Interop V-Lab
The INTEROP V-Lab ( International Virtual Laboratory for Enterprise Interoperability ) is a network of organizations that brings together scientists, research centers, representatives of industrial interests and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) . The organization is based in Brussels . The members come from several European countries as well as China and represent 250 scientists and 70 organizations.
It was founded in 2007 and is the result of the 42-month Network of Excellence INTEROP (Interoperability research for networked enterprise applications and software), a research initiative of the European Union .
motivation
Interoperability , in particular the so-called Enterprise Interoperability (EI), deals with approaches to develop integrative solutions to connect heterogeneous industrial systems, public administrations or organizations with one another.
The purpose of the organization is to connect researchers and research institutions as well as industry representatives within the interoperability context . The basic objective is to defragment the European research and science landscape and to support cooperation between it and other regions of the world:
- by supporting research, teaching and innovation in the field of enterprise interoperability
- by acting as a competence center in the field of enterprise interoperability worldwide
activities
The activities consist of research, teaching and training services as well as standardization consulting.
The independent research within INTEROP-VLabs is based on the following three key components:
- Information and communication technology as the technological basis of interoperable systems
- Modeling of processes, organizations and organizational units to develop and implement suitable structures for interoperable companies and public organizations
- The development and specification of ontologies to ensure semantic consistency within connected organizations with the following focuses
- theoretical groundwork
- Investigation and development of key technologies
- Development of exemplary applications
Solutions developed so far are for example:
- IV KMap (INTEROP-VLab Knowledge Map ), a competence management system within the EI area, which is based on an ontology-based search engine and thus enables relevant documents and content to be found in relation to a special knowledge area.
- The IV e-learning platform , with 50 web courses and seminars in the areas of EI, modeling , ontologies and architecture & platforms
Members
The members organize themselves in "Poles", whereby a "Pole" represents a group of partners within a geographical region, within a state or a group of states. The activities of the individual organizations are coordinated on a European level.
The members are:
- INTEROP-VLab Pole France Grand Sud-Ouest (PGSO)
- DFI (German Forum for Interoperability eV)
- INTEROP-VLab UK Pole
- INTEROP-VLab China Pole
- INTEROP-VLab INTERVAL Pole
- INTEROP-VLab Portuguese Pole (INTEROP-PtRP)
- INTEROP-VLab.IT
- INTEROP North Pole