Open Source and Open Data: How important are data sharing and the implementation of an Open Source Software model to you? How does it work and what is the main goal of your Open Data Hub?
“One of our main goals as NOI Techpark consists in supporting companies to activate research and development projects. Ideally these projects are collaboration projects with other companies and with research organizations.”
“To enable collaboration, we need Open Innovation models. For collaboration on software development projects a Free Open Source Software model is key. It enables the creation of a common software base to work on together as a community of experts and thus to share investments with other peers.”
“Therefore, we decided to develop the Open Data Hub project as a Free Open Source Software project and to involve a community of companies and experts in the development process. All the development is done over the Internet. This means that everyone can get access to the documentation on the website https://opendatahub.com/ as well as access to the source code, which is published on our GitHub repositories: https://github.com/noi-techpark We also invest in community building through events like the Open Data Hub Day https://opendatahub.com/odhday23/ , Hackathons https://hackathon.bz.it/ and of course talking about Open Data Hub on conferences like the SFSCON https://www.sfscon.it/.”
“Open Data Hub is the cross-border digital platform that helps start-ups, companies, and research institutes to develop digital solutions based on real data. It connects data from different data providers and makes this data easily available for data consumers.”
NOI Techpark: Are there new R&D projects already running in the sphere of digital technologies?
“At NOI Techpark we have more than 100 actors, from start-ups, companies to research organizations. Many of the actors are active in the creation of innovative digital solutions.
The development process to reach digital solutions is implemented through a range of R&D projects. From smaller in-house projects to international often EU-funded collaboration projects.
We support companies interested in the implementation of an R&D strategy through the services of Innovation Management and EU Opportunities.”
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Artificial Intelligence is one of the main megatrends. How far will the NOI Techpark go with it? Do you have pre-set goals?
“Our research organizations, especially the Free University of Bolzano, have been doing research on Artificial Intelligence for many years. Especially in knowledge representation and other AI-related fields. “
“Companies have already implemented solutions in environmental prediction, agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing. For example, creating specialized labs like the CoVision Lab https://www.covisionlab.com/.”
“Artificial Intelligence is one of the 3 Specialization Areas in our Specialization Strategy Digital. We are preparing to start a service center, called European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH), to support companies in the implementation of AI-based solutions. This will strengthen the support we provide to companies to use digital technologies like AI in their R&D activities.”
