The use of open data has the potential to generate around €3 trillion per year in additional value within the global economy across education, transportation, consumer products, electricity, oil and gas, health care and consumer finance. The Future Internet Public-Private Partnership Programme (FI-PPP) recently invested a total of €600 million, involving 158 partners from 23 countries, in a combined effort to strengthen Europe's position in the global digital economy. SOUL-FI is an FP7 project that will fund digital applications (apps) for the urban life market based on open data and open innovation.
SOUL-FI will support startups with disruptive ideas that use FI-WARE enablers to make cities smarter and more sustainable with a higher quality of life. To this end, SOUL-FI will select 100 innovative ideas and fund 50 app development projects for products that take advantage of real time information and open and crowdsourced data in the areas of mobility, energy, water, gas, waste, and quality of life. Its value proposition goes beyond this funding of app development to providing access to crowdfunding, testing of apps in pilot cities and networking with major companies, ICT and urban life experts, potential clients and investors.