About SmartLivingNEXT
The Reason Why
The digitalization and networking of living areas (smart living) can give rise to many new applications and digital services that make living more energy-efficient, safer and more comfortable.
To ensure that these can be introduced to the market without great effort, the necessary data must be made universally accessible not only in new buildings, but also in existing buildings. And, if possible, without additional hardware and independent of the building technology installed. At the same time, strict exclusion of unauthorized access must be ensured.
SmartLivingNEXT is working on a solution that makes this possible. It uses the foundations provided in the previous ForeSight research project and develops them further.
The solution consists of a reliable, secure, sovereign and national access point for all smart living data (SmartLivingNEXT Dataspace), regardless of where this data is physically stored and from which system it originates. The data remains in its original systems and under the strict control of the data owners. This is the conceptual goal of the SmartLivingNEXT data ecosystem, which is compatible with the European Gaia-X approach.
It is a key development goal that each data provider retains its technology and makes all or part of the resulting data available in the SmartLivingNEXT ecosystem. Technological additions that simplify the handling of a dataspace are available in the SmartLivingNEXT Toolbox, which provides standardized semantics for the data provided (SENSE WoT), AI-based basic services and open source applications, among other things.
The SmartLivingNEXT research program consists of the ForeSightNEXT flagship project, in which the core technology is being developed and tested with its own applications. In addition, there are six research projects docked to the flagship project that are developing exemplary use cases for the ecosystem and based on the SmartLivingNEXT Dataspace. This ensures that a broad portfolio of applications is created.
The intention is to take use cases in the areas of energy efficiency, assistance, maintenance and home security to a new level by creating a universally usable ecosystem that brings together smart living data.
SmartLivingNEXT is expected to be completed in fall 2026. Until then, the technical, administrative and market-oriented framework provided has been extensively researched. The results are documented in a final report. Provided there is broad interest, the technology can then be used on the market and anyone can benefit from and participate in the new SmartLiving ecosystem.
SmartLivingNEXT project office
Have we aroused your interest? Contact our project office at
E-mail: support(a)fe-zvei.zendesk.com
Phone: +49 (0)151 14 34 14 17
The SmartLivingNEXT Dataspace
The SmartLivingNEXT Dataspace is an open, AI-supported data space for the smart living market and its players. Secure, trustworthy and user-friendly smart living services are provided on the Gaia-X-compliant data platform. The SmartLiving Dataspace is made available as a modular blueprint. Interested parties can use their own instance of the Blueprint within the infrastructure also offered in the project or operate the Blueprint or parts of it in their own infrastructure and adapt it as required. The value creation potential remains with the service providers and manufacturers.
The heart of SmartLivingNEXT is an open data platform for the smart living market. It provides the basis for testing AI methods and the intelligent services that are based upon them. We work with open source applications.
The dataspace contains standardized, semantic data models, accessible to all users via interfaces. SmartLivingNEXT projects can bundle their needs regarding smart living sensor data, and combine and share available data sources from various origins across projects. This is done using the SENSE WoT (Web of Things) normative specification, in accordance with the GDPR and the EU Data Acts.
We mirror the existing, real environment in the form of a virtual copy. By doing so, we can ensure technical stability and reliability.
Both the pilot project and the dataspace adhere to the role model developed within the Gaia-X community, the Gaia-X standards, and implement these for the smart living ecosystem. In this way, we are laying the groundwork for a secure and reliable cloud infrastructure.
The SmartLivingNEXT Toolbox
The SmartLivingNEXT Toolbox contains tools and technological foundations for semantic interoperability, data quality and the development of AI methods for data preparation and analysis. Intelligent services based on this can run across all manufacturers in all digitalized buildings. This also enables new business models, for example in the areas of energy management, building automation or management as well as health and care. The SmartLivingNEXT Toolbox provides basic services for the implementation of standardized data pipelines, e.g. for data acquisition, activity recognition, mapping and classification, semantic search and machine learning.
These include services for the implementation of standardized data pipelines, such as data collection, activity recognition, mapping and classification, semantic search and machine learning as a basis for the application of AI-based solutions.
The entire project is based on existing ecosystems, e.g. from the Gaia-X environment, and examines suitable business models, roles and concrete applications in a smart living system. The aim is to develop a viable and scalable business model for platform operators and for providers of smart living services.
Machine learning pipelines offer a scalable workflow of data pre-processing, training, evaluation and deployment. ML models are provided, described and versioned in a model registry.
The use of connector plug-ins for the most common system solutions (legacy) in the areas of smart homes and smart buildings, for example a plug-in for the open source system “Home Assistant”.
In the SENSE research project, the WoT (Web of Things) standard was further developed in the SENSE WoT, in order to map the necessary information in the context of a building (e.g. locations). SENSE WoT enables the interoperability of commercially available devices and systems from different manufacturers.
The SmartLivingNEXT Community
A digital ecosystem can secure the competitive advantage for European industry in the smart living sector. This is why the integration and cross-sector networking of various partners from the housing sector, associations, industry and science is a key feature of SmartLivingNEXT. Together, the numerous players involved in building a platform regardless of the manufacturer are strengthening Germany as a business location. The SmartLivingNEXT community is the largest national network for research in the field of smart living and is constantly expanding with new partners. Market and acceptance barriers to AI-based applications are being eliminated in SmartLivingNEXT through coordinated cross-industry collaboration. SmartLivingNEXT projects can, for example, test newly emerging use cases in the flagship project’s demonstration environment and present them to a larger audience.
Manufacturers and organizations from the housing sector, industry, research and their associations are participating in SmartLivingNEXT as consortium and associated partners over the three-year project period.
Demonstrating a sustainable living environment is possible at various levels through the combination of virtual reality (virtual sensors and locations) and physical reality (actual sensors and locations). In virtual reality, complex living environments can be visualized by merging location-related building and sensor data across buildings and analyzing them in virtual data rooms.
In the flagship project, data guidelines for the collection, storage, processing and destruction of data are developed and offered within the SmartLivingNEXT projects. The pilot project forms an organizational steering committee, as well as a technical steering committee alongside the projects, ensuring coordination. Workshop series that focus on various topics are organized.
Focus groups
Focus groups ensure that participants in the data ecosystem have the opportunity to actively shape the content of their work. They represent the content-related and technical cooperation format for the operational work of the flagship project and SmartLivingNEXT projects. They cover the cross-cutting topics of “Dataspace / Dataspace Governance”, “Semantics and AI”, “Market conformity and data economy”, “Project coordination/testing environments”, “User perspectives” and “Communication”.
The aim of the focus group is to align the SmartLivingNEXT platform with the needs of satellite and community projects and to create technological governance for the platform. To this end, requirements for the platform and application life cycle management are collected collaboratively. The focus group examines implementation concepts and discusses change requirements. Participants are expected to be willing to familiarize themselves technologically with the various components of the SmartLivingNEXT data room and the technological standards, in particular the Gaia-X services. The results of the focus group have a significant influence on the further development of connectors and plugins.
Management
Andreas Schulz-Dieterich, Materna SE
Deputy: Thomas Feld, Materna SE
Organization
Planned meetings: 4 x per year, 2 to 3 hours, online.
The Semantics and AI focus group serves to clarify the need for semantic technologies and AI. It is worked out whether semantics are openly accessible and established for the domains. Based on this, we work out which tasks are to be solved with AI, what data is available and in what quality, and what the typical AI methods are. The focus group evaluates the requirements and available data and derives requirements for AI services and semantic descriptions. Results are semantic descriptions, evaluation of data for AI methods, method and effort estimates for AI services, assessment of basic AI services.
Management
Hilko Hoffmann, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
Substitute: Ingo Zinnikus, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
Organization
Planned meetings: 4 x per year, 2 hours, online
The focus group deals with the topics of user behavior and acceptance in the smart living ecosystem, the realization of successful business models and the design of governance structures and mechanisms that are sustainable in the long term. The aim is to discuss specific issues and objectives together and to evaluate implementation options. Workshops on the above-mentioned topics are planned, in which the interests of the stakeholders involved are identified, experiences are shared and joint discussions – also with experts from practice and science – take place. In the workshops, participants are encouraged to contribute their current challenges and objectives. The results are then documented in writing so that they are available to the project network and can be incorporated into the final papers.
Management
Dr. Rahild Neuburger, LMU
Substitute: Dr. Anne Ixmeier, LMU
Organization
Planned meetings: 4 x per year, 2 hours, online
The project coordination focus group supports the satellites with administrative issues and general organization. Training is planned on the use of the support and collaboration tool provided and on the provision of documents and documentation. A further aspect is the clarification of the need for the contractual basis in the area of (mutual) data use and provision and the planning and participation in joint events with an external impact and, if necessary, trade fair appearances, in each case as a distinction or supplement to tasks in the context of accompanying research. In addition, requirements for the operation of joint or technology program-spanning demonstrators and laboratories are discussed and any related planning is coordinated. The aim is to establish an orderly project process with clearly defined roles between satellite partners, flagship project and accompanying research, which can also participate as a guest. The meetings are recorded and then made available to the entire technology program to support its activities. The target group is primarily those responsible for the consortium management of the satellite projects, who are required to implement the findings in their own funding program, as well as those responsible for the accompanying research.
Management
FE-ZVEI, Michael Schidlack (project management flagship project) and Dr. Birgit Fröhler (project office management).
Organization
3-4 times a year for approx. 90 minutes with decreasing frequency towards the end of the project. Meeting format: Online, but also as a face-to-face meeting by special invitation if required. External experts may be admitted on request for specific topics.
In this focus group, the emphasis is on the needs and requirements of users who help to develop applications through their tests and feedback during the project and who should use them later. The aim is to raise awareness of the different perspectives of professionally motivated users, intrinsically motivated private users and users who are not necessarily motivated.
Aspects during the project term are appreciative communication with testers, their motivation and support, but also the development and communication of an exit strategy. Issues such as ethics, trustworthiness, non-discrimination and accessibility as well as the legal framework are relevant in all phases.
We invite the project partners from the satellite projects to jointly discuss and evaluate their potential applications with regard to the points mentioned above.
Management
Birgid Eberhardt, GSW Sigmaringen mbH
Organization
Planned meetings: 4 x per year, between 1 and 3 hours, online.
The communication focus group is an interaction and working format for the public relations work of the SmartLivingNEXT projects and the accompanying research. The aim is to increase awareness of the technology programme among the smart living community, the leading media and politicians, as well as to transfer knowledge of the research results obtained in the projects to companies, research institutes, associations and organizations. Based on a communication strategy that has already been defined, measures are being developed, particularly for social media, the SmartLivingNEXT newsroom and participation in public events. Participants are encouraged to submit structured proposals relating to their own project. The results are recorded in an editorial plan.
Management
Maximilian Metzner, FE-ZVEI
Organization
Planned meetings: 2 x per year, 2 to 3 hours, online.
Frequently asked questions
The project office is the central point of contact for enquiries. At the office, we establish contact with the consortium management or respective specialist experts. Additionally, the project office manages operational contracts, documentation and appointment management for those involved in the pilot project and other SmartLivingNEXT projects. The Electrical Engineering Research Association at ZVEI e.V. operates the project office.
ForeSightNEXT is the pilot project within the call for funding applications, which was launched on the basis of the “Development of Digital Technology funding program, led by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK).
