News and Events
Events:
International IFIP Working Conference on Enterprise Interoperability (IWEI 2011) - The event's theme is “Interoperability and Future Internet for next-generation enterprises” Details under: http://www.ics.kth.se/iwei/IWEI/Home.html
European Robotics Forum, formerly known as the EURON/EUROP Annual Meeting. After the success of the first EURON/EUROP Annual Meeting in March 2010, in San Sebastian, Spain with more than 240 participants from academia and industry, EURON and EUROP will again organise a joint event – this time under a new brand: European Robotics Forum. Don’t miss the opportunity to meet your European partners, co-competitors, friends and colleagues, and save the date in your calendar! The European Robotics Forum is enabled by the euRobotics Coordination Action, funded under FP7. For details, see: http://www.robotdalen.se/English/Calendar/2011/April/Robotdalen-hosts-EUROPEURON-conference/
World Manufacturing Forum 2011: - Decision makers will meet in Cernobbio in the wonderful surroundings of the Lake Como, to discuss emerging trends in national industrial policy and within globally-operating manufacturing sectors. They will focus on the role of manufacturing towards a more sustainable economic growth in the face of pressing global environmental issues and resource-constrained competitiveness as well as on the role and requirements of national industrial policy in that context. The World Manufacturing Forum will not just be a stand-alone event, it aims to be a long-term platform for debate among decision-makers focused upon the most relevant topics surrounding the manufacturing sector. Details under: www.worldmanufacturingforum.org
8th International Product Lifecycle Management Conference (PLM11).The Conference will bring together researchers, developers, and users of PLM in an event that will combine keynote lectures, exhibitions, paper presentations, poster and panel sessions with an active social programme in the Eindhoven region of high tech innovation. The conference programme will give ample opportunity for attendees to influence the future PLM research and development agenda. Details under: http:///www.ifip-wg51.org/
2011 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Automation Engineering (CSAE 2011). See details under: http://http://www.ieee-csae.org/
News:
On 10 November the Commission presented its new strategy for a competitive, sustainable and secure energy. The Communication "Energy 2020" defines the energy priorities for the next ten years and sets the actions to be taken in order to tackle the challenges of saving energy, achieving a market with competitive prizes and secure supplies, boosting technological leadership, and effectively negotiate with our international partners. The Communication identifies five top priorities. On the basis of these priorities and the action presented, the Commission will come forward with concrete legislative initiatives and proposals within the next 18 months:
1. Energy savings: The document proposes to focus its initiatives on the two sectors with the biggest energy saving potential: transport and buildings. To help house owners and local entities to finance renovation and energy saving measures, the Commission will propose investment incentives and innovative financial instruments by mid 2011. The public sector should take energy efficiency into consideration when buying works, services or products. In the industrial sector, energy efficiency certificates could be an incentive for companies to invest in technology which uses less energy.
2. Pan-European integrated energy market with infrastructures: The Commission sets a target date for completing the internal energy market. By 2015 no Member State should be isolated. Over the next ten years, overall energy infrastructure investments in the EU of Euro 1 trillion are needed. To speed up essential EU strategic projects, the Commission proposes simplified and shorter building permits, setting a maximum time frame until final authorisation and EU funding. A "one-stop shop" should coordinate all the permit requests needed to realize a project.
3. Twenty-seven states, but one voice on energy in the world: It is proposed that the EU coordinates its energy policy vis-à-vis third countries, especially in its relation with key partners. Within the neighbourhood policy, the Commission proposes to extend and deepen the Energy Community Treaty to further integrate countries willing to participate in the EU’s energy market. A major cooperation with Africa is also announced, which aims at providing sustainable energy to all citizens of this continent
4. Fostering Europe's leadership in energy technology and innovation: Four major projects in key areas for Europe's competitiveness will be launched, such as new technologies for intelligent networks and electricity storage, research on second-generation biofuels and the 'smart cities' partnership to promote energy savings in urban areas.
5. Safe, secure and affordable energy through active consumers: The Commission proposes new measures on price comparison, switching suppliers, clear and transparent billing.
Digital Agenda: Public consultation on Net Neutrality
As part of the 2009 EU telecoms reform package, the Commission committed itself to scrutinise closely the open and neutral nature of the internet and to report on the state of play to the European Parliament and the EU's Council of Ministers. The consultation on 'The open internet and net neutrality in Europe' ran for 3 months this summer, as part of the Commission's preparations for the report. There is a near consensus on the importance of preserving the openness of the internet, according to the results of this public consultation. A total of 318 stakeholders at every level of the value chain provided input to it. These included BEREC, the body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications, operators, internet service providers, Member States' authorities, consumer and civil society organisations as well as individuals. The consultation did not reveal a widespread call for further EU legislation, but there is an expectation that additional guidance may be needed in the future. Discussions continued on 11 November at the "Net Neutrality Summit" at which the Commission and the European Parliament discussed the forthcoming Commission report on net neutrality.
Climate Change: Commission launches major investment programme for innovative low-carbon technologies
The European Commission launched on 9 November the first call for proposals for the world’s largest programme of investment in low carbon and renewable energy demonstration projects. The initiative, known as NER300, will provide substantial financial support for at least eight projects involving carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies and at least 34 projects involving innovative renewable energy technologies. The aim is to drive low carbon economic development in Europe, creating new 'green' jobs and contributing to the achievement of the EU's ambitious climate change goals. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is collaborating with the Commission in the implementation of the programme. Companies interested in making proposals have 3 months to submit bids at national level. This first call for proposals signals the start of implementation of the NER300 initiative. The initiative is so named because it will be funded from the sale of 300 million emission allowances in the New Entrants Reserve (NER) of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). At current market prices for emission allowances, the initiative is worth around €4.5 billion, making it the biggest such programme in the world. Funding is targeted to demonstration projects involving CCS and innovative renewable energy technologies. At least one project, and a maximum of three, will be funded per Member State.
EU set to revise law on hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)
On 24 November the European Parliament voted in favour of revising legislation on the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. The draft legislation, proposed by the Commission in 2008, will strengthen the existing law by streamlining procedures for future substance restrictions and by making it coherent with other chemicals legislation. Since it came into force in 2003, the Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS) has prevented many thousands of tonnes of banned substances from being disposed of and potentially released into the environment. It has led to important changes in the design of electrical and electronic products in the European Union and worldwide and facilitates the recovery of many rare substances and materials used in electronics. This law thus contributes to making the EU more resource-efficient, in line with the Europe 2020 Strategy. RoHS has also served as a model for similar laws introduced in at least 15 other jurisdictions outside the European Economic Area. The revised Directive agreed by the Parliament aims to improve implementation and enforcement and introduces greater coherence with other EU legislation, such as REACH and the new legislative framework for the marketing of products. The text will now need to be formally adopted by the Council. The new Directive will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. Member States will then have 18 months to transpose it into national law. Until then, the existing RoHS Directive (Directive 2002/95/EC) continues to apply. The Commission has made four declarations on scope, review, nanomaterials and correlation tables.
Public consultation on future funding to boost EU competitiveness and innovation open until 4 February 2011
The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the successor to the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme 2007-2013 (CIP). The CIP is the main EU budgetary instrument targeting competitiveness outside the research and skills areas. Its main priorities are SMEs, access to finance, innovation (including eco-innovation), take-up and use of information and communication technologies (ICT), energy efficiency and renewables. Through the consultation, the public is invited to have its say on what the priorities of future competitiveness and innovation EU funding should be. To complement the consultation, a conference will take place in Brussels on 25 January 2011 to give stakeholders an additional opportunity to express their views on the future orientation of a possible EU competitiveness and innovation programme.
"Technology and Innovation Futures" 2020 report published by UK government
Novel technologies including “swarm robotics” could transform the UK economy in the next two decades, says a government study commissioned by the UK Treasury. Other areas of new thinking that could boost growth, and where Britain has the potential to excel, include new applications of "smart" manufacturing, intelligent power and communications networks, and biotechnology-assisted medicine.
What role for ICT in manufacturing?
A workshop held in Brussels on 14 October, set out to discuss a vision for ICT in manufacturing and to chart areas where R&D progress must be made. These include:
Digital Factories - standardised data ensuring interoperability between simulation and modelling tools and computer aided applications in general. Semantic technologies can help capture information from dedicated (social) networks and help mine large quantities of production data in real time. Sustainable product life cycle management systems are required to manage obsolescence, reduce waste and promote recycling/remanufacturing.
Smart Factories - Low-cost automation and information solutions are needed to support SME users. Process automation, energy efficiency and maintenance systems need to be developed further on the basis of modular system components and architectures, open control platforms and standardised interfaces ("plug & produce"). Also stepping up developments in sensing for cognitive machines is needed. Robots will increasingly be deployed with an emphasis on assisting and supporting human abilities in manufacturing and beyond.
Virtual Factories - Complex business relationships with global supply chain actors can only be managed via shared platforms and data. Standardisation is needed also to trace the full carbon footprint of products (including their service components). Manufacturing services based on high-speed broadband and cloud computing will become prominent.
"Schweighofer Prize" 2011 to be awarded on 16 June 2011 in Vienna
A prize of EUR 300,000 will be offered to individuals or institutions who contribute considerably to the competitiveness of the European Forest Based Sector. Deadline for submissions is 2 February 2011.
2011 European "Design Award for a Sustainable Present" welcomes contributions until 20 May 2011
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) launched the second edition of a competition to design an innovative, sustainable and creative design product, including packaging, with a strong civil society message. Design students and professional designers are invited to focus on inter-generational solidarity in times of an ageing population.
GENESYS - A Cross-Domain Reference Architecture for Embedded Systems now available
European project GENESYS (GENeric Embedded SYStem) has developed a cross-domain reference architecture for embedded systems. Such architecture is needed to support the Internet of Things paradigm as well as to take full advantage of economies of scale of the semiconductor industries and to improve human productivity. A number of ARTEMIS projects (INDEXYS, ACROSS) are working on implementing
GENESYS. The following three challenges have driven the development of GENESYS:
Complexity management - The management of the ever-increasing cognitive complexity of embedded systems is a major concern in all application domains. GENESYS addresses this problem by lifting the design process to a higher level of abstraction (i.e. the level of self-contained hardware/software components that communicate exclusively by the exchange of messages). Components can be reused on the basis of their interface specification without having to know the internals of the component implementation. The GENESYS framework supports the straightforward composition of components and also supports classic simplification strategies of abstraction, partitioning and segmentation.
Robustness - An embedded system must deliver an acceptable level of service, even in the presence of software and hardware faults, and operator mistakes. GENESYS provides robustness by establishing a framework for fault and error containment, the selective restart of components that have failed after a transient fault, and the masking of transient and permanent errors by the replication of components. Security is addressed at all levels of the architecture.
Energy efficiency - Energy efficiency is of utmost concern in the mass market of mobile devices. GENESYS provides for energy efficiency by a technology-agnostic model-driven design style that supports the migration of a stable component form of software on a CPU to an ASIC (and thus improving the energy efficiency by orders of magnitude) and by an integrated resource management that makes it possible to individually reduce power requirements of components or to turn off completely components that are not needed during a particular interval (power gating). The time-triggered communication paradigm establishes a “green wave” for the transmission of messages without any energy intensive intermediate buffering or arbitration.
GENESYS is a platform architecture that provides a minimal set of core services and a plurality of optional services that are predominantly implemented as self-contained system components. Choosing a suitable set of these system components that implement optional services, augmented by application specific components, can generate domain-specific instantiations of the architectures.