Future Internet Enterprise Systems (FInES) has emerged as a field of activity that aims at enabling enterprises, including SMEs, by means of ICT, to exploit the full potential of the Future Internet. The FInES vision and research objectives are defined in its Position Paper: “The full potential of the Future Internet is accessible to, relevant for, and put to use by European enterprises including SMEs. The Internet thus becomes a universal business system on which new values can be created by competing as well as collaborating enterprises - incumbent as well as new - through innovation in a level playing field, with sustainable positive benefits for the economy, society and the environment”.

The FInES research domain that has been supported by the European Commission over ten years is also an important element of the Digital Agenda for Europe, a flagship initiative of the Europe 2020 strategy. In this context, the FInES Cluster unites the previous Enterprise Interoperability and Collaboration (EI) and Digital Ecosystems (DE) clusters in order to encompass the past and current research experts and organisations focusing on benefiting all of us by offering an increased opportunity for synergy and enhanced collaboration among research projects in this unit.

Figure: FInES Cluster Evolution

The FInES community consists of numerous stakeholders, ranging from enterprises, users, providers, intermediaries and public authorities to the research community. The Cluster has a strong focus on cross-domain co-operation, whereas natural links with standardisation bodies (CEN, ETSI and de facto standardisation initiatives) and EU Enterprise policy exist, as well as cooperation with the other Commission Directorates-General.

Apart from its portfolio of more than 40 FP7 and FP6 projects (and with more FP7 projects in Call 10 about to start), the Cluster has consolidated high-quality publications and has effectively supported collaboration and liaison activities in various networking events and task forces.

As FP7 begins to draw to a close, new strategic priorities have emerged. Under the mission of DG CONNECT Unit E3 "Net Innovation", notions such as business innovation and topics such as web entrepreneurship are gaining new impetus. To ensure that the FInES community will continue to make a relevant, effective and unique contribution to the field, and in response to the invitation of Unit E3 to provide inputs, a Position Paper will be produced by the FInES Cluster. The aim is to convey the community's new vision and recommendations towards Horizon 2020 (H2020).

The activity of the FInES Cluster is under the oversight of European Commission DG CONNECT Unit E3. The EC officials with whom the FInES community directly liaises are Ms. Ainhoa Uriarte and Mr. Cristian Olimid.

Contact Points:

EC Contact Points: Ainhoa Uriarte, Cristian Olimid

FInES Cluster Co-Chairs: Man-Sze Li (Director, IC Focus, UK), Oscar Lazaro (Managing Director, Innovalia Association, Spain) and Jesper Thestrup (Managing Director, In-JeT ApS, Denmark)

FInES Cluster Interim Secretariat: Fenareti Lampathaki (R&D Project Manager, National Technical University of Athens, Greece)