Within ICIS there are four research clusters, organized by theme. These clusters are independent, but share a context that is defined by two main application domains: traffic management and crisis management. These domains define a broad range of applications to which the ICIS research results could make a valuable contribution.

November 2006 a new cluster was introduced in ICIS: the Integration and Demonstration (ID) Cluster. The intention of the ID Cluster is to further tighten the bonds between research results from the four research clusters. The goal of the ID Cluster is to stimulate, facilitate and establish integration of project results stemming from ICIS research clusters, valorization activities, industry partners and other ICIS activities by means of integrated proof-of-concept demonstrators, shared simulations and scenarios and shared experiments.

Specifically this means that the cluster aims at establishing added value on different levels. First, integrated demonstrators yield added value for demonstration of concepts and research results. An integrated demonstrator both illustrates the interrelations between various research activities, and shows how implementations of combined scientific concepts contribute in practical settings. The PR value is high, relative to individual demonstrators that are often specialized, and therefore cover a somewhat limited part of an application domain. Integrated demonstrators help to explain the merit of the research to external parties, that where not involved in the ICIS project. Even more, the demonstrators can be used as technology show cases in valorization activities, paving the way for practical (commercial) applications based on ICIS technology.

Second, the integration activities can create new research opportunities, e.g. by allowing researchers to conduct shared experiments. These cross-cluster activities will at some points break the theme-based organization of research clusters, yielding multidisciplinary collaborations for further research and proofs-of-concept.

Whereas scientific publications and “paper” deliverables are preserved for future use and knowledge transfer, knowledge on software and hardware deliverables tends to fade away as soon as key project members are no longer available. Therefore it is important to capture the knowledge about these deliverables, and to ensure transfer to future projects. The ID Cluster sets up  a repository of project assets for future use. Ultimately this repository results in an ICIS/Decis tool-bench.

Applied research projects of the new ICIS industry partners (Technolution, TRT-UK, Logica, Almende) have been assigned to the ID Cluster. Also the ID Cluster coordinates keeps track of the outcomes of the valorization projects, and ensures that results are properly captured, documented and made available to the ICIS community. For more information see the overview of the ID & Valorization projects.