FIWARE Space

The FIWARE Space initiative is part of a global project called “Badajoz Es Más” (“Badajoz Is More”) run by the Badajoz Provincial Council, Spain. This project seeks to incorporate new information and communication technologies in local administrations in order to transform rural areas, improve the efficiency and efficacy of public services, and facilitate a more modern, more agile administration.

FIWARE Space is one of the fundamental cornerstones of this initiative and aims to promote talent and entrepreneurship in the province of Badajoz.

What exactly does it involve?

FIWARE Space is an open, innovative project that centres its activity on 6 distinct areas of action:

URBAN

Rollout and implementation of sensors and actuators in municipalities throughout the province of Badajoz. These devices form a network that allows a range of context information to be gathered in order to convert cities into urban laboratories. Using this system, we learn about and test new IoT devices and smart applications.

CENTER

An innovation centre in Badajoz which acts as the core of this initiative to boost entrepreneurship and adopt new technologies in the province’s business sector. This centre is already a FIWARE i-Hub international point of reference from which we offer training and certification for products and services based on FIWARE technology.

PLATFORM

An intelligent management platform for horizontal public services, capable of integrating solutions from multiple areas and which serves as an infrastructure for innovation in IoT technologies. This central platform has a dual purpose: to demonstrate how sensor networks are managed in the province and to offer a series of open data for testing and developing third-party services.

UNIVERSITY

Agreements with the University of Extremadura to drive research, development and innovation in new technology projects through different training activities, specific challenges, hackathons and any kind of method necessary to boost technological evolution.

CHALLENGE

Challenges funded by financial allocations for developing technology solutions based on FIWARE that respond to real needs in the province. Every year, we will organise a Challenge in which a problem has to be solved using new technologies. An impartial board of judges will evaluate the solutions and choose the winner, who will then be given the opportunity to develop the project under the guidance of the FIWARE Space team.

MARKET

Access to an international market. We strive to ensure that the FIWARE-based solutions developed by companies in the province become known worldwide. To that end, we offer advice on how to integrate solutions in the FIWARE Marketplace, promote the products on our stands at business events and fairs, and we also help with networking.

FIWARE SPACE

FIWARE Space is the innovation center of the Provincial Council of Badajoz to bring the new technologies of IoT and Big Data to citizens, SMEs and start-ups. It is constituted as an official Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) in Badajoz province to promote the digitization and transformation of companies through technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and artificial intelligence with FIWARE as data connector from different sources.

This center is part of a global project called “Badajoz Es Más“, which aims to develop municipalities with a better quality of life through sustainable development. The objective is clear: to turn the province of Badajoz into an Intelligent Territory or a “Smart Province”. In order to achieve this goal, it is a must to involve the local companies, the public administration and the citizens.

FIWARE Space coordinates the activity related to the knowledge, use and possibilities offered by the Provincial Platform for Smart Management of Public Services, which allows the integration of information from different smart services in one place, to facilitate the analysis and management of services that are the responsibility of the Provincial Council of Badajoz. This platform uses the latest technologies promoted by the European Commission about how to integrate near real-time data and how to manage context information.

FIWARE Space is a non-profit innovation center that aims to make the technological knowledge and tools of the “Badajoz Es Más” project available to different entities, among which are:

– Public administrations
– Municipalities
– Small and medium enterprises
– The teaching and research staff of the university and other educational institutions
– The entrepreneurs
– The citizens

One of the main goals of this center is to support our small and medium enterprises through the digital transformation of the province. For this, the center offers to these entities de following services.

SERVICES

– A 2-month mentoring program to go deeper in the technology knowledge and the opportunities that are behind the intelligent province development, to know first-hand the technological work that is being carried out and how to take advantages of this digital transformation. In these 2 months, the company will adapt its solution or service to a FIWARE smart solution, thus being compatible with the platform used by the Badajoz Provincial council that connects all the data sources of the province, and with any other smart city platform that uses this technology.

– Specialized consulting and technical support for the integration of solutions in FIWARE. We help the creation and adaptation of data models, architecture knowledge and the possibilities of integrating into this European standard.

– Certification of solutions in the FIWARE Marketplace website of the FIWARE Foundation. We advise on how to apply with the solution developed to obtain the different certifications.

– Advice on acceleration programs. After the completion of the mentoring program, we try to find a suitable European acceleration program to take the project to the next level.

– Physical location for the development of integration in FIWARE. We have a physical space in which you can work to integrate the solution into FIWARE, with the tools and support of the technical office.

– Theoretical and practical training workshops. Every Friday of the year we conduct workshops to learn more about how a smart city works and what’s the technology behind.

– Visits to the innovation center. Interested people or entities can visit the center once a week to see first hand the digital transformation that is taking place in the province and meet the real solutions that are being installed.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES FOR PYMES

FIWARE Space also carries out some unique activities throughout the year:

– Hackathons. Workday in which, by teams, a real technological problem is solved by multidisciplinary teams.

– IoT challenge. Companies are presented to solve a real problem of the province through technology. Once the applications have been submitted, an evaluating court chooses the winner, who will receive an economic endowment to carry out his idea and put it into operation in the province.

– Design Thinking Workshop. Workshop that aims to foster creativity through innovative new methodologies that will allow us to go deep in a specific challenge.

EVENTS

In addition to all this, FIWARE Space, in the hands of the Badajoz Provincial Council, participates in different local, national and international events in which it provides visibility to the local companies with the aim to contribute to the expansion of this companies in other regions.

Finally, it should be noted that FIWARE Space is considered as a 2-star FIWARE iHub, catalogued by the FIWARE Foundation, thanks to the work and the number of activities carried out to bring new technologies to citizens.