he EU H2020 EnABLES research infrastructure programme, co-ordinated by Tyndall, has just launched its Transnational Access (TA) programme, which offers free-of-charge access to equipment, tools and expertise related to 'powering the internet of things (IoT)'. The vision of EnABLES is to eliminate the need for battery replacement by developing energy harvesting solutions or by finding ways to significantly reduce the power consumption of devices. The TA programme gives academic and industry developers and integrators of IoT devices unique access to advanced research infrastructure based on the technology pillars of energy harvesting, energy storage, micro-power management and system integration.

EnABLES Coordinator, Mike Hayes, Tyndall at launch of Transnational Access Programme

The TA providers include Tyndall, CEA (Leti & Liten), Fraunhofer IMS, Fraunhofer IIS and imec the Netherlands. In addition, Virtual Access to databases of vibrational energy sources from real life applications is being offered by the University of Perugia and the University of Southampton. EnABLES also funds Joint Research Activities (JRAs) between the above mentioned partners along with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Politecnico Di Torino and University of Bologna. It is envisaged that the Joint Research Activities  will lead to future Transnational Access programme offerings.
The access activities can be undertaken in many ways; ranging from characterizing material or devices to carrying out physical or simulated feasibility studies to see if 'battery life' in IoT devices can be prolonged. The potential impact of EnABLES is vast – it is forecast that the world will have 1 trillion IoT devices by 2025 most of which will require an embedded self-contained power source.

The access process is very simple, examples of offerings can be viewed on the EnABLES website and an online enquiry form is available at www.enables-project.eu. All outputs from the EnABLES TA and VA activities will be openly available as part of the aim of EnABLES to build a collaborative ecosystem that creates miniaturized and autonomous sensors. The EnABLES program already brings together a consortium of 130 'powering IoT' researchers giving them access to over €2Bn worth of research infrastructure.

We welcome you to go onto the EnABLES website and subscribe for newsletters, updates and info on other relevant events and activities (http://www.enables-project.eu/contact/signup/).

Provided by Mike Hayes, EnABLES Coordinator

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