3. Information & Communication Technologies

Injecting over €9bn to boost
European Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs)
Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) are critical to
creating jobs and improving quality
of life across Europe.
Although the ICT sector is itself worth 6-
8% of the EU’s GDP, their importance goes
well beyond that - ICTs are also vital to:
• meeting the globalization challenge by
boosting innovation, creativity and
competitiveness throughout the
economy;
• delivering cutting-edge science in all
scientific and technological areas;
• making Europe’s large public sector
more efficient, and modernising sectors
ranging from education to energy;
• tackling social challenges, improving
quality of life and meeting the challenge
of an ageing society.
Europe must therefore master these
technologies to remain competitive and
safeguard its quality of life, which is why
ICT research is one of the key themes of
the EU's Seventh Framework Programme
(FP7) for Research and Technological
Development, which will fund research
across Europe from 2007-2013 (see box).
Tackling the Challenges
EU research funding is deliberately
focused on seven key Research
Challenges to ensure Europe
becomes a world leader in ICTs.
Three Challenges aim at industrial
leadership in key ICT sectors, while four
are driven by socio-economic targets.
Within each Challenge, the Programme
will fund an array of collaborative

1. Network and Service Infrastructures (€585m)
2. Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics (€193m)
3. Components, systems, engineering (€434m)
4. Digital Libraries & Content (€203m)
5. Sustainable and personalised healthcare (€174m)
6. Mobility, Sustainability, Energy Efficiency (€159m)
7. Independent Living & Inclusion (€73m)
Future & Emerging Technology (€185m)
Horizontal support actions (€15m)
The ICT Theme's budget for the first two years of FP7 will be just over €2 billion.
The e-Infrastructures budget (not shown) is an additional ~€600m over the entire Framework
Programme. All figures are draft, and are in millions of euros.
research projects, each bringing together
public and private organisations across
Europe to help the EU pool its scientific,
industrial, financial and human resources.
Small and medium-sized enterprises are
actively encouraged due to their vital role
in innovation and economic growth.
Research partnerships will also be forged
with advanced and developing countries,
supporting European competitiveness and
helping international development.
1: Laying Tomorrow's
Networks
Tomorrow's information infrastructure
will connect together billions of people,
countless organisations and literally
trillions of devices - PCs, mobile phones,
servers, sensors and much more.
This infrastructure will underpin economic
development in all EU regions, and will be
at the origin of new services and business
opportunities throughout the economy.
Mastering the development of this
infrastructure is essential to reaping the
benefits of ICTs in areas as diverse as
manufacturing and home healthcare. It is
an immense challenge to make this
network and service infrastructure more
robust, resilient and secure.
2: Smarter Machines,
Better Services
Providing the next generations of ICTs
with more intelligence will create many
new opportunities in a range of sectors.
Research here will focus on developing ICT
systems that are more aware of what is
going on around them, and will be able to
learn, reason and interact with people
more naturally. These robots and
"smart artefacts" will thus better
serve our needs in the real world.
Instead of forcing users to learn
how to use the machines, the
machines will learn how best to
work with us. Applications in
areas as diverse as manufacturing,
education, healthcare, public
safety, environmental protection
and service robotics are expected.
3: The Nuts and Bolts of
Tomorrow's Products
European firms are currently among the
world's leaders in supplying electronic
components to industries as varied as
transport, telecoms, consumer electronics
and medical equipment. Europe also
enjoys leading positions in technologies
such as photonics, plastic electronics,
flexible displays and micro/nanosystems.
Europe is well positioned in the global race
to develop these technologies and to
embed intelligence into products, services
and processes. This Challenge will support
European industry and academic
researchers in this strategic field and
ensure that these new technologies meet
the needs of European business & society.
4: Digital Content &
Learning
ICTs enable us to access, create and share
content widely. They also allow us to learn
better, and to preserve and enrich our
cultural heritage.
"Instead of us
learning how to
use machines,
they will learn to
work with us
"
i2010 FLAGSHIP INITIATIVES
Delivering the Information Society requires more than just research. In four critical areas,
Flagship Initiatives have been launched under the Commission's i2010 initiative to
underline the full potential of ICTs to improve quality of life in Europe:
• European Digital Library: making Europe's diverse cultural and scientific
heritage (books, films, maps, photographs, music, etc.) easier and more interesting to
use online for work, leisure and study. It builds on Europe's rich heritage, combining
multicultural and multilingual environments with technological advances and new
business models;
• Intelligent Car: ICTs for smarter, safer and cleaner vehicles, helping reach Europe's
goal of cutting road fatalities in half by 2010;
• ICT for Independent Living in an Ageing Society: improving social inclusion
by providing people, particularly the elderly, with ICT tools to support their health,
well-being and mobility. The new applications will also help to substantially improve
ICT take-up across Europe;
• ICT for sustainable development: tackling the unsustainable trends which are
undermining economic growth and reducing quality of life for all Europeans. ICTbased
environmental monitoring and management tools will optimise the use of
natural resources and will play a key role in attaining sustainable development.
Every day, however, brings us face to face
with the shortcomings of current
technologies, and the way they are used.
We are often overwhelmed with
information. We still have limited
eLearning tools. And we
are still just discovering
the opportunities that
ICTs offer for developing
our cultural assets and
reinforcing our creative
potential.
Research under this
Challenge will therefore
help develop digital
libraries, enabling us to
easily create, interpret,
use and preserve cultural and scientific
resources, and revolutionise learning
through adaptive and intuitive ICTs.
5: A Healthcare
Revolution
Sustaining Europe's healthcare systems is
a major challenge, with healthcare already
accounting for around 9% of EU GDP.
The health sector is information intensive,
so e-Health is emerging as an important
new industry, with e-Health spending
predicted to account for around 5% of the
total health budget by 2010.
Research under this Challenge will
improve the quality, availability and
effectiveness of healthcare by developing
ICTs to improve everything from
healthcare administration to biomedical
imaging, from personalised, home-based
care to the creation of new medicines.
6: Environment, Energy
and Transport
With traffic congestion rising, 40,000
people dying on the roads annually and
fuel consumption and air pollution
continuing to grow, Europe faces serious
challenges on its roads. Air pollution and
climate change, moreover, are not
Europe's only environmental challenges.
ICTs can help improve safety, optimise
natural resource use, design smarter and
cleaner processes, and predict and manage
the environment. Research in this
Challenge therefore covers a lot of ground.
'Intelligent car' research will make
transport systems safer and more energy
efficient, as well as support Europe's
automotive industries, while new 'mobility
services' will ensure transport resources
are used more efficiently.
Infrastructure and manufacturing plants,
such as power networks, chemical plants
and oil pipelines, will also be made more
resilient, secure and energy efficient, while
new systems to monitor and react to
environmental risks will be developed.
7: Access for All
While ICTs offer many advantages to
European society, their impact will not be
fully felt until all Europeans can use them.
But European society is changing – the
proportion of population over 65 will
increase from 20% to 28% between now
and 2025, and by 2050 the old-age
dependency ratio will have risen by over
160% from the 1985 level.
"we suffer
information
overload because
it has become
easier to send
information than
it is to use it
"
EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS AND JOINT TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES
The EU’s own Framework Research Programmes can only ever be a small fraction of all
research funding – public and private – across the EU. With the cost of cutting-edge ICT
research spiralling upwards, research must be better coordinated across Europe, which is
why in many cases the main industrial and academic research stakeholders in certain
fields have formed European Technology Platforms and Joint Technology Initiatives.
European Technology Platforms participants define, at the European level, a
common strategic research agenda, and address technological and non-technological
issues for implementing it.
Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs), on the other hand, are long-term public-private
research partnerships. Often resulting from the work of a Technology Platform, each JTI
combines private sector investment and national and European public funding, including
grant funding from the Research Framework Programme and loan finance from the
European Investment Bank.
ICTs can help meet this challenge:
extending the time elderly people can
spend living independently in their
preferred environment, for example, and
providing a new generation of products
and services to help integrate people at
risk of exclusion. Such
systems both address
pressing societal needs
and offer major
opportunities for
European industry.
The ICTs themselves,
however, have to change,
becoming more userfriendly,
personalised and
accessible to all.
Beyond the Challenges
Future and Emerging
Technologies
As well as addressing today's challenges,
the ICT Theme also looks further ahead,
complementing the Challenges with longterm,
high-risk, ‘purpose-driven’ research.
Known as Future and Emerging
Technologies (FET), the idea is to support
pioneering research with a high potential
for significant breakthroughs.
This is the research 'at the fringes' that
may become tomorrow’s radical
innovations - the sort of work that opens
up entirely new markets.
FET will therefore explore radical
interdisciplinary avenues, delivering
proofs-of-concept for new options and
demonstrating new possibilities. It will
strengthen Europe's science and
technology base in new and emerging
areas, refine new visions to the point
where they attract industrial investment,
and establish new interdisciplinary
research communities within European
science and industry.
eInfrastructures
ICT-based research infrastructures – from
supercomputers to genetic databanks and
high-speed networks - are essential to high
quality research.
Yet they are increasingly expensive to
maintain and develop. Europe must
therefore get better use out of what it has,
and pool its resources to provide its
scientists and engineers with world-class
facilities.
Hence the Capacities programme,
where the e-Infrastructures strand
will oversee the improvement of
dedicated digital infrastructures
that allow European researchers
to work together more effectively.
Powerful new software techniques
- crucial to tackling the biggest
challenges facing European
science and industry in areas as
diverse as manufacturing and
drug design – will also be
developed.
Work in this area to date has already led to
GÉANT, the world's most powerful
research network.
Want to Know More?
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/
"the old-age
dependency ratio
will grow to 160%
over the 1985
level by 2050
" "Europe must
pool its
resources to
provide its
scientists and
engineers with
world-class
facilities
"