On October 24th, 25th and 26th, 2012, the participants of the A4Cloud project met in Bristol, UK, at the premises of HP Labs. This first plenary meeting represented the kick-off of the project; during this days, the consortium has stablished the starting point of the project and outlined the strategy to follow during the first year.

The project A4Cloud (Accountability for Cloud and other Future Internet Services), in which NICS participates, aims to produce solutions that enhance the accountability in cloud environments, extending it through the entire service value chain. The consortium of A4Cloud is formed by 13 members, leaded by Hewlett-Packard. 

The role of NICS in A4Cloud is mainly centered in the development of metrics for accountability-related concepts. Most of these concepts are subjective properties, difficult to measure, and therefore, represent a technical challenge to solve. In addition, NICS also provides its expertise in Trust Management and Security, as well as collaborates in dissemination activities.