Information and Communication Technologies

Directorate D: Converged Networks and Services

D1: Future Networks

Research activities in the area of Future Networks will deliver the next generation of ubiquitous and converged network infrastructures for communications and media services, supporting the Future Internet domain, new business models and a multiplicity of devices, networks, and service providers. New broadband mobile and networking technologies and systems will be integrated to enable seamless access to any services, any time, anywhere. The expected impacts of these research activities are:

• Global standards for a new generation of ubiquitous and extremely high capacity network and service infrastructures. These should support convergence, full interoperability, a significantly larger and diverse number of devices, new services and complex user requirements.
• Reinforced European industrial leadership in wired and wireless networks; developing stronger synergies between various sector actors and contributing to new business models that take advantage of convergence and full interoperability.
• New industrial/service opportunities in Europe, especially in the field of Internet technologies, where Europe has not yet reached a position commensurate to its technological potential.

See:

• The network of the future

D2: Networked Media Systems

The user as consumer, producer, manager of content and communication is central to all future developments in this area: users want to create, manage and share their own media, and socialise through the media. Users interact with content. Research emphasis is thus on user generated media, on unstructured distribution/delivery/storage of media and on variable distribution patterns between multiple users. This vision is supported by major technological, standardisation and business changes especially in the home network, and the nomadicity of the user and the content.

Future developments in this area will be further fostered by research on promising technologies, like advanced metadata, intuitive and creative tools for media production, content adaptation, 3D, virtual & augmented reality, AV sensors, mobile multiview and technologies for creating higher definition multimedia. At the same time, the new trends in user behaviour also deeply influence the development of novel applications such as online games, cooperative networking and living audio-visual networks, media search and retrieval.

See:

• Networked media

D3: Software & Service Architectures and Infrastructures

The unit's mission is to promote global competitiveness of European industry by supporting research activities and elaborating policies supporting the capability to competitively produce networked Software and Services in Europe.

The unit will facilitate the definition of standardized and efficient Software and Service Architectures leading to interoperability. Productivity and quality of software and service engineering will be increased through better methods, tools and platforms. Software and Service Infrastructures using Grid, Peer-to-Peer, web-technologies and networked computing and storage technologies will be developed.

See:

• Service and software architectures, infrastructures and engineering

D4: Networked Enterprise & Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

The unit's mission is to support the Challenge 1 "Pervasive and Trusted Network and Service Infrastructures" of the ICT theme of the FP7 Specific Programme "Co-operation" by promoting and managing research, development and innovation activities related to ICT in support in to the Networked Enterprise.

The unit manages a broad range of collaborative research contracts and assists companies and research institutions in building partnerships. We support the development of networked devices (including next generation RFIDs and other relevant technologies deemed to be crucial for the advent of the "Internet of Things"), of new models and technologies for enterprise interoperability, and of new paradigms of "digital business ecosystems" (basic theories and advanced software technologies, open source-based infrastructure, and formal languages and standards) for SMEs and regional development.

In addition, the unit co-ordinates the Interservice Co-ordination group on RFID, established in May 2005, as well as the entire range of activities that contribute to the development and monitoring of a European approach for a safe, secure, effective and privacy-friendly deployment of RFIDs, and that explore and assess the opportunities, challenges and policy options regarding the move to the "Internet of Things".

See:

• ICT in support of the networked enterprise

Directorate E: Digital Content and Cognitive Systems

E1: Interaction & Interfaces

See:

• Cognitive systems, interaction and robotics

E2: Technologies for Information Management

This unit promotes and manages research, development and innovation activities related to digital content, interactive media, and knowledge technologies. The unit supports a broad range of multinational projects and assists companies and research institutions in building partnerships. The unit also support the development of semantic-based technologies. The goal of this research is to capture human knowledge in a format that can be used by computers. In addition the unit is also entrusted with research on technologies intended to support the creative process and the management, personalisation, distribution and interactive consumption of digital content. Unit E2 manages 62 FP6 projects for a total of about 270 M€, and the Intelligent Content and Semantics objective of Challenge 4 - Digital Libraries and Content within the ICT theme of FP7.

See:

• Intelligent Content and Semantics

E3: Cultural Heritage &Technology Enhanced Learning

This unit supports research that

• explores leading-edge information and communication technologies for accessing, experiencing and preserving digital cultural and scientific resources.
• improves our understanding of how ICTs can help make learning more efficient.

Work on digital libraries deals with leading-edge information and communication technologies for accessing and experiencing cultural and scientific resources. The research is closely aligned with the work of cultural and memory organisations (such as archives, libraries and museums) and contributes to the i2010 Digital Libraries Initiative.

Work also investigates how digital resources created today will survive as the cultural and scientific knowledge of the future, through research into the preservation of digital content.

The work on technology-enhanced learning investigates how the use of ICTs can improve the learning process, in different learning situations, for individuals or groups of learners, drawing on various research disciplines (computing, technological, pedagogical, cognitive and psychological sciences).

See:

• Digital libraries and technology-enhanced learning

E5: Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics

The Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics unit deals with research on the construction of artificial cognitive systems than can interpret information (images, text, speech, video footage) and other forms of sensor data, and act purposefully and autonomously towards achieving goals. These systems should learn and develop through individual or social interaction with their environment. The work should provide an enabling technology that applies across domains such as image recognition, automated reasoning and decision support, robotics and automation, sensing and process control, and complex real-world systems. The work should furthermore borrow insights from the bio-sciences, and yield innovative insights about perception, understanding, interaction, learning and knowledge representation.

See:

• Cognitive systems, interaction and robotics

Directorate F: Emerging Technologies and Infrastructures

F1: Future & Emerging Technologies (FET) - Proactive

Science and technology exert a growing influence on society and economy. ICTs have are becoming pervasive in our daily lives; they enhance productivity in services, manufacturing, education and research and enable individuals and firms to actively contribute to and to take part in the emerging knowledge-based society.

In this context, it is the role of FET Proactive to expand the frontiers of knowledge and to increasingly contribute to the co-evolution of society and technology.

More precisely, FET Proactive acts as a pathfinder for the ICT programme by fostering novel non-conventional approaches, foundational research and supporting initial developments on long-term research and technological innovation in selected themes.

FET Proactive addresses evolutionary and revolutionary approaches through multidisciplinary cooperation. It investigates new future technology options in response to emerging societal and industrial needs and identifies new drivers for research.

See:

• FET–Proactive

F2:Future & Emerging Technologies (FET) – Open

FET-Open funds long term, visionary, collaborative and multidisciplinary, ICT relevant research of a foundational nature and bright ideas of high-risk / high-payoff; aiming at a breakthrough, a paradigm shift, or at the proof of a novel scientific principle.

FET-Open is a 'roots-up' approach for exploring promising visionary ideas that can contribute to challenges of long term importance for Europe. The scheme stimulates non-conventional targeted exploratory research cutting across all disciplines and acts as a harbour for exploring and nurturing new research trends and helping them mature in emerging research communities.

See:

• FET - Open

F3: GEANT & Infrastructures

This unit is responsible for the e-Infrastructures part of the FP7 Capacities programme, which supports an innovative way of conducting scientific research (referred to as e-Science) by the creation of a new environment for academic and industrial research in which virtual communities share, federate and exploit the collective power of European scientific facilities. Within a broader context of i2010, the ambition is to maintain the world-wide leadership of European e-Infrastructures and to make Europe attractive for the development of virtual research communities. The ICT-based infrastructures deployed will constitute an essential building block for the European Research Area (ERA). They will support the emergence of an innovation space combining the specific interests of the scientific communities and the economies of scale and providing cross disciplinary solutions.

See:

• e-Infrastructures

F4: New Infrastructure Paradigms and Experimental Facilities

Today’s communication infrastructure is more and more based on the Internet, which is the result of a long evolution. As such, it has a large legacy of deployed infrastructures, which strongly limits its capacity to cope with new requirements.

To face these emerging concerns, unit F4 has recently launched the FIRE "Future Internet Research and Experimentation" Initiative. FIRE supports long term research on new architectures and infrastructure paradigms in order to build the foundations for the future Internet; and, in parallel, will make available large scale experimental facilities, gradually built by federating existing and emerging testbeds.

The unit is also in charge of the network of Living Labs, which supports broad and early testing of emerging ICT products in real life environments.

The unit is also in charge of awareness creation measures on IPv6, and of a portfolio of FP6 support actions for increasing participation in the ICT programme beyond the 27 EU members, as well as for managing a group of Marie-Curie actions.

See:

• New Paradigms and Experimental Facilities

F5: Trust and Security

See:

• Secure, dependable and trusted infrastructures
• Critical Infrastructure Protection

Directorate G: Components and Systems

G1: Nanoelectronics

The unit's mission is to contribute to strengthening the competitiveness of the European industry (Treaty Art. 163) by further progressing nanoelectronic components and their integration in compact electronic systems as the physical foundation of the unfolding Information Society. This will be achieved by stimulating the development of a European Research Area in the domain of micro-, nanoelectronic components, within the execution of the 6th and 7 th Framework Programmes and by addressing all related regulatory or other supporting activities . The objectives are to advance miniaturisation in digital components and complex digital Systems on Chip ('More Moore'); to master diversification targeting non-digital applications, heterogeneous integration in Systems-on-Chip or Systems-in-a-Package ('More than Moore') and to prepare for the technology generation beyond the CMOS scaling limits ('beyond CMOS').

See:

• Next generation nanoelectronics components and electronics integration

G2: Microsystems

See:

• Micro/nanosystems

G3: Embedded Systems & Control

The unit's mission is to become the focal point of Embedded Systems research in Europe. The vision is to overcome the barriers and challenges facing this emerging area to enable embedded computing systems to become a pillar of the information and communication age. The rapid pace of evolution of computing systems is continually being spurred on by Moore's Law. While this has led to ICT being available everywhere, there are still many challenges to be faced in the design of ever more complex computing systems.

A major area of activity for the unit has been the creation of ARTEMIS, the Embedding Computing Systems Initiative. This is a bold and ambitious Joint Undertaking between the Commission, member states and Artemisia which represents the research community and industry (including SMEs).

The research activities of the unit are centred around three main technical domains. Embedded Systems Design focuses on theory, methods and tools for improving hardware-software design, productivity and reliability. Computing Systems explores novel architectures for multi-core computing, parallel programming paradigms and reconfigurable computing. Networked embedded systems research focuses on systems of co-operating objects including wireless sensor networks, middleware and control of complex systems.

The unit currently has 24 research projects with a total funding of 65 million euros in Embedded Systems Design and Computing Systems. A further 22 proposals with a total funding of 47 million euros are currently under negotiation in the Networked Embedded Systems area.

See:

• Embedded systems design
• Computing systems
• Networked Embedded and Control Systems

G4: ICT for Transport

G4 co-finances research in ICT-based road transport technologies (also called eSafety technologies) aiming at a safer, more efficient road transport system with less harmful effects on the environment. In the first two calls under FP7, G4 is focusing on Intelligent Vehicles and Mobility Services for People and Goods. As it is used here, the term 'Intelligent Vehicles' comprises stand-alone in-car systems as well as the so-called 'Co-operative Systems' where cars communicate with cars and/or the transport infrastructure. Mobility Services cover road traffic and network management. As regards policy-driven activities, the unit is running the Intelligent Car Initiative. It aims at a faster deployment of safer, smarter and cleaner vehicles to tackle the three top societal challenges posed by road transport: road safety, network congestion and environmental pollution. The Initiative uses the eSafety Forum for consensus building among stakeholders, FP7 for targeted research projects and eSafetyAware! for awareness raising campaigns on intelligent car technologies. Currently, the Initiative drives forward the implementation of the pan-European in-vehicle emergency call (eCall) and supports an information campaign on ESC called "ChooseESC!"

See:

• ICT for the intelligent vehicles and mobility services
• ICT for Cooperative Systems

G5: Photonics

Photonics, as Pierre Aigrain defined it in 1967, is the science of the harnessing of light. Photonics encompasses the generation of light, the detection of light, the management of light through guidance, manipulation, and amplification, and most importantly, its utilisation for the benefit of mankind.

Photonics is a very diverse technology. It covers a broad range of the spectrum, from ultraviolet, through visible light and infrared, and up to the millimetre and terahertz range. It involves a wide range of disciplines including advanced materials and metamaterials to micro-optics, nanophotonics, biophotonics and quantum optics.

The importance of Photonics can be seen from the multitude of application sectors where it is increasingly seen to be driving innovation: information, communication, imaging, lighting, displays, manufacturing, life sciences and health care, and safety and security. In these areas Photonics is offering new and unique solutions where today's conventional technologies are approaching their limits in terms of speed, capacity and accuracy.

The unit's mission is to make Europe the best in Photonics research and the best in translating those results into real innovation. Our aim is to be a catalysing stimulus in the formation of the needed critical mass at European level as well as at national level.

See:

• Photonic components and subsystems

Directorate H: ICT addressing Societal Challenges

H1: ICT for Health

eHealth services provide a unique set of tools for overcoming many of the challenges that health delivery systems are facing today, through the development of new patient-centred health systems, which meet the complex needs of our changing society.

For two decades now, the E.C. has contributed to the improvement of healthcare through research & development programmes on new tech­nologies, and through the promotion of newly developed systems and services. One of the key challenges is to meet the increasing needs of healthcare in our ageing society.

The EU ICT for Health funds research projects developing eHealth systems and services focusing on prevention, personalisation and patient empowerment. The E.C. has devoted a significant part of the FP7 budget to ICT tools for sustainable healthcare systems through three objectives: Personal health systems, Patient Safety and Virtual Physiological Human.

A number of political initiatives to support and encourage a greater dialogue among healthcare administrations in the Member States are also in place. In 2004 the eHealth Action Plan was adopted to calls on Member States and on the E.C. to accelerate deployment and speed up delivery of the benefits of eHealth to individuals, our society at large and to the wider economy.

A number of targeted actions have been set to overcome obstacles to the efficient realisation of this plan and reinforce the current policy activities: the launch of large scale pilots, eHealth being one of them, a recommendation on eHealth inter­operability, the launch of two calls (€170m) in research funding for new activities, an initiative to accelerate the creation of innovative eHealth markets and the involvement in two major conferences 'World of Health IT' Vienna (October 2007) and the Ministerial eHealth conference in Slovenia (May 2008).

See:

• Sustainable and personalised healthcare

H2: ICT for Government and Public Services

In the new Work Programme for 2009-2010 of the 7th Research Framework Programme eGovernment will be represented by the theme 'ICT for governance and policy modelling' with the expected following impact:

• Improved empowerment and engagement of individuals, groups and societies in policy making processes. Increased trust of the citizens through transparency and feedback of their contributions.
• More efficient collection of feedback to continuously improve governance.
• Improved prediction of impacts of policy measures, with increased contribution and involvement of individuals and societies, and based on intelligent and optimised use of vast public sector knowledge resources.
• Strengthened competitive position of European industry in the fields of cooperation platforms, optimisation, simulation and visualisation tools.

See:

• Consultation Workshop on ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling

H3: ICT for Inclusion

See:

• Independent living and inclusion

H4: ICT for Sustainable Growth

See:

• ICT for Environmental Management and Energy Efficiency