Customer: European Community (Programme MED)
Duration: March 2009 – August 2011

The Project

WiNNOVATE aims at strengthening the innovation capacity of regional and municipal authorities in Greece, Spain, Italy and Slovenia by transferring knowledge and best practices, as well as coordinating policies, on the introduction and proliferation of wireless applications and services for citizens, government, and economic development actors. More specifically, the project will leverage and cross-fertilize existing wireless infrastructures (local and metropolitan wireless networks), define and experiment pilot applications that will add value on these infrastructures for the benefit of end users, and propose policy interventions at the regional, national and transnational levels. We will define an operational toolkit positioning regions in terms of maturity and capacity levels for the introduction and use of innovative WiFi and WiMAX-based applications and services and use this as a guiding vehicle for the gradual increase of wireless innovation potential for any given region in the Med space. We will jointly establish the specifications and pilot one wireless information service per region, delivering concrete results and acting as a proof-of-concept for the operational toolkit. The project’s main outcomes will be: a reusable methodological approach for assessing and guiding regional authorities towards wireless innovation, working pilot applications at each participating region, evaluation of the lessons learnt by the pilots, and a set of policy recommendations.

RadioLabs activities

RadioLabs participate in the project as an expert in wireless innovation, therefore it will be involved in all technical activities, and in particular will operate in its country, Italy. Below a more detailed description of planned activities.

  • Organization of one of the planned 6 open information days, where local authorities, SMEs, telecom companies, technology vendors and providers, and the public will have the chance to get informed about the current status of the wireless services and results.
  • Organization of a pan-Mediterranean conference on Wireless Innovation to raise awareness and maximize policy intervention.
  • Policy Boundaries and Best Practices. All partners will evaluate the regulatory framework regarding the application of wireless/mobile services for/by regional authorities, identifying and reviewing current policies and legislation governing deployment and services per participating region and in Med.
  • Innovation Requirements Analysis. RadioLabs will coordinate in Italy the process of assessing the needs and priorities of the participating regional authorities regarding the adoption and use of mobile/wireless technologies. Requirements will be captured through both qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (surveys) means. Priorities will be set based on the regional authorities’current innovation capacity state (existing level of ICT use, capacity and maturity level to support ICT services etc)
  • Development of Wireless Readiness Innovation Index and Operational Toolkit. Identification of factors and dimensions that can assess how amenable national/regional public authorities are to mobile and wireless opportunities and to measure their accumulated wireless infrastructure and usage maturity. An analytical framework will be specified, identifying pertinent activities regarding the deployment of wireless and mobile innovations by public authorities, taking into account their current maturity level, existing portfolio of provided e-services, local policies and strategic priority of innovation through mobile/wireless technologies.
  • Site Implementation Analysis.RadioLabs will participate in the definition of the implementation plan based on the guidelines of the Operational Toolkit. A detailed deployment strategy will be formulated for each wireless service that defines issues related to procurement of the service.
  • Pilot Experimentations Deployment. 6 pilots will be implemented within the project, such that wireless service(s) are deployed per site based on the implementation plan. Each service will be monitored in terms of performance, improvement of innovation capacity, encouragement of sustainable development, and so on. As a technology partner, RadioLabs will monitor the progress of the pilot in its corresponding region.
  • Innovation Policy Roadmap. The conducted roadmap will formulate specific policy interventions on the regional level pertaining the deployment and efficient use of wireless applications and services.

The Partners

The Partners of WiNNOVATE are:

  • Prefecture of Larissa (COORDINATORE)
  • Research Center of the Athens University of Economics and Business
  • Vélez-Málaga Town Council
  • Organisation of Municipalities of Chios
  • Consorzio Università Industria – Laboratori di Radiocomunicazioni (RadioLabs)
  • i2CAT Foundation
  • Municipality of Genoa
  • Development Agency Sinergija