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The Panel's five-year assessment of the European Strategic Programme for Research in Information Technologies (ESPRIT) is based on an examination of the many documentary materials supplied by the Commission, including the 1996 report of the ESPRIT Review Board produced under the chairmanship of Professor Umberto Columbo. It has also interviewed senior Commission staff concerned with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policies. In addition, the Panel sought the opinions of national delegates to ESPRIT.
The review has focused on activities carried out under the European Community's Third Framework Programme, which ran from 1991 to 1994, and during the initial period of the Fourth Framework Programme, up to early 1996. This assessment incorporates the final evaluation under the Third Framework Programme.
The Panel has especially focused on some specific features of the present ESPRIT programme and, in agreement with the Commission, on strategic issues affecting ICT research and technology development in the Fifth Framework Programme. It has arrived at a significant number of constructive recommendations that reflect the Panel's view of the crucial role of ICT and of the importance of the Information Society. It hopes that the Commission will endorse this judgement and assign a budget to the future ICT programme in the Fifth Framework Programme which is at least equivalent to the present one; that is, about one third of the overall Framework Programme Budget.
Community funding of IT R&D begun in 1984 (1). During the first decade, the programme has been essentially aimed at closing the gap between Europe's information technologies industries and those of the US and Japan.
The strategy changed radically with the launching of the Fourth Framework Programme in 1994 which recognised the increasingly critical role played by IT in the competitiveness of all industry. The new IT Programme:
The Panel's report is written against the background of rapid change in the importance, development and use of ICT. The moment is opportune to present some new ideas enabling Europe to adapt to at least four key developments:
This report urges radical changes in the organisation and design of ICT programmes to enable the EU to respond better to these developments.
Two priorities have been identified and addressed in the Panel's recommendations:
4.1. The need to merge the ACTS, Telematics and ESPRIT programmes
The Panel has come to the conclusion that the objectives of these separate programmes would be better achieved if they were brought together in a single programme that covers all aspects of ICT required by the Information Society.
Given the fact that ESPRIT operates on the basis of annual work programmes, the Panel believes that many of the changes in this direction can be implemented on a step by step basis during the remainder of the Fourth Framework Programme. This will help to smooth the transition to the Fifth which begins in 1999.
An attempt to define a timetable for the programmes' merger would have been outside our terms of reference. But we believe it would be helpful to establish a joint co-ordination committee between the three programmes to prepare for the event. We are aware that we are advocating a profound change which needs careful planning and, above all, avoidance of administrative obstacles to what would be a significant improvement in Europe's programmes for ICT.
4.2 The need to achieve much swifter commercial applications of research results
The panel has concluded that ESPRIT's programme objectives have been satisfactorily accomplished. Among other things, it has made a vital contribution to promoting cross-border collaboration between small and large industries, universities and research institutes.
However, the programme could be even more effective if - in addition to activities such as best practice, first-user actions and assessments - better mechanisms were established for ensuring the commercial exploitation of results. A number of actions could be envisaged, including:
The Panel's findings look back to the five years of the assessment period and forward to the needs of the future programme.
5.1. Assessment Period 1991-1996
5.1.1. Programme Objectives: Time to Add The Needs of Society At Large
The Panel agreed that ESPRIT's objectives have been relevant and fully endorsed its new focus on responding to the needs of business and industry as a means of boosting competitiveness and employment. However, there is now an additional need to broaden the objectives to include the needs of society at large which must find their response in the evolving infrastructures, services and applications of the Information Society. Having assessed the programme's performance against its objectives, we would draw particular attention to:
5.1.2 Programme Efficiency: Relevant Effort, Still Some Shortcomings
The Panel considers that the management as a whole has made great efforts to raise the programme's performance and efficiency. In addition, worthwhile changes have been introduced to make the Programme more flexible - a feature which must be characteristic of the Fifth Framework Programme.
However, the search for flexibility has turned on attempts to satisfy the specific needs of proposers and this, paradoxically, has made certain aspects of the programme very complex (e.g. variety of actions and information packages, different types of proposal submissions).
The Panel also wishes to draw attention to the more general problem of administrative delays which characterise the Framework Programme as a whole, particularly in concluding contract negotiations and making payments.
5.2 The Future of ESPRIT: Five Challenges for the Fifth Framework Programme
The Panel has identified five areas that must be addressed in the Fifth Framework Programme:
5.2.1 Programme Strategy and Design: Three Into One Will Go
Currently, there are many overlaps between ESPRIT, ACTS and Telematics which need to be turned into synergies. This could best be achieved by merging these three ICT programmes into one. Within this single programme a proper balance must be struck between development of close-to-market innovative applications and long-term research.
The Panel's detailed recommendations envisage groupings of applications and technologies within one ICT programme. This would have two clear purposes: to stimulate innovative applications of emerging technologies and to satisfy the requirement for strategic and long-term research.
5.2.2 Programme Management and Evaluation: In Need of Overhaul
Every assessment of the Framework Programme and of its constituent elements as well as a survey of national opinion undertaken by the Panel confirms that the programme management has become more efficient. Nevertheless, the Panel supports the widespread view that there is still considerable room for improvement.
Oversubscription is a familiar problem with Community-supported initiatives and it imposes heavy costs and burdens on the proposers. It is important to resolve the difficulty because it causes frustration and dissatisfaction and could prompt dynamic companies to abandon their interest. The limited introduction in ESPRIT of the two-step procedure has proved an extremely useful attempt to deal with the situation. The Panel recommends extending it to the whole programme.
The Panel's detailed recommendations seek to make the future ICT programme an efficient instrument for Europe's ICT community in which delays would be cut by a half, and project performances much more strictly evaluated.
5.2.3 The Information Society: ICT as a Tool for Economic Growth, Social Cohesion and Personal Development
As the Information Society evolves, key aspects of political, economic and social life will be increasingly permeated by the use of ICT and its applications. If Europe handles the transition in a timely fashion, it will significantly strengthen its competitiveness in global markets and cash in on faster economic growth, more employment and a better quality of life.
By contrast, if it continues to move more slowly than some of its competitors, then our countries will find it very difficult to maintain, let alone increase competitiveness across the broad range of their economies.
A very serious obstacle to the realisation of the Information Society is that European businesses and individual citizens are lagging far behind the US and some other countries in embracing ICT and in exploiting the opportunities it offers for both corporate and personal growth. The need to integrate the use of ICT into education and training is paramount, both to establish computer literacy and as a tool for learning.
The Panel's detailed recommendations seek to ensure that the future ICT programme is a key pillar in the construction of the Information Society. It should support projects which help to deliver public goods serving citizens' needs, which act as a catalyst for user-friendly applications and which foster a growing market for the new technologies.
5.2.4 Competitiveness and Exploitation of Research: The Former Grows if the Latter Succeeds
Innovative development and innovative use of ICT has to be both visionary and focused if Europe is to maintain and enhance its competitiveness in the global market place. Competitiveness creates employment and both can be secured if Europe nurtures the development and take-up of a world-class ICT that both produces and uses ICT to offer constantly improved applications and services.
Constant improvement would result from a better commercial exploitation of the results of ESPRIT projects. In cases where an attempt is made, windows of opportunity are frequently missed because the process has been far too slow to adjust to rapid changes in the market place. The Panel believes that the existing eligibility criteria, combined with various practices, has sometimes led to the creation of somewhat artificial teams lacking clear commercial objectives. Relaxing some of the criteria and insisting on common commercial objectives would certainly improve the situation.
The Panel's detailed recommendations aim at more benchmarking of ICT-based competitiveness in the future programme, measures to ensure a shorter time-to-market, encouragement of projects which have an entrepreneurial final objective and supporting measures to help commercial exploitation of results.
5.2.5 SMEs and Start-up Companies: Finding the Right Responses to Particular Needs.
Small and medium-sized enterprises account for around 80% of Europe's employment. ESPRIT is well able to provide specific support to SMEs and start-up companies, but its full potential is not being exploited.
Even though the SMEs represent 30% of the participants, the programme would benefit from more simplicity to encourage SMEs that have made serious efforts to develop commercial ICT applications. Too few awards are made to SMEs to enable the sector to achieve the commercial opportunities open to it.
The Panel's detailed recommendations seek to endow the future ICT programme with procedures which are more user-friendly for SMEs, structures which are more supportive, funding rules which are more flexible and special measures for encouraging risk taking and for helping start-up companies.
Roberto Carneiro (Chairman), P
President of Group Forum, SGPS and Professor at the Catholic University of Portugal (Education Department)
Andrew Boswell, UK
Managing Director, Enterprise Technology and ICL Technical Director
Jean-Michel Chassériaux, F
Managing Director of ERCIM and Director of International Relations at INRIA.
Bernt Ericson, S
Vice-President, Research and Technology, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson.
Roberto Galimberti, I
Chairman and CEO of Etnoteam.
Hartmut Raffler, D
Senior Director, Siemens Corporate Technology Division.
Josep Maria Vila Solanes, E
General Manager of INDRA Group, President of INDRA SSI and President of INDRA SCA.
Herbert Wotke, A
Managing Director of the Austrian Industrial Research Promotion Fund (FFF).
Footnotes
(1) Council decision 84/30 (28.02.84) established ESPRIT as part of the First Framework Programme (1984 - 1988) with a budget of ECU 1,500 million. Council decision 88/279 (11.04.88) continued ESPRIT into the Second Framework Programme with a budget of ECU 3,200 million and Council decision 91/2328 (15.07.91) renewed ESPRIT as part of the Third Framework Programme with a budget of ECU 2.035 million. Council decision 94/802 (23/11/94) established a new programme, called Information Technology Programme, as part of the Fourth Framework Programme with a budget of ECU 1,911 million.
| Browse the Executive Summary or download the complete report | ||
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