Software Technologies

a) Integrated programming models & techniques for exploiting the potential of virtualised and software defined infrastructures: (Research and Innovation Actions)

Proposals will address at least one of the following areas:

• Code and resources (data, computing and networking) abstraction: Advances in how to abstract code and data beyond simple semantic annotations that are expressive, machine- readable and carrying out additional information about execution requirements, network topologies, data sources, etc. The concepts must allow (de)composition and transformation of all aspects involved in the code, including (de)composition of non-functional properties, conversion to different target platforms, restructuring and reinterpretation of data.
• Advanced software systems development: Methods for describing software, data and requirements that are necessary to advance software application development for software defined infrastructures. Such methods should enable flexible (de)composition and interoperability of software and data at run-time, thereby adhering to relevant operational constraints and business requirements. To enable development of such complex structures of code and data, programming models must become more abstract and easier to use, following the principles of human thinking, rather than conventional algorithms.

The proposals should demonstrate the applicability and viability of the proposed solution across multiple application domains.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 5 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

b) Software ecosystems exploiting the potential of existing code bases. (Innovation Actions)

Proposals in this action will address the following area:

• Development platforms and techniques for code re-usability, providing the necessary mechanisms for ensuring software quality (development, verification, validation and/or qualification tools), supporting software reusability (storing, tracking, searching and analysing software artefacts) and sustainable community building. Attention should be given in the handling of cross-platform dependencies and in the quality management of software built from diverse components.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 5 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

c) Coordination and Support Actions

Proposals in this action will address one of the following areas:

• Implement support actions which will help H2020 projects in the area of software technologies to establish their software ecosystems, transform their initial software development results into exploitable and viable solutions, showcase best practices of code reusability, facilitate community building and promote reuse of the code by new initiatives.
• Coordinate stakeholders in Software Technologies and act as support to R&D programmes/activities by disseminating project results and organising scientific and policy events, developing research and innovation roadmaps.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 400.000 to 600.000 would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

New advances in ICT technology influence the way software is developed. Software is increasingly becoming a pervasive and enabling technology and the impact of software defined infrastructures in the software development & management processes will span across multiple technology domains (e.g HPC, IoT, Big Data, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence). There is a need for novel and generic software engineering methods and tools that are applicable across different domains and that are complemented by domain-specific software related activities such as those proposed in the past and current H2020 ICT-LEIT Work Programmes.

Future software technologies need to address the transition from modern development processes towards a new paradigm which treats software, data, computing and communication resources as abstract elements. This will enable data to flow freely over heterogeneous infrastructures in a scalable, distributed and human-understandable fashion. To this end, the degree of abstraction in all these elements must be increased without losing controllability or correctness. The challenge would be to support the full software lifecycle in adopting this new paradigm.

In this fast evolving landscape, there is a need for increased software development productivity which can be fulfilled through the exploitation of reusable code and software components from existing code bases (either as open source software or proprietary software shared among closed ecosystems).

a) Research and Innovation Actions (RIA)

• Increased capacity of the European software industry to exploit the capabilities of software-defined infrastructures at middleware and application layer.
• Expand research and innovation potential in software technologies while overcoming fragmentation in the European supply base, optimizing investments and use of resources to yield multi-domain software-based products and related software services.

b) Innovation Actions (IA)

• Expand innovation potential in software technologies while overcoming fragmentation in the European supply base, optimizing investments and use of resources to yield reusable software-based products and related software services.

c) Coordination and Support Actions (CSA)

• Creation of a sustainable European forum of stakeholders representing the Software research, industry and end users.