EI Cluster - Research Roadmap
Introduction
The main objective of the Enterprise Interoperability Research Roadmap is to identify the main areas of research in the domain of Enterprise Interoperability. The Research Roadmap Version 5.0 was published on the 5th of March 2008 and can be found here.
Information about the revision process of the current version can be found here.
Research Roadmap Version 5.0
Background
In autumn 2005, the European Commission launched the definition of a research roadmap in the domain of Enterprise Interoperability. The Roadmap was intended to be an input to the European Union’s 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7, 2007-2013) consultation process.
Initially, the definition of the Roadmap was undertaken by four research projects in the European Commission’s Cluster on Enterprise Interoperability and two additional research projects contributing to the cluster’s work. These six projects (ATHENA,INTEROP, NO-REST, TrustCoM, CrossWork, and ECOLEAD) drafted the first version of the Roadmap, which was published by the European Commission on 21 December 2005.
In January 2006, the Commission broadened the Enterprise Interoperability roadmapping from a cluster activity to an activity of all interested stakeholders in Enterprise Interoperability research. In this context, the Commission invited public contributions to the Roadmap. The Commission also scheduled a number of open consultation workshops to stimulate exchange of ideas and discussions in Europe and beyond.
The Commission wished to ensure that roadmap development was fully inclusive and transparent. The final version of the Roadmap is meant to be a roadmap by all interested stakeholders, for all interested stakeholders.
The Roadmap, including all published draft versions, will remain a public document now and in future.
Distribution and usage of the Roadmap is unlimited, provided that the source is acknowledged.
The Roadmap
The paradigm for doing business electronically is rapidly changing. New scientific concepts and disciplines, business economic models as well as societal models that re-define the context for doing business are emerging. They challenge the established research areas.
Beyond this, Europe has a unique opportunity to develop new business models that are not only sustainable in classic business economic terms for the private agents, but that are also consistent with the European values that underpin our society. These business models will be based on increasingly interconnected and interdependent networks of enterprises interoperating as nodes in “innovation ecosystems”.
Against this backdrop of change and changing context (see the keynote speech of Gérald Santucci at the I-ESA’06 conference), and based on the results of the consultation workshops already held and available contributions, the Roadmap proposes a new orientation of Enterprise Interoperability research for FP7.
Specifically, the Roadmap gives recognition of and is guided by:
- The public interest dimension of Enterprise Interoperability as a strategic element of innovation ecosystems
- The needs of end-users of technologies and related services in enterprise networking, leading to research activities that have tangible impact above and beyond research
- SMEs as the backbone of European industry and the unique contribution of SMEs to innovation
- The need to open up the field of Enterprise Interoperability research by linking with other scientific domains and communities
- Reinforcing international co-operation from ideas generation to collaboration at project and possibly even at programme level
The new orientation is reflected in the Vision, the Grand Challenges, and the more detailed Research Challenges of the Roadmap.
Roadmap development
Development of the Roadmap as an open activity was coordinated by the European Commission. Successive cycles of the development work were facilitated by four experts in the field serving as voluntary editors. The four editors were Ms. Man-Sze Li (IC Focus), Dr. Ricardo Cabral (Universidade da Madeira), Prof. Guy Doumeingts (Adelior and Université Bordeaux I), and Prof. Keith Popplewell (Coventry University).
Written contributions to the Roadmap were strongly encouraged. All contributors are duly acknowledged in the final version of the Roadmap.
The Roadmap development schedule was as follows:
| Version | Date of publication | Coverage and focus |
| 1.0 | 21 December 2005 |
Outline Focus on Framework and Research Challenges |
| 2.0 | 15 March 2006 |
Revised overall Structure Focus on Vision and Grand Challenges |
|
6 June 2006 28 June 2006 (Annex II) |
Consolidation of all contributions and comments received Full draft Indicative Research Challenges (Annex I) Disposition of comments (Annex II) |
|
| 31 July 2006 |
Consolidation of all contributions and comments received Final version Indicative Research Challenges (Annex I) Disposition of comments (Annex II) |
Please use the links above to access available versions of the roadmap.
Open consultation
The Commission scheduled a number of open consultation workshops on the future direction of Enterprise Interoperability research. These workshops were timed to stimulate public discussion of successive draft versions of the Roadmap. The results of these discussions are used to enrich the next version(s) of the Roadmap.
The open consultation schedule was as follows:
| Workshop | Date | Location | Remarks |
| consultation workshop | 10 January 2006 | Brussels | Knowledge cafes on the technical, business-economic, and policy aspects |
| International consultation workshop | 21 March 2006 | Bordeaux | Exchange of ideas involving both international and European experts, organised during the I-ESA conference |
| Final consultation workshop | 16 June 2006 | Brussels | Final consultation meeting on the draft Roadmap |
In addition, roadmap development used parts of the results of the wider Industry workshop on business relations in European industry, which was held on 14 June 2006, in Brussels. This workshop was open to all end users of technologies and related services for enterprise networking, with a focus on the trends, visions, future scenarios and key issues for eBusiness.
Please use the link provided above to access the available information for the individual workshops, including workshop reports and presentation materials.
Further information
For more information, please contact Cristina Martinez (cristina.martinez at ec.europa.eu), European Commission, INFSODG Unit D5 “ICT for Enterprise Networking”.
Research Roadmap Version 4.0
Please find information about the Research Roadmap Version 4.0 below.
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