Historically, several Inria researchers have been well established in Berlin, engaging in long-term interactions with prominent academic institutions from the city across various research domains, including but not limited to Internet of Things (IoT), Cybersecurity, Digital Humanities, and Open Science.
In this context, Inria and the ECDF signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in September 2023 with the goal of fostering scientific exchanges between the two institutions and developing joint research projects in several fields related to digital sciences in the Berlin-Potsdam area.
About the partners
ECDF
The Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF) is the center for digitalization research in Berlin. It is based on a large-scale public-private partnership (PPP) model between more than 30 companies, organizations, all four Berlin universities, the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and more than ten other of Berlin’s research institutions. With 38.5 million euros in funding, ECDF aims to connect Berlin’s actors in the field of digitalization, test new forms of cooperation, foster innovative and interdisciplinary research, and to attract excellent junior scholars from around the world.
The ECDF was approved by the Einstein Foundation Berlin in September 2016 after extensive review. Since its opening on April 3, 2017, scientists have been conducting research in the areas of 1) digital infrastructure, methods, and algorithms, 2) digital health, 3) digital society, as well as 4) digital industry and services. In April 2023, after a successful evaluation by an international expert panel, the ECDF entered its second funding phase. Until March 31, 2028, ECDF and its researchers focusses on three areas in the field of digitalization:
// Transforming Communities concerns research on the impact of digitalization on individuals, groups, organizations, and society at large. In particular, it addresses three overarching questions: How does digitalization transform organizations and markets? How does digitalization change individual skills and preferences? How does digitalization cater to the needs, aspirations, and ambitions of particular communities?
// Integrated Health relates not only to individual well-being but takes into account how their environment and community affect people’s health. Research in this area focusses on the topics of “Digital health data applications” and “Data visualization and decision support.”
// Sustainable cities: Digital technologies currently play and will continue to play a key role in shaping future cities and the built environment as “intelligently networked” environments. ECDF’s research on sustainable cities is going to investigate how digital technology can help shape future cities into sustainable, safe, connected, and human-centered environments.
Inria
Inria is the French national research institute for digital science and technology.
World-class research, technological innovation and entrepreneurial risk are its DNA. In 220 project teams, most of which are shared with major research universities, more than 3,900 researchers and engineers explore new paths, often in an interdisciplinary manner and in collaboration with industrial partners to meet ambitious challenges.
As a technological institute, Inria supports the diversity of innovation pathways: from open source software publishing to the creation of technological startups (Deeptech).
