ATHENA RESEARCH AND INNOVATION CENTER IN INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGIES (ATHENA)
Athena is a research and technology body, which was founded under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Development in 2001. R.C. “Athena” participates through the Institute for Information Systems (IMIS – http://www.imis.athena-innovation.gr/), founded in 2007, with the mission to conduct research in the area of data management and large-scale information systems. ATHENA has already attracted funding from the EU as well as from national funding agencies. It currently employs a total of 23 PhD or postdoctoral- level researchers, and 22 postgraduate level researchers. ATHENA is currently involved in several R&D and private sector funded projects, EU and national ones. IMIS organized the ACM SIGMOD/PODS 2011 conference, last June.
UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS (UCY)
The University of Cyprus (UCY) was established in 1989 and is the main research organization in the Republic of Cyprus. Over the last 6 years, the Department has been involved in more than 130 research projects funded from both the European Union and the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation with total funding of over 13 million euros. The Laboratory for Internet Computing (LINC) was established in 2001, with an emphasis on the design, implementation and evaluation of network-centric computing systems and tools. LINC has participated in more than 15 research projects with over 2.5 million euros funding from the E.U. (Marie Curie, FP5, FP6, FP7, Safernet) and the Research Promotion Foundation of Cyprus. The Lab has hosted an international group of Ph.D., postgraduate and undergraduate students, as well as several post-doctoral fellows. LINC has established and operates CyGrid, the Cypriot node of the European Grid Infrastructure EGEE, the Cyprus Certification Authority (CyCA) and a Cloud infrastructure.
Lab Website: http://linc.ucy.ac.cy
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN (TUW)
Vienna University of Technology looks back on a long tradition at the leading edge of scientific research and education: Founded in 1815 as k.k. Polytechnisches Institut (Imperial and Royal Polytechnical Institute), it was divided into 5 faculties in 1865. One year later the first freely elected rector was inaugurated. In 1872 its name changed to Technische Hochschule (College of Technology), and in 1902 the first doctorates were awarded. The institution has borne its current name – Technische Universität Wien (Vienna University of Technology) – since 1975. In 2004 TU Vienna reached full autonomy through the University Act 2002. The Distributed Systems group (DSG) is a unit of the Institute of Information Systems at the Faculty of Informatics at the Vienna University of Technology. DSG is led by Prof. Schahram Dustdar with around 35 research and support staff members.
GREEK RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY NETWORK S.A. (GRNET)
The Greek Research and Technology Network (GRNET) S.A. was founded in 1998 under the auspices of the Ministry of Development – General Secretariat of Research and Development in order to provide high quality Internet services to the Greek research and academic community. GRNET S.A. (http://www.grnet.gr) represents Greece in the GEANT pan-European network, which offers high speed and high quality services to the European research and academic community. Apart from its role as the Greek NREN, GRNET is the leading distributed computing infrastructure provider in Greece having the responsibility to operate the Greek National Grid infrastructure. GRNET is also active in the area of HPC computing being responsible for the deployment of the national HPC infrastructure, and is a member of PRACE. GRNET also leads the South-East European e-Infrastructure activities through which strong joint vision and strategy is carried out together with 14 countries/NRENs in the region. As a partner in the StratusLab project (http://www.stratuslab.eu) GRNET is leading the operations activity providing a significant number of physical resources to the project. In parallel, GRNET has developed an in-house IaaS cloud platform called Okeanos (http://okeanos.grnet.gr). Okeanos is currently in the final stages of beta- testing and will be soon opened to the public in order to provide IaaS cloud services to the Greek research and academic community. GRNET has also developed and is currently providing a production level cloud storage service named Pithos (https://pithos.grnet.gr/).
PlayGen Ltd (PLAYGEN)
PlayGen create playful solutions that engage the audience, influence behaviour, measure competencies and attitudes, and inspire action. Their key expertise lies in delivering world class solutions that combine play with serious topics. The games are designed to make players better informed and better connected. Players include children, young adults, parents, professionals and citizens. The simulations provide players with scenarios in which they can make decisions, observe the consequences, and change the course of action in order to succeed. Commonly used for learning and training, PlayGen develop models of reality that allow the player to experiment with an environment that obeys the same rules as the real world, in a focused and meaningful experience. The social games developed are built on players’ inherent desires to socialize. PlayGen’s team enjoys facilitating interaction between players. Thus, participants are encouraged to create meaningful connections, enabling them to extend the experience beyond the game through effective authoring tools. These games are carefully created to provide a fun and addictive layer of connections between players. They make exciting communities in which players can interact, share ideas and experiences around specific topics. PlayGen have developed games and simulations that run across platforms, including social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Second Life, and devices such as desktop and mobile, including iPhone and Android. PlayGen is one of the partners in the Network of Excellence (NoE) on Serious Games funded by the European Union in FP7 – IST ICT, Technology Enhanced Learning.
SIXSQ SARL (SIXSQ)
SixSq provides cloud computing solutions to national and international companies of all sizes. We specialise in process automation, bringing financial benefits to our customers via our unique products. SixSq prides itself in promoting cloud neutral solutions for this fast moving IT sector. Our team, which consists of highly skilled software engineers, developers and system administrators from 8 different countries, is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and embraces the Swiss ideals of excellence, innovation and precision. We strive to build long-lasting partnerships and collaborations with all of our customers.
SixSq customers include: the European Space Agency (both the Operation Center ESOC and the Research Center ESTEC), Orange, Thales, Rolex, Terma, SciSys, Rhea, INFN/CNAF. SixSq brings its expertise and experience in delivering industrial quality software solutions, using agile methodologies throughout its operations. The company also brings its experience in grid, cloud, messaging and data intensive computing. Founding members of the company have demonstrated experience in integrating complex distributed middleware, through participation in FP5-6-7 grid and cloud projects, as well as ESA ground control system integration and refactoring. SixSq’s experience in projects such as StratusLab (http://www.stratuslab.eu), ETICS and SlipStream brings solid experience in running successful FP7 projects.
Flexiant Limited (FLEXIANT)
Flexiant is a leading international provider of cloud orchestration software for on-demand, fully automated provisioning of cloud services. Headquartered in Europe, Flexiant’s software gives cloud service providers’ business agility, freedom and flexibility to scale, deploy and configure cloud services, simply and cost-effectively. Vendor agnostic and supporting multiple hypervisors, Flexiant Cloud Orchestrator is a software suite that is service provider ready, enabling cloud service provisioning through to granular metering, billing and reseller management. Used by over one hundred organisations worldwide, from small hosters to large Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Enterprises, Flexiant Cloud Orchestrator is simple to understand, simple to deploy and simple to use. Flexiant customers include Cartika, FP7 Consortium, IS Group, ITEX, and NetGroup. Visit www.flexiant.com.
University of Manchester (UNIMAN)
The University of Manchester (UNIMAN) combined the strengths of the
Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST in 2004 to become the UK’s
largest single-site university, performing world-class research, driving
innovation and enterprise, and forging strong links with industry. UNIMAN
has participated in a number of prominent EU and EPSRC-funded research
projects targeting dynamic formation of virtual enterprises and supply
networks (SUDDEN, CrossWork), low-cost interoperability solutions
(COMMIUS), SOA and web-services (SOA4All), adaptive service-based systems
for manufacturing industry (ARUM), optimisation models for service
eco-systems (BonFIRE, TEOS experiment) as well as optimisation of mobility
infrastructure (MODUM). These pioneering projects have helped to raise
UNIMAN’s profile in core mechanisms for emergent distributed software
(service) composition, models for optimisation and adapting to unexpected
disturbances in service ecosystems, as well as experimentation of
computationally intensive mechanisms on distributed (Cloud) infrastructure.”
The Paterson Institute for Cancer Research (PICR), part of the University
of Manchester, is one of Europe’s premier cancer research centres. Its
international reputation for excellence in cancer research is built on the
expertise of its outstanding scientists and enhanced by its close links
with the Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC), an exciting partnership
between the University, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Cancer
Research UK (CRUK). PICR provides state-of-the-art facilities and
cutting-edge technology platforms that support CRUK research groups, as
well as several university groups associated with the Institute of Cancer
Sciences.