Smart Living: ForeSightNEXT research project launched

The aim of the research project “ForeSightNEXT – Platform for Data, Artificial Intelligence and Climate Action (BMWK)”, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) until August 2026, is to develop a platform for data, artificial intelligence and
Services in the smart living ecosystem” is the creation of a universal and trustworthy smart living ecosystem that is accepted by all market participants. All data should be available here in such a way that it can be used for the development of sustainable, AI-based smart living services and applications across manufacturers and systems.

As a flagship project, ForeSightNEXT is intended to support so-called satellite projects as part of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) technology program “SmartLivingNEXT”, which relate to concrete, practical smart living applications, particularly in the areas of energy and care/assistance, and are based on the structural elements of the flagship project. The ForeSightNEXT flagship project provides a reference architecture, a toolbox and the data room, among other things. For their part, the satellite projects are to contribute new components and services in order to implement practical, application- and user-related use cases in SmartLivingNEXT and thus drive forward scaling. The smart living ecosystem that emerges during the course of the project will create the economic and technical conditions for a data sharing economy for smart living based on the standards of the European Gaia-X initiative.

“SmartLivingNEXT aims to create the first manufacturer-independent and trustworthy ecosystem for all digital smart living services. The ForeSightNEXT flagship project consists of eight consortium partners and supports the satellites of the technology program in integrating their intelligent services into the smart living ecosystem. The ForeSight platform developed as part of the AI innovation competition serves as the basis. We are developing this further and also implementing our own suitable use cases,” says Michael Schidlack, consortium leader of the ForeSightNEXT research project.

The ForeSight Dataspace approach differs significantly from the established platform economy in key respects. In particular, the potential for value creation is not focused on a single operator, but is available to the entire community – making it economically attractive for providers of devices and services. The core is the simpler, but multilaterally authorized and secure exchange of data within the dataspace and also to other data spaces that abstract from individual system worlds, manufacturers and service providers within the framework of data protection legislation. This ensures interoperability and general data availability. The data rooms offer connectors to relevant smart home and smart building system families, cloud and streaming platforms, established IoT protocols and specific building management database systems. In addition, universally applicable AI-based basic services are being developed that are available to support all services.

The current starting point for smart living technologies is a wide range of manufacturer-specific systems, cloud platforms and applications that lack a universally binding bracket. Although the multi-protocol devices, middleware systems and upcoming standards that are currently on the market and constantly being developed further are constantly improving interoperability, they still offer too little market breadth for universally usable and, above all, scalable smart living applications.

About ForeSightNEXT

ForeSightNEXT unites eight consortium partners BEENIC GmbH, C&S Computer und Software GmbH, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Forschungsvereinigung Elektrotechnik beim ZVEI e. V. (consortium leader), GSW Gesellschaft für Siedlungs- und Wohnungsbau Baden-Württemberg mbH, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Materna Information & Communications SE and Novus Software GmbH. The flagship project develops offers for SmartLivingNEXT satellite projects. This includes, for example, a repository and various reference implementations for compute, test and demonstration environments with integrated basic services, including those from the previous ForeSight research project. ForeSightNEXT shapes the shared data space using standard data models and standard ontologies. SENSE WoT and iotschema.org form the basis. For important other standards, suitable interfaces and mapping procedures are offered as required in order to be able to use different data models and ontologies in the dataspace. Together with satellite projects, the flagship project forms an organizational steering committee and a technical steering committee for overarching coordination and service development. Furthermore, a project office serves as a central point of contact for satellite projects in order to be able to offer support to the partners on issues relating to the core competencies of the consortium partners. These primarily relate to the shared data room, technical and AI support and support in the areas of market conformity (in particular business models). Satellite projects also benefit from a joint external presentation and are supported in their communication work by the flagship project.

About the Research Association for Electrical Engineering at ZVEI e. V.:

The Research Association for Electrical Engineering at ZVEI e. V. (FE) initiates and coordinates publicly funded research projects in the electrical and digital industry. It networks companies, research institutes, expert committees and multipliers, creates the framework for legally secure, pre-competitive cooperation with its projects and enables the rapid transfer of results from research to industrial practice. In cooperation with partners from industry and science, FE develops solutions for common technical, economic, social and ecological challenges. In this way, it drives innovation from Germany and strengthens the competitiveness and sovereignty of the location.