focuses on personalising digital services in areas that are critical to economic and social welfare, such as transport, health and pervasive computing."