Presentation in Spain of the Futur-ICT project

Meetings of the Spanish node of the FuturICT project have been held in various places in Barcelona over the 5, 6 and 7 October and were aimed at presenting the FuturICT project in Spain. This project is a candidate for the FET, Future and Emerging Technologies, Flagship Initiatives of the EU and as such is eligible for a budget of 1 billion euros over 10 years.

The proposed research project aims to provide answers to questions such: What role did the social network Twitter play in the emergence and subsequent evolution of the 15M movement? Is it possible to understand the origin and to predict socio-political changes such as the election of Barack Obama or the protests in Arab countries? Are there participatory mechanisms that could provide an alternative to current democracy?

More than 20 research centres and R+D companies and one Spanish cultural centre have joined forces in a European project aimed at creating an observatory for monitoring crises and social dynamics by making intensive use of new technologies and supercomputing and by employing ideas taken from physics, mathematics, biology, sociology, psychology and economics.

The pilot project FuturICT is a candidate for the FET (Future and Emerging Technologies) Flagship of the UE, and is thus potentially eligible for funding of 1 billion euros over ten years. It was selected as one of the six most promising European projects. It has over a hundred of the best European scientists in the field working to elaborate new methods for researching, managing and even predicting different developments in contemporary society.

The URV is participating in the project through the professor and researcher Àlex Arenas, of the complexitat.CAT network. Professor Arenas presented the Futur ICT at the Fabra i Coats Factory for Creation (Institute of Culture Barcelona City Council) during the open session on 6 October.

Professor Arenas works in the Computer Sciences and Artificial Intelligence section of the URV’s Department of Computer Engineering and Mathematics.

For more information, go to www.FuturICT.es