Regional Profiles: 

West Midlands
Bretagne
Bremen
Stuttgart
South West UK
Basse-Normandie
Galicia
North West UK (this presentation exceeds the capacity of the webpage, please contact communication@errin.eu)
Flanders
South Sweden

ICT Profile Mapping

The NEM Technology Platform

http://www.nem-initiative.org/

Jean-Dominique Meunier, NEM Executive Director and Funding & Cooperative Program at Thomson R&D France, and Vice Chair of the Brittany/Pays de la Loire Images and Networks cluster, presented the NEM technology platform which has over 500 members from 30 countries. The key challenges for this ambition Technology Platform is drive convergence, innovation and standards and promote electronic content from all to all.

Presentation of ICT Call 3: Eric Badiqué, DG INFSO

Mr Badiqué’s presentation gave a wide overview of the development of ICT funding from FP4 to the current FP7 and highlighted the increasing importance of Technology Platforms and Joint Technology Initiatives such as ENIAC http://www.eniac.eu/ and http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/nanoelectronics/eniac_en.html and ARTEMIS http://www.artemis-office.org/dotnetnuke/ . The speaker also noted the approval of the Ambient Assisted Living technology and funding programme http://www.aal-europe.eu/ that will receive €150 million of FP7 funding matched by participating countries.

The speaker outlined the seven challenges of the FP7 ICT Cooperation Programme which receives around 20% of the funding available under the Cooperation strand of FP7. These seven challenges are backed up by a Future and Emerging Technologies opportunities that have both open and proactive calls (the proactive calls are still open)

This is the third ICT call under FP7, Call 1 had 318 projects retained, call 2 150 with call 3 still open to April 8^th. The fourth call will be published in November 2008 and preparation has started on the 2009/2010 Work Programme through an advisory group. The programme is likely to remain stable with the draft programme appearing in May/June. The Work Programme will announce three calls with deadlines in April 2009, November 2009 (which will include challenges 1 and 3) and April 2010.

Presentation of Competitiveness & Innovation Programme ICT-PSP (available on February 15th)

Jean-François Junger, DG INFSO, outlined the CIP programme and its links to the i2010 strategy (currently under review) http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/index_en.htm and the Manchester Declaration of 2005 which had four key objectives:

· no citizen left behind – inclusion by design - by 2010 all citizens, including socially disadvantaged groups, will have become major beneficiaries of eGovernment

· using ICT to make a reality of effective and efficient government - by 2010 eGovernment will be contributing to high user satisfaction with public services

· delivering high impact services designed around customers’ needs - by 2010 all public administrations across Europe will have the capability of carrying out 100% of their procurement electronically…

· widely available, trusted access to public services across the EU, through mutually recognised electronic identifications - by 2010 European citizens and businesses shall be able to benefit from secure means of electronic identification that maximise user convenience while respecting data protection regulations.

http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/egov2005conference/documents/proceedings/pdf/051124declaration.pdf

http://www.eu2007.pt/NR/rdonlyres/FAA18F0D-1519-4F85-BF08-950238146875/0/Ministerial_Declaration_Final_Version_120907.pdf

A fifth objective of e-participation was added by the European Parliament.

The 2008 call will have three instruments as in the 2007 call, pilot types A and B and thematic networks which involve a lump sum method of funding which has light administration but does not cover all the costs.

Only one pilot A project will be selected (these projects are discussed with national governments and usually only one project is submitted with a 100% success rate). In 2007 out of 19 project B proposals only 2 were selected and the in the thematic networks 2 proposals were selected from 7 proposals. The speaker’s advice was to read the work programme carefully.

The next call will be at the end of March 2008 with a deadline in early September with a budget of €45 million. The pilot A call will be linked to services directive 2009-2012 project and call B will be targeted on the effectiveness of public administrations linked to the EU’s target of reducing administrative burdens by 25% by 2012. Propsal are expected to share experience and be innovative and more experimental and DG INFSO do not want simple technology transfer projects. Two thematic network topics are expected – one of which will be inclusive e-government.

The speaker also mentioned that DG INFSO are now thinking of how the programme will continue beyond 2009 and they are open to ideas especially around e-government where there is a key debate around technology or take-up.

Presentation of Interreg IVC (this presentation exceeds the capacity of the webpage, please contact communication@errin.eu)

Olivier Baudelet, DG Regio outlined the Interreg IVC programme and its two priorities

· innovation and knowledge society

· environment and risk prevention

The second call is likely to be published in June 2008 despite the high number of proposals received in the first call that had its deadline in January.

Market Place:

MEITO – (Mission pour l'Electronique, l'Informatique, et les Télécommunications de l'Ouest)  
DOGAi (Data Mining on Grid for Ambient Intelligence)