Mobile Inclusion Platform for Europe and Latin America (M-INCLUSION)

Framework: FP7 — Cooperation
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Destination: ICT for Health, Ageing Well, Inclusion and Governance
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Spain,Italy,Spain,Brazil,Peru,Colombia
Call:  (FP7-ICT-2011-7, 2011)
Start date: 2011-11-01
End date: 2014-02-28
Duration (months): 28.0
Total project cost (EUR): 981996.0
EU funding (EUR): 826000.0
Participants: 8
Project status: CLOSED

The project Mobile Inclusion Platform for Europe and Latin America (M-Inclusion) is a Support Action funded by the European Commission whose overall objective is to create a cooperation framework between EU and LATAM mobile solution developers and different entities (e.g., public bodies, Third Sector associations) voicing the digital inclusion needs of people at risk of exclusion in LATAM in order to improve their personal autonomy, and through that, their social integration. M-Inclusion is based on: a) Project Consortium comprising different type of actors (4 EU, 3 LATAM) bringing different capabilities, knowledge, experience and network to major initiatives and services in the field b) M-Inclusion’s innovative approach taking the end-user’s input representatives as initial reference for work and setting hybrid work groups to build the final M-Inclusion Roadmap. c) A stakeholder group comprised with at least 30 organizations involved in solving the inclusion problems for the target groups identified d) An innovative IT Web Portal All interested actors will integrate the M-Inclusion Community, an open forum for dialogue supported by the IT Web Portal, offering: 1) Complete data base with references, resources, organizations, success cases, technologies; all about mobile technologies for personal autonomy and social inclusion 2) A work environment for defining the M-Inclusion Roadmap. A detailed guide containing: the needs of the identified end users, suitable technological solutions, future technological trends and recommended actions in order to fully tackle social inclusion objectives. 3) Support through a specific tool (Open Funding Platform), and related services to the identification and promotion of RTD projects based on the Open Innovation concept (collaborative RTD); 4) Support to market opportunity generation through two M-Inclusion Ideas Competitions (“Challenges”) and a M-Inclusion Marketplace that will help developers display their mobile applications, web services and ideas related to inclusion into the market, and will be linked with existing relevant platforms supporting developers, such as Telefónica’s Blue Via or Nokia’s Open Forum, amongst other possibilities. The project promotes both a working environment to define a Mobile Inclusion solutions Road Map and the growth of innovative, user-oriented, and affordable mobile solutions. In order to do this, M-Inclusion will actively incorporate, within the process, representatives of four groups of potential end-users: people with disabilities, chronic patients, low-income sectors and population from isolated areas, in order to fully understand their specific needs and handicaps. Besides, the project intends to contribute to the digital breach debate, sharing recommendations and conclusions with representatives of the IT industry and public bodies with responsibility in national and regional digital agendas through dissemination activities.

Keywords: mobile,social,inclusion,latin,latam,personal autonomy,disadvantage groups,roadmap,openinnovation,virtual community,support action,rtd cooperation framework,risk of exclusion