Since Amazon showed us, the Europeans, what a platform means, platforms are springing up like mushrooms after rain. Latest hype are platforms that offer SaaA (Software-as-a-Service) accessible through APIs (application Programming Interfaces). Developers become sellers and users alike, users can plug in and all pay a small fee for transactions (that is the principle in a nutshell). It looks like an overall democratization of software, for the benefits of SMEs (who have easier access to technology, no need for extra hardware and affordable or OS software). While platforms developed by companies (that know their customers + developers) are pretty much targeted (e.g. SDL Github ), the European Commission within its Horizon 2020 programme had an ambition to create some “one-stop-shop” platforms covering different technologies. But do they really work? It is too early to judge their practical value, but money available for sub-projects make them potentially interesting for SMEs and start-ups:
By 2020, in Europe, the total production value of the XR (virtual/augmented/extended reality) industry should reach €15-34 billion, and the number of direct and indirect jobs 225,000-480,000. However, the European XR scene is relatively less known, quite fragmented, and faced with strong outside competition, especially from Asia and the USA. Therefore, this initiative may be crucial. Calls for sub-projects have two more cut-off dates: 30 April 2020 and 31 July 2020.
ELG will be offering powerful multilingual, cross-lingual and monolingual technologies, thus contributing to the emergence of a truly connected, language-crossing Multilingual Digital Single Market. The first call for sub-projects in the area of language technologies will be published in March 2020.
The “first European Artificial Intelligence On-Demand Platform and Ecosystem” is not yet very far. But like all others, it promotes collaboration and community building through open calls for sub-projects: Prototype projects: a Call will be published in Q1 2020, for researchers and entrepreneurs, up to 30.000 EUR. Tech transfer programme for scale-ups: Call will be published Q3 2020; up to EUR 180.000
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