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Brussels spends €7.5m to cheerlead RFID
Cash to Bridge the digital divide

By Jo Best

Published: Friday 14 July 2006

Despite conducting an ongoing investigation into the implications of RFID, Brussels has decided to spend €7.5m on promoting the technology.

The EU will use the money to fund a coalition of 31 vendors, universities, manufacturers and SMEs, which will research and promote RFID, based on the accepted EPC standard. The Building RFID solution for the Global Environment (Bridge) group says it will produce "training materials in the use of RFID, increased pilots and deployment" across several industries.

Among the verticals that Bridge will put its weight behind are healthcare, food manufacturing and retail, while the group will also look at how to use the track and trace technology to cut piracy and to track reusable assets such as pallets.

All research projects will be completed by mid-2009.

The EC, meanwhile, is conducting a consultation into the use of RFID to help the Commission come up with a plan to boost its take-up while, it says, still safeguarding the security of Europeans' data.

The EC is expected to reveal its final opinions on the matter this December.