The FASTeTEN project held its seventh project management board (PMB) meeting in Budapest, Hungary, on 26-27 February 2009. The meeting was hosted by the Electronic Government Centre of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office. The meeting was attended by project partners from Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

The meeting discussed the future development of the project, as it moves towards the full launch of the FAST (Fournisseur d’Accès Sécurisés Transactionnels — Secure Access Gateway) pilots in Sheffield, England, and Valencia, Spain. The full pilot phase is scheduled to begin in month 30 of the project — June 2009 — and the project partners confirmed that the launch of the pilot phase is on track and proceeding as planned at the outset of the project.

The meeting in Hungary was also an opportunity to discuss the project with potential future deployers of FAST. One objective of FASTeTEN is to assess the feasibility of FAST in different contexts outside FAST’s home country of France. The project is actively involving potential future deployers, who are monitoring the pilot deployments, and have an option to launch their own deployments of FAST after the conclusion of the FASTeTEN project. During the PMB meeting, FAST was presented to several Hungarian ministries and agencies, including the Health Ministry.

Also participating in the meeting was e@SY Connects, which is an organisation working in South Yorkshire, England, with the objective of connecting local public services, such as employment advice services, online health information and medical appointments, and educational services. e@SY Connects is following the FASTeTEN project as a potential deployer.