IRDAC opinion on strategic issues in information and communication business
IRDAC, the European Commission's Industrial Research and Development Advisory Committee, has published an opinion on "Strategic issues in information and communication business". The opinion provides a number of recommendations for Community policies in the field of information and communications technologies, in particular for the Fifth Framework Programme. The opinion looks at the growing convergence of business areas such as telecommunications, computers, consumer electronics and media, driven by technological developments, in particular digitization. It states that end-to-end solutions are essential for the future success of European companies in these fields. However, business convergence will be slower than the technological convergence of these sectors, and IRDAC calls on the Community to help create favourable market conditions for developing these new businesses. Essential elements in successfully developing these new businesses are the availability of open architectures and market-driven global standards. In this context, the opinion calls on the EC to favour the emergence of open systems, and to speed up its standardization process and make it more responsive to users' and industry's needs. Research into socio-economic trends, with a view to better understanding users' needs must also be carried out. Success in information and communications technologies markets will need to be based on cooperation, not only between companies in the field, but also involving users from the beginning. Concerning information and communication technologies in the Fifth Framework Programme, IRDAC calls for all research in this area to be integrated into one programme. Given the limited extent of Community funding available, the programme should concentrate on strategic research. The opinion concludes by recommending a number of thematic areas and technology domains for Community support: - Thematic areas: . Electronic commerce and on-line business; . Leisure and entertainment (including multimedia); . Transport and environment systems and mobility; . Product design and manufacturing; . Business processing and logistics; . Virtual processing and logistics; . Virtual companies; . Health care for the citizen; . Education and training; . Public administration and government; - Technology domains: . Horizontal infrastructure technologies: . Tools for systems and services design and integration; . User interfaces and man-machine interaction; . Software technologies and embedded software; . Advanced computing, high speed networking, mobile and satellite systems; . Intelligent process control and automation; . Components, subsystems and microsystems; . Tools for safe, secure and high responsive complex systems; . Overall systems integration in products and services for advanced applications. The opinion also stresses the importance of training European citizens, so that they have the knowledge and skills necessary to use rapidly changing technologies. Socio-economic research into understanding the uses of and needs for new technology applications in the Information Society must also be a part of Community research. In addition, these research efforts must be linked strongly to other issues such as standardization and the legal and regulatory framework.