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The growth and spread of the information society continues to accelerate. The penetration into work and home is greater than could have been anticipated even two years ago at the time of the conception of the IT programme. The recent impact of electronic commerce is just one example. New concepts and paradigms are emerging.
The way we work and the way we spend our free time is changing. Our working environment is becoming globalised and mobilised. The telephone, fax machine, personal computer and Internet connection allow us to talk to people in a neighbouring continent as easily as to those in a neighbouring office. The mobile phone and lap-top computer are helping to free us from the limitations of the fixed workplace.
New services are emerging as old ones are transformed and updated. Whether in transport, financial services, environmental monitoring, healthcare or media and entertainment, information and communications technologies are touching our daily lives like never before.
At the same time the implementation of the EU's action plan on the information society is well underway. The urgency of the questions surrounding societal impact has been heightened by the completion of the interim report of the High Level Experts Group, the first annual report of the IS Forum, and the Green Paper "Living and Working in the Information Society: People First".
Esprit is responding to this rapid evolution, and is ensuring that its programme remains firmly focused on user needs. This is reflected in the way the programme has been developed, in the use of supporting actions alongside R&D projects and in the extensive consultations carried out with users and suppliers. The results of this dialogue over the past year have been incorporated into this updated version of the work programme, the second since the launch of the new specific programme in 1994.
The possibilities offered by the technologies and the requirements from the construction of the global information society make it necessary to adopt multidisciplinary development processes. Therefore in conjunction with the 1997 work programme it is planned to introduce, in addition to the domain-oriented calls, thematic calls drawing on tasks across the domains.
The actions through which the programme will be implemented are grouped under two headings:
Certain preparatory, support and transfer activities apply to all domains within Esprit, while others are specific to particular domains. Those which apply to all domains have a task number of their own, commencing with zero, while the activities which are domain-specific are listed immediately after each domain heading.
The programme includes a number of focused clusters in which a group of RTD projects and related preparatory support and transfer activities are bound together by a common well-defined industrial goal. Focused clusters cover the areas of the Open Microprocessor Systems Initiative, High-Performance Computing and Networking, Technologies for Business Processes, and Integration in Manufacturing. They draw on a number of disciplines and technology areas and involve a wide range of organisations.
To reflect the dynamic nature of information technology, the Esprit work-programme is implemented as a rolling plan revised annually in the light of evolving needs and on the basis of broad consultation. Since its first publication, and as a result of this process, certain tasks have been removed, others added, and others modified. The numbers of the removed tasks have not been replaced. New tasks are assigned new task numbers, so that the number of a task is unique throughout the duration of the programme.
Two types of calls for project proposals are issued in the Esprit programme:
Domain-specific calls, as the name suggests, are calls for proposals within a specific domain that address a specific part of the programme. They may cover R&D and also domain-specific preparatory, support and transfer measures. For each call, explicit reference will be made to the tasks of the work programme for which proposals are invited, together with deadlines and details of the evaluation procedure.
Thematic calls address themes cutting across tasks from different domains. Four themes have so far been identified which appear to be suited for such calls: information access and interfaces, IT for mobility, learning and training in industry, and electronic commerce. The thematic calls have been announced in the guide to calls in 1997 , and specific information provided in the document Esprit Thematic Calls. The evaluation and follow-up of the proposals selected will be conducted in conjunction with the Telematics Applications and ACTS programmes.
Most tasks are called at specific calls, and others can be continuously submitted. The continuous submission scheme is used for many of the preparatory, support and transfer measures and for the Long-Term Research task Openness to Ideas.
The evaluation of proposals is typically conducted in either one or two steps. With a two-step evaluation, initial short proposals are invited for fast evaluation. The short proposals are evaluated, and those consortia whose proposals are selected will be requested to submit a full proposal. Full proposals will then be evaluated in a second evaluation and selection step. Each call specifies whether an evaluation will be single-step or two-step.
In the evaluation and selection of proposals addressing aspects of information security, the Commission will consult the Senior Officials Group (SOG-IS) in conformance with Council Decision 92/242/EEC. This applies in particular to selected proposals which may involve the use of cryptographic algorithms. In projects on information security, the national security and law enforcement concerns of member states are to be taken into account.
For all programmes, adequate consultation will be maintained to ensure proper coordination and information exchange. Specific measures for the programmes below, which are closely related to the concerns and activities of the Esprit programme, are as follows:
Close coordination with the ACTS programmes relates mainly to the areas of multimedia systems and technologies and high-speed networking. Where possible evaluations in the two programmes will be coordinated. There may be some synchronised calls in relevant areas.
The area covered by Telematics Applications is significantly more downstream in the R&D value chain than much of what is covered by the Esprit IT programme. Coordination between the programmes is primarily aimed at ensuring satisfactory transfer of results from Esprit to Telematics Applications, and in feeding back requirements to Esprit. In addition where possible evaluations in the two programmes are synchronised, in particular in the areas of multimedia, high speed networking, language engineering and information engineering.
There is a close relationship between Esprit and the Industrial and Materials Technologies (IMT) programme in the area of information technologies in industrial production systems, as well as, in certain respects, in microsystems. Synchronised calls and evaluations are where possible used to ensure coordination in these areas. In addition the areas covered by IMT are in general, as for Telematics Applications, downstream relative to Esprit, and further coordination ensures the transfer of results from Esprit and the feedback of results and requirements from IMT.
Studies of the socio-economic impact of the activities of the programmes, carried out both within RTD projects and as independent activities, are carried out in close cooperation with the programme on Targeted Socio-economic Research and provide, in turn, input to this programme. Projects may involve socio-economic institutes whose role would be to identify the socio-economic impact of the developed technologies within the projects.
The Commission will ensure that an optimal flow of information is maintained between Esprit and the Human Frontier Science programmes taking into account the areas of common interest. A subvention will be made available to the HFSP for the whole duration of the Esprit programme. Depending on the progress and evaluation of HFSP 96, adaptations may be made to the participation of the Commission in close harmony with the evolving contributions of the member states.
There will be continuing coordination based on regular consultation to ensure complementarity of activities in the IT programme and in the programme on Cooperation with Third Countries and International Organisations.
The URL of this document is /esprit/src/wp97int.htm
It was last updated on 9 June 1997, and is maintained by esprit@dg3.cec.be