NGIoT Webinar: IoT and Digital Skills

Joint webinar by NGIoT and DSJC The Digital Skills and Job Coalition

The Internet of Things (IoT) represents the next step of disruptive digital innovation where ‘any physical and virtual object can be connected to other objects and to the Internet, creating a fabric of connectivity between things and between humans and things.’ The Internet of Things, in combination with cloud and edge computing, Artificial Intelligence, and 5G will contribute to profoundly transforming the EU economy and society. Supporting advanced digital skills in society is crucial to fully realise the potential of IoT and other new technologies.

The project NGIoT (Horizon 2020, ICT-27-2018-2020) will result in a roadmap for IoT research, innovation and deployment with recommendations for the European Commission’s coming programmes Horizon Europe and Digital Europe. The latter programme includes a budget of €600 million dedicated to advanced digital skills.

In this webinar, NGIoT will specifically focus on the Digital Europe Programme and join forces with The Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition (DSJC). The Coalition brings together Member States, companies, social partners, non-profit organisations and education providers, who take action to tackle the lack of digital skills in Europe. The webinar will address the barriers related to the lack of skills that hinder the uptake of new technologies, as IoT, and the realisation of its market potential, as well as the instruments that can be initiated to improve digital skills among citizens and companies in Europe.

Download here the NGIoT Roadmap

AGENDA

14:00-14:10 Welcome

• Tanya Suárez, BluSpecs

14:10-14:25 NGIoT Research and Innovation roadmap for IoT

• Federico Michele Facca, CTO, Head of Martel Lab

14:25-14:30 Introduction to the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition

• Christine Simon, DG CONNECT, European Commission

14:30-14:35 Developing digital skills training

• Damien O’Sullivan, ICDL

14:35-14:40 IoT skills demand in industry

• Parm Raeewal, Chair, Alliance for IoT Innovation (AIOTI) Steering Board, Vodafone

14:40-15:15 Panel discussion

• Adriënne Heijnen, Aarhus University
• Francesco Capparelli, IIP
• Damien O’Sullivan, ICDL
• Tanya Suárez, BluSpecs

15:15-15:30 Q&A

15:30 Conclusion and Next steps

• Federico Michele Facca, CTO, Head of Martel Lab

SCOPE

Digital skills occupy various levels within IoT and any recommendations must address where the skills demand lies and how they can be supplied to researchers and practitioners in the most effective manner. Much of the current recommendations have behind them a digital skills element as a criteria of success, for example, to leverage the advancements in Artificial Intelligence will require researchers or integrators with the skills for establishing and training machine-learning algorithms, incorporating ethical concepts for human-centric AI or the design of neural networks.

Yet, the supply of such experts is in severe shortage for the current set of skills, which forms a significant barrier to the implementation of solutions in new projects. In this context, is it expected that projects are building on existing experts and skills (reducing the participation of traditional and non-traditional actors at the risk of canonising a few institutions) or that they will dedicate time and resources to the development of skills within the projects.

During the webinar we will focus on the following questions:

• What are the key digital skills to support the evolution of IoT? Are there domains where the development of such skills is lacking ?
• Are different skills needed in different IoT verticals?
• How can the projects to be funded in the upcoming Horizon and Digital Europe Programme identify and transfer the digital skills developed and future demand to industry?
• How can the evaluation of such IoT projects be done to ensure that impact on digital skills and the project approach are valued? Not just during execution but also during the proposal phase.
• What are good examples of successful mechanisms to support digital skills for IoT take up in industry?