Date:

2016-2019

Theme:

Data Science / Big Data

Funding:

European Commission (732194)

Big Data integration in European cities is of utmost importance for municipalities and companies to offer effective information services, enable efficient data-driven transportation and mobility, reduce CO2 emissions, assess the efficiency of infrastructure, as well as enhance the quality of life of citizens. At present this integration is substantially limited due to the following factors: 1) Urban Big Data is locked in isolated industrial and public sectors, and 2) The actual Big Data integration is an extremely hard technical problem due to the heterogeneity of data sources, variety of formats, sizes, quality as well as update rates, such that the integration requires significant human intervention.

QROWD addresses these challenges by offering methods to perform cross-sectoral streaming Big Data integration including geographic, transport, meteorological, cross domain and news data, while capitalizing on human feedback channels. The main objectives of QROWD are: (1) Facilitating cross-sectoral Big Data stream integration for urban mobility including real-time data on individual and public transportation combined with further available sources, such as weather conditions and infrastructure information to create a comprehensive overview of the city traffic; (2) Supporting participation and feedback of various stakeholder groups to foster data-driven innovation in cities; and (3) Building a platform providing hybrid computational methods relying on efficient algorithms complemented with human computation and feedback.

The main outcomes of QROWD are: (1) Two data value chains in the sectors of urban mobility and public transportation using a mix of large scale heterogeneous multilingual datasets; and (2) Cross-sectoral and cross-lingual technology, including algorithms and tools covering all phases of the cross-sectoral Big Data Value Chain building on W3C standards and capitalizing on a flexible and efficient combination of human and machine-based computation.

Primary investigator

• Elena Simperl

Secondary investigators

• Luis Daniel Ibanez Gonzalez
• Eddy Maddalena
• tb12g09

Partners

• ATOS SPAIN SA
• TOMTOM DEVELOPMENT GERMANY GMBH
• COMUNE DI TRENTO

Associated research group

• Web and Internet Science

Date:

2017-2020

Themes:

Data Science / Big Data, Open & Linked Data

Funding:

EPSRC (EP/P025676/1)

In the post-truth society we live in, experts must find novel ways to bring hard, factual data to citizens. Data must entertain as well as inform, and excite as well as educate. It must be built with sharing through social channels in mind and become part of our everyday activities and interactions with others. Data Stories will look at novel frameworks and technologies for bringing data to people through art, games, and storytelling. It will examine the impact that varying levels of localisation, topicalisation, participation, and shareability have on the engagement of the general public with factual evidence substantiated by different forms of digital content derived and repurposed from a variety of sources. It will deliver the tools and guidance that community and civic groups need to achieve broader participation and support for their initiatives at local and national level, and empower artists, designers, statisticians, analysts, and journalists to communicate with data in inspiring, informative ways.

Primary investigator

• Elena Simperl

Secondary investigators

• Les Carr
• Wendy Hall
• jmm2e13
• Thomas Marlow Blount

Partners

• BBC
• Edelman
• Full Fact
• House of Commons
• MundoJumbo Ltd
• Office for National Statistics
• Open Data Institute
• Represent

Associated research group

• Web and Internet Science

Date:

2016-2018

Themes:

Crowd Sourcing, Social Machinery

Funding:

European Commission (H2020 CAPS)

WHY: 2015 has been named by the United Nations as the International Year of Light (light2015.org). Light has had many obvious benefits for human mankind, but it also poses some relevant threats: the everyday-increasing excess of light thrown by humans to the sky seriously threatens to remove forever one of humanity’s natural wonders, the view of our universe. More importantly, it has also an adverse impact on our environment and economy (energy wasted to the sky costs 2 billion US$ per year in the USA and 6,3 billion € per year in Europe) and on the health of hundreds of species, including pathologies in human beings (e.g., stress, insomnia). Many professional and amateur scientists are already fighting against light pollution. However, it is necessary to increase social awareness about the importance of preserving the darkness of our cities and environment.

WHAT: STARS4ALL will create an Light Pollution Initiative (LPI) incubation platform that will allow generating (and maintaining) customizable on-demand domain-focused LPIs (e.g., a light pollution working group in Brussels). The platform will be self-sustainable: it will integrate a crowdfunding tool to obtain funding for the LPIs; it will consider incentives that motivate citizens to participate in LPIs, as well as policies to handle those incentives; and it will provide innovations in data acquisition from sensors deployed by citizens and in games with a purpose.

HOW: STARS4ALL will initially deploy 10 LPIs, which will be available by the end of the 1st semester of project execution, and will be operating and creating collective awareness during the rest of the project. At that moment we pave the way the creation of other LPIs by citizens, specially in other disciplines such as Energy Saving, Biodiversity, and Human Health, and will organize open competitions among them.

Primary investigator

• Elena Simperl

Secondary investigators

• ntr1g09
• ic1f17

Partners

• UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID
• CEFRIEL - SOCIETA CONSORTILE A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA
• EUROPEAN CROWDFUNFIND NETWORK

Associated research group

• Web and Internet Science

Date:

2015-2017

Themes:

Open Government Data, Open & Linked Data, Web of Data

Funding:

H2020 (644683)

The Open Data Incubator for Europe (ODINE) is a 6-month incubator for open data entrepreneurs across Europe. The programme is funded with a €7.8m grant from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme and is delivered by the seven partners featured below.

ODINE aims to support the next generation of digital businesses and support them to fast-track the development of their products. We are already championing the best of European digital talent and look forward to more outstanding companies to incubate.

Primary investigator

• Elena Simperl

Secondary investigator

• Luis Daniel Ibanez Gonzalez

Partners

• Open Data Institute
• Fraunhofer IAIS
• Telefonica Open Future

Associated research group

• Web and Internet Science