The Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining momentum and may positively influence the automation of energy-efficiency management of smart buildings. However, the development of IoT-enabled applications still takes tremendous efforts due to the lack of proper tools. Many software components have to be developed from scratch, thus requiring huge amounts of effort, as developers must have a deep understanding of the technologies, the new application domain, and the interplay with legacy systems. In this paper we introduce the IMPReSS Systems Development Platform (SDP) that aims at reducing the complexity of developing IoT-enabled applications for supporting sensor data collection in buildings, managing automated system changes according to the context, and real-time prioritization of devices for controlling energy usage. The effectiveness of the SDP for the development of IoT-based context-aware and mixed-criticality applications was assessed by using it in four scenarios involving energy efficiency management in public buildings. Qualitative studies were undertaken with application developers in order to evaluate their perception of five key components of the SDP with regard to usability. The study revealed significant and encouraging results. Further, a quantitative performance analysis explored the scalability limits of the IMPReSS communication components.

This paper presents the work performed in the context of the REACTION project focusing on the development of a health care service platform able to support diabetes management in different healthcare regimes, through clinical applications, such as monitoring of vital signs, feedback provision to the point of care, integrative risk assessment, and event and alarm handling. While moving towards the full implementation of the platform, three major areas of research and development have been identified and consequently approached: the first one is related to the glucose sensor technology and wearability, the second is related to the platform architecture, and the third to the implementation of the end-user services. The Glucose Management System, already developed within the REACTION project, is able to monitor a range of parameters from various sources including glucose levels, nutritional intakes, administered drugs, and patient’s insulin sensitivity, offering decision support for insulin dosing to professional caregivers on a mobile tablet platform that fulfills the need of the users and supports medical workflow procedures in compliance with the Medical Device Directive requirements

The ageing society poses significant challenges to Europe’s economy and society. In coming to grips with these issues, we must be aware of their ethical dimensions. Values are the heart of the European Union, as Article 1a of the Lisbon Treaty makes clear: ‘‘The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity…’’. The notion of Europe as a community of values has various important implications, including the development of inclusion policies. A special case of exclusion concerns the gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without access to it, the ‘‘digital divide’’, which in Europe is chiefly age-related. Policies to overcome the digital divide and, more generally speaking, e-inclusion policies addressing the ageing population raise some ethical problems. Among younger senior citizens, say those between 65 and 80 years old, the main issues are likely to be universal access to ICT and e-participation.

While bioethics and ICT ethics are not one and the same, the experience of shaping ESLA processes for biomedicine can help to develop an operational ESLA for ICT. One of the major lessons may be that ESLA is not the progressive accumulation of finalised insights and tools, but an ongoing process. Another major lesson is that the ESLA development is not the result of one single homogeneous and all-encompassing process, but requires the development and strengthening of specific niche-related processes with strong interaction among stakeholders.