eGov-Bus partners list

RODAN is one of Poland's most innovative IT companies. It was established in the early 1990s and today is one of the major producers of web based content, knowledge and workflow management systems. Rodan specializes in the development and implementation of application software based on its proprietary OfficeObjects® platform tool. Focusing on innovation is an important factor contributing to the company's development and this fact can be directly translated into Rodan’s motivation to effective co-ordination and participation in the eGov-Bus project. Within the project plan Rodan will be responsible for the overall technical & scientific co-ordination of the work (WP1). Rodan presents strong experiences in this area, confirmed by its participation in several European R&D projects (ASG: IST-2003-004617; INFOMIX: IST- 2001-33529; COMPONENT+: IST-1999-20162) and co-ordination of the ICONS within FP.5  IST programme (ICONS: IST-2001-32429. ICONS project was both initiated and co-ordinated by Rodan. The knowledge and experience developed by Rodan through co-ordination of ICONS project create a strong foundation for the efficient eGov-Bus management. Furthermore Rodan will provide to eGov-Bus consortium its expertise in the areas of workflow management, multimedia content and knowledge management, information system development methodologies and software quality management. Rodan will lead the effort of WP7 (Administrative process generator) and will strongly contribute in prototype implementation (WP8) and WP3 (Architecture).

THE UNIVERSITÉ DE TECHNOLOGIE PARIS DAUPHINE is management oriented (one sometimes call it French Harvard Business School). At present there are 8.000 students. EEC former President Jacques Delors has been teaching at Dauphine. The research capacity of Dauphine within eGov-Bus project is provided by The Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches en Informatique Appliquée, one of two research laboratories at the university. It aims at the application to the management of the advanced information technology, which in scope with the eGov-Bus project and one of the main motivations of Dauphine to participate in the consortium. The main research fields are in applications and database management. The specific directions are the scalable and distributed data management, new data structures, multi-database management, and interoperability. PARIS DAUPHINE has well established track record in the field, having published in best known international database conferences (ACM Sigmod, VLDB, EDBT, ICDE) and journals (ACM-TODS, VLDB Journal, IEEE-TKDE). As the PARIS DAUPHINE’s research potential is focusing strongly on distributed and available architectures and databases, the university will mainly contribute in the design and implementation of data access abstraction (WP8). Furthermore, the PARIS DAUPHINE will exploit its strong experience in web services (WP4).

EUROPEAN EMIC INNOVATION CENTRE is a R&D facility of EMIC, in Aachen (Germany). Founded in 1975, EMIC (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device. EMIC consists of 20 highly skilled researchers and will be 40 people strong in a year time. In addition, EMIC will be able, if needed by the project, to draw appropriate resources both from the various Research and Development groups and the various European subsidiaries, especially consulting and technology expert teams. EMIC is part of the Advanced Technology group reporting into the Chief Technology Officer of EMIC Corp. It is EMIC’s fourth Research and Development centre in the European region. The EMIC’s goal is to focus its efforts on contributing information technology expertise to collaborative projects that are aligned with the defined European research priorities. Working together with academic institutions and industry partners, EMIC concentrates its efforts on the following areas: Security and Privacy, Mobility and Wireless, Web Services technologies. Therefore, this close to perfect alignment (i.e. security, privacy and web services) represents EMIC’s extreme motivation in participating in the eGov-Bus research effort. EMIC has experience in European R&D projects, for instance it is a key contributor in the FP6 projects TrustCom and SecSe which have started important work in those domains, as well as COCOON where EMIC is in charge of orchestration of services. EMIC would very much look at the possibility of integrating the results of the research in the eGov-Bus project into the evolutions of EMIC’s core .NET technologies. EMIC will also work with European partners to see how industry specific solutions based on the eGov-Bus project could be brought to the market. EMIC is actively involved in various standardization efforts around the world. And so if results from the eGov-Bus project can be used to either enhance existing standards or define additional standards EMIC would be very interested in working actively with relevant standardization industry organizations to accomplish this. Within eGov-Bus plan EMIC is responsible for leading of the effort of providing security framework and qualified signature (WP6) and will contribute to WP 3 and WP8.

UPPSALA UNIVERSITY in Sweden is a leading research university where education grows out of research. In a great number of disciplines Uppsala University is on the international research front. The research capacity of UU within eGov-Bus project will be provided by Uppsala DataBase Laboratory (UU), a research group in the Department of Information Technology at the Uppsala University. UU conducts research on methods and theories for database technology and advanced query processing techniques for enabling efficient search and integration of information from heterogeneous data sources in distributed environments. The research is mainly experimental emphasizing building of research prototypes and systems. UU has a well established publication record in its field. Current projects include distributed queries to high-volume scientific streams, GRID-enabled scientific queries, and wrapping relational databases for the semantic web. UU has extensive experiences and publication records on wrapping different kinds of sources and on query optimization techniques for scalable access to integrated data. Within the eGov-Bus project UU will utilize its knowledge on scalable queries and view to wrapped heterogeneous data sources to develop a scalable and secure search mechanism for mediated data retrieved from web services by the eGov-Bus (WP5) This topic, at the core of UU’s research, is the main motivation for UU participating in this innovative project.

PJIIT was founded in 1994 by the Computer Techniques Development Foundation under the agreement of Polish and Japanese governments. Numerous highly regarded researchers and teachers joined, including some from Warsaw University, Warsaw University of Technology and Polish Academy of Sciences. PJIIT has many outstanding scientists conducting research in many computer domains, such as distributed systems (Web technologies), databases, software engineering, artificial intelligence, computer graphics and multimedia, e-learning, robotics, computer networks, hardware architectures, supercomputers. PJIIT won the first place in several rankings concerning IT university departments in Poland, in particular, in the latest Newsweek ranking made by the society of employers.

The research capacity of PJIIT within eGov-Bus project will be provided by the research group focused around the Department of Information Systems Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology (IS PJIIT), which consists of 8 senior researchers (Prof., PhD-s), ca.12-15 PhD students and many (more than 50) MSc students each year.

The group deals with the following research topics: software engineering, databases, distributed systems, Web technologies, workflow and natural language processing. The general strategy of the group assumes strong relationships with important software problems, technologies and trends, rather than research into academic theories. Because of these unique skills and the overall project set-up PJIIT has acted as a pillar of the consortium and is highly motivated in participating in the eGov-Bus research effort. PJIIT has many relationships with software industry; in particular, members of the group participated in developing a business portal for SME-s, Internet shops (EMPiK, Galeria Centrum), a supporting system for a stock-market governmental institution, workflow software for public administration, a software measurement methodology for a mobile phone operator, amongst others. IS PJIIT has experience in participation in European R&D project. One of recent projects ICONS (5th EU framework), conducted together with several foreign partners, was devoted to intelligent Web content management. Within this project, members of the IS PJIIT group implemented an object-oriented query language SBQL and its optimizer, a visual end-user interface for searching and browsing in an object database, a fast index based on the SDDS technology, and some other prototypes. The virtual repository (WP5) is one of the strong points that join SI PJIIT’s current research results and plans within the eGov-Bus project. Next to this, the SI PJIIT will be also lead the effort of WP2 and strongly contribute in the phase of prototype implementation (WP8).

AXWAY is a world-leading player in Application Integration. It is a company with global range and offices throughout Europe, Asia-Pacific and Americas. Axway is the result of 20 years of innovative software development and commitment in the implementation of solutions adapted to client projects. AXWAY is specialising in responding the problem of Application Integration to ensure success, durability and added value in projects. Whether clients are rebuilding, supervising, or optimising the business processes of their organisation, improving the reactivity of the infrastructures they use to manage customers, suppliers or affiliates, succeeding an acquisition or merger, launching new products or services while capitalising on the existing ones, Axway works with the client to find the right solution in its Integration Platform, committing the skill sets required to implement that solution. Axway Integration Platform (XIP) is a unique and powerful platform, composed of a set of software packages, each of them a leader in its field.

This explains why XIP responds to all facets of the integration problem today: EAI, B2Bi, BPM, BAM, Batch Process Automation, SOA, etc. Totally complementary to application servers, XIP brilliantly marries the most proven with the most modern merging the best technologies to address the foundations of Application Integration: data consistency between applications and management of multi-step processing. XIP will accelerate the integration of client applications equally well inside as outside the organisation. More than 600 specialists from AXWAY provide professional consulting in client integration choices, work with you to dimension client project, and ensure complete professional services in co-operation with client teams or those of our partners. The combination of service commitments and technological components in the Axway Integration Platform position us to propose solutions closely linked to the eGov-Bus project, complemented by AXWAY’s 20 years experience in bus systems. Axway is therefore extremely motivated in participating in this effort and believes to bring outstanding complementary skills. AXWAY proposes specific solutions for the synchronisation and the supervision of information flows to create a more efficient collaboration in the extended enterprise; an expertise relevant to eGov-Bus project. Within eGov-Bus plan AXWAY’s expertise will be provided for leading the task of prototype implementation (WP8), development of architecture (WP3) and creation of enhanced web services (WP4).

A-SIT – Austria is a public-funded non-profit association. A-SIT has been founded in May 1999 by its charter members the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance, the Austrian National Bank, and the Graz University of Technology. The purpose of A-SIT is to act as an independent organization to turn to with IT security issues, to coordinate IT security projects, to act as an independent advisory body. The objective of A-SIT is also to provide comprehensive support of the legislator and public authorities. A-SIT is a confirmation body under the Austrian Signature Law and notified as designated body under the European Signature Directive (1999/93/EC, art. 3(4)). A-SIT or its staff represents public authorities or assists public authorities in various international and EU bodies. (e.g. IDA, TESTA, ENISA Management Board, Art. 29 Data Protection WP Internet Task Force, Council of Europe, Porvoo group, Common Criteria Management Board, OECD). Through carrying out research and technology assessment, A-SIT has collected significant results and experience in the area of electronic signatures, eGovernment and identity management. For instance, A-SIT has developed the Austrian Citizen Card concepts in collaboration with the Federal ICT staff unit. Various eGovernment specifications, its reference implementations or applications have been developed in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Chancellery. In the field of electronic signatures, A-SIT has contributed to various standards (e.g. CEN, ETSI, W3C). There research capacity of A-SIT is provides by IAIK, a university institute at the Graz University of Technology. IAIK employs about 30 researchers and has information security as its prime research agenda. A-SIT has developed specifications and prototype implementations of the Austrian Citizen Card concept. This concept builds the basic infrastructure of the Austrian e-Government projects. Moreover, proof-of-concept studies for eGovernment applications that employ the Citizen Card concept have been implemented. In the field of cryptography and electronic signature regulations, A-SIT inter alia has been and is member of the Austrian delegations to the OECD group of experts on cryptography, the electronic signature model law of the UN committee of international trade law (UNCITRAL), the EU Signature Directive (1999/93/EC), the Electronic Signature Committee (the Article 9 Committee), or the Council of Europe Integrated Project on making democratic institutions work (CoE IP1 on e-enabled voting). A-SIT has contributed to technical standardization activities related to the project, such as within the European Electronic Signature Standardization Initiative (EESSI). A-SIT has been in project teams of both bodies entrusted by EESSI to develop electronic signature standards – ETSI and CEN. Moreover, contributions to the IETF and W3C DSig and XML DSig initiatives have been made. As the A-SIT expertise is mainly in the information security area, the role and interest of A-SIT within eGov-Bus plan is would mainly focusing on IT security aspects of eGovernment (WP6). A-SIT will be also in charge to lead the effort of dissemination and exploitation of the project (WP9), because of its extensive experience in eGovernment projects. The combination of these skills and the structure of the eGov-Bus project consortium highly motivate A-SIT in bringing its complementary expertise.

MSWiA is a governmental body which was set up by as a result of the transformation of the Committee for Scientific Research. The regulation came into force on April 1 2003. The Act established MNiI to manage the following areas of public administration: information technology and scientific research. Within eGov-Bus project the MNiI will be involved into WP2, WP3, WP8 and WP9.

Project "Advanced eGovernment Information Service Bus" is supported by the European Community under "Information Society Technologies" priority of the Sixth Framework Programme.