Launch of SWForum.eu, an observatory for software technology excellence in Europe

Pisa, Italy, October 2020.

SWForum.eu, the recently funded European H2020 project for creating a sustainable forum for stakeholders representing all aspects of software technologies, digital infrastructures, and cybersecurity in Europe, kicked off on 6-7 October 2020 in a virtual consortium meeting.

Over its thirty-month duration, SWForum.eu (European forum of the software technology community) will raise awareness and strengthen the competitiveness of the European Software Industry by creating a self-sustainable online forum that facilitates and encourages both researchers and practitioners as well as projects in software, digital infrastructure and cybersecurity to create intersections of expertise and a multidisciplinary approach to research and innovation.

A Multi-Pronged Set of Scientific and Technological Objectives for a Rich Software Ecosystem

SWForum.eu is working to enhance the visibility and increase the competitiveness of research and innovation in the field of software technologies, digital infrastructure and cybersecurity, especially European funded Research and Innovation Action (RIA) projects. It has a number of carefully coordinated objectives to achieve these goals.

• First, SWForum.eu will promote EU cross-fertilization between the areas of software, digital infrastructures, and cybersecurity. Cross-fertilization workshops between stakeholders of disparate software communities will break up the silos that have been impeding cross-disciplinary progress. These workshops on specific cross-fertilization themes will be oriented toward the publication of joint papers, joint policy papers around the topics, the creation of new initiatives, and the emergence of new ideas.
• Second, a self-sustainable forum of researchers and practitioners in the area of software technologies and related areas will be created. An innovative Fellowship programme will serve to maintain a fluid pool of experts from a balanced set of SWForum.eu target stakeholder groups and contribute to the establishment of a robust and vigorous Living Forum where the future of European software technologies can be discussed. An important activity will be the elaboration of Research and Innovation Roadmaps to be delivered to the EC policy officers and stakeholders, based around the results of the cross-fertilization workshops.
• Third, SWForum.eu will enhance the visibility of European based software technology projects, digital infrastructures and cybersecurity both in the research and in the market domain at an international level, through an interactive EU Project Radar. Inspired by the seminal Technology Radar of ThoughtWorks, the SWForum.eu Project Radar will provide a comprehensive, highly visual mapping of the European funded software enabling technology landscape that will be a valuable tool for policymakers, researchers, and industrial stakeholders alike.
• Fourth, SWForum.eu will provide guidance for increasing the competitiveness of European initiatives through a methodological approach to the improvement of their market maturity and readiness. The proven Market Technology Readiness Level (MTRL) methodology will be customized for the complex problem domain of software engineering, digital infrastructures and cybersecurity. The methodology will be delivered to SWForum.eu stakeholders with the supporting means for projects to perform a self-assessment. Moreover, a set of webinars will be offered to guide software engineering projects through their MTRL self-assessment journey.

By utilising field-tested platform facilities and forum governance mechanisms, together with its vast web of strategic contacts, SWForum.eu will ensure engagement across software-related domains and vertical sectors ranging from automotive to public safety and more.

About SWForum.eu

SWForum.eu is coordinated by TECNALIA, a research center based in the Basque Country. Other partners in the consortium include Trust-IT Srl (Italy), Conceptivity (Switzerland), the University of Oxford (UK), and the Polytechnical University of Milan (Italy).

For any information, please write to info@swforum.eu, or to contact the project, you are invited to engage through a variety of social media channels:

www.swforum.eu     I     @SWforumEU     I     in/company/swforumeu

European forum of the software research community - SWForum.eu project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 - Research and Innovation program - under grant agreement no. 957044.