EUROPEAN COMMISSION
ICT - INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
A Theme for research and development under the specific programme "Cooperation"
implementing the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013) of the European
Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities
(European Commission C(2007)560 of 26.02.07)
Work Programme 2007
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Changes to the Cooperation Work Programme: ICT Theme
This work programme is an update with respect to the provisional version adopted on 21
December 2006. The substantive modifications are as follows (changes are underlined or
struck through):
p9 - International cooperation:
1. SICAs: '..will have specific rules for participation and specific evaluation criteria.'
2. 'A total of up to 12 M is expected to be devoted to international cooperation activities'
p11 - Joint Technology Initiatives: Last paragraph of section 2.9 is replaced with 'The
Commission is planning to propose two Joint Technology Initiatives to be funded from the
ICT theme in the Cooperation programme in FP7 in the areas of Nano-electronics and
Embedded Computing Systems. Parts of research under Challenge 3 on electronic
components and systems are expected to be implemented through these two Joint Technology
Initiatives. The Commission envisages making specific proposals in 2007 to set up these
Initiatives.'
p21 - Critical Infrastructure Protection / Topic ICT-SEC-2007-1.0-04: 'See as well topic SEC-
2007-4.3.03 Personal equipment with a view to compatibility and complementarity.'
p29 - Indicative budget distribution: 'CP 29 M of which a minimum of 4 M to IP [IP apply
to target outcome b)-2) only] and a minimum of 16 M to STREP'
p57 - FET Open Call
1. Continuous, receivable from 19 March 2007 (instead of 6 March 2007) onwards (see also
p72)
2. An amount of 6 M has been added to the budget (see also overview table on page 68)
p58-59-60 - FET Proactive: The budgets of Proactive Initiatives ICT-2007-8.1, -8.2 and -8.3
have been reduced by 2 M each (total: 6 M - see also overview table on page 68)
p70 - ICT Call 1:
1. Closure date: May 8, 2007 instead of May 3, 2007
2. ICT-2007.3.2 Organic and large-area electronics, visualisation and display systems (see
page 27)
3. ICT-2007.3.3 Embedded systems design: funding schemes are CP, NoE, CSA (see page 29
for details)
p72 - FET Open Call:
1. Correction of call identifier (correct identifier: FP7-ICT-2007-C)
2. Date from which proposals are receivable: 19 March 2007 instead of 6 March 2007
3. Reference to specific evaluation criteria set out in Appendix 5
p73 - FET Open Call: Change to start date for 'STREP' proposal submission period; Batch 1:
New start date 19/3/2007 (previously 6/3/2007)
p82 - Introduction of new Appendix 5 setting out the specific evaluation, selection and award
criteria for the FET Open call for proposals (already available in FET Open Guide for
Applicants).
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ICT - Information and Communication Technologies ......................................................... 5
1 Objective ........................................................................................................................... 5
2
Policy and socio-economic context.................................................................................. 5
2.1
i2010, achieving the renewed Lisbon agenda......................................................... 5
2.2
Partnering in ICT research and development....................................................... 6
2.3
ICT in FP7: An approach focused on a limited set of challenges ........................ 6
2.4 Funding
schemes ...................................................................................................... 7
2.5
Involving SMEs and feeding innovation ................................................................ 8
2.6
Developing global partnerships............................................................................... 8
2.7
The socio-economic dimensions of ICT................................................................ 10
2.8
European Technology Platforms in ICT and the Work programme................ 10
2.9
Joint Technology Initiatives .................................................................................. 10
2.10 Co-ordination of non-Community research programmes.................................. 11
2.11 Links with other Programmes .............................................................................. 11
3
Content of calls in 2007.................................................................................................. 12
3.1
Challenge 1: Pervasive and Trusted Network and Service Infrastructures ..... 12
3.2
Challenge 2: Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics ...................................... 22
3.3
Challenge 3: Components, systems, engineering................................................. 25
3.4
Challenge 4: Digital Libraries and Content......................................................... 35
3.5
Challenge 5: Towards sustainable and personalised healthcare ....................... 39
3.6
Challenge 6: ICT for Mobility, Environmental Sustainability and Energy
Efficiency............................................................................................................................. 45
3.7
Challenge 7: ICT for Independent Living and Inclusion ................................... 50
3.8
Future and Emerging Technologies...................................................................... 54
3.9
Horizontal support actions .................................................................................... 64
4
Implementation of calls.................................................................................................. 67
5
Indicative priorities for future calls.............................................................................. 74
Appendix 1: Minimum number of participants .................................................................. 75
Appendix 2: Funding schemes .............................................................................................. 76
Appendix 3: Coordination of national or regional research programmes ....................... 80
Appendix 4: Distribution of budget commitment ............................................................... 81
Appendix 5: FET Open evaluation, selection and award criteria ..................................... 82
Glossary................................................................................................................................... 84
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This Work Programme for the ICT theme of the FP7 Specific Programme "Cooperation"
defines the priorities for the calls for proposals to be launched in 2007 and the criteria that
will be used for evaluating the proposals responding to these calls.
The priorities reflect the input received from the Programme Committee, the IST Advisory
Group1 (ISTAG), the European Technology Platforms2 in ICT and other preparatory activities
including workshops involving the main stakeholders. The Work Programme is also in line
with the main ICT policy priorities as defined in the i2010 initiative3 - a European
Information Society for Growth and Employment.
The Work Programme will be updated on a regular basis.
1 The ISTAG report on the recommendations for the Work Programmes in FP7, the strategic research agendas of the
European Technology Platforms in ICT and other reports on preparation workshops and Commission internal groups are
available on the IST Web page http://cordis.europa.eu/ist.
2 http://cordis.europa.eu/technology-platforms/
3 http://ec.europa.eu/i2010/
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ICT - Information and Communication Technologies
1 Objective
Improving the competitiveness of European industry and enabling Europe to master
and shape future developments in ICT so that the demands of its society and economy
are met. ICT is at the very core of the knowledge-based society. Activities will
strengthen Europe's scientific and technology base and ensure its global leadership in
ICT, help drive and stimulate product, service and process innovation and creativity
through ICT use and ensure that ICT progress is rapidly transformed into benefits for
Europe's citizens, businesses, industry and governments. These activities will also help
reduce the digital divide and social exclusion.
2 Policy and socio-economic context
2.1
i2010, achieving the renewed Lisbon agenda
Today Europe faces an urgent need to reshape its economy and society to meet the challenges
of the 21st Century. We must realise higher economic growth through improved
competitiveness and productivity, whilst ensuring a sustainable future4. We have to adjust to
the changing economic realities brought about by the globalisation of markets and the ever-
faster pace of technological change. At the same time, we have to modernise our public
services and tackle emerging challenges in areas such as health, ageing, inclusion, energy
efficiency5, safety and security.
In its Communication on "Working together for growth and jobs: A new start for the Lisbon
Strategy"6, the Commission highlights the importance of ICT for Europe's economy and
society. It underlines that "our innovation performance is crucially dependent on
strengthening investment in and the use of new technologies, particularly ICTs, by both the
private and public sectors. Information and Communication technologies provide the
backbone for the knowledge economy. They account for around half of the productivity
growth in modern economies."
One of the key objectives of the i2010 initiative7, that sets the strategic framework for ICT
policies in the Union, is to achieve "world class performance in research and innovation in
ICT by closing the gap with Europe's leading competitors". Leading the progress in ICT is
essential to be able to address Europe's key socio-economic challenges and to reinforce its
industrial competitiveness. ICT research in FP7 aims at enabling Europe to master ICT
development so that it corresponds to the needs of its citizens and businesses. The current
4 Cf. the renewed sustainable development strategy; see European Council: Austrian Presidency Conclusion: 16th June 2006
http://ec.europa.eu/sustainable/sds2006/index_en.htm
5 Cf. Energy efficiency Action Plan, COM(2006)545.
6 COM (2005) 24
7 "i2010 � A European Information Society for growth and employment", COM(2005) 229
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Work Programme provides the detailed priorities for Calls for Proposals to be launched in
2007.
2.2
Partnering in ICT research and development
Increasing competition on a global scale gives Europe no other choice than to mobilise its
resources to attract both investment in ICT research and development and the best researchers
to its public and private labs. Europe has great knowledge and industrial assets. It has one of
the world's largest markets. It should be a leader and be a first choice for ICT research and
development and it has the capacity to do so.
More than ever before, partnering at European level is needed to keep pace with soaring
research costs in an era of global competition, and increasingly complex and interdependent
technologies.
The ICT theme of the Cooperation specific programme in FP7 offers a stable (seven years)
framework for collaboration and partnership building in ICT research. It builds on the
successes of previous Community RTD programmes in this field that have enabled European
industry to lead in world markets in areas like mobile communications, embedded systems or
microelectronics.
2.3
ICT in FP7: An approach focused on a limited set of challenges
Achieving the best possible impact for Community support requires focusing and
concentrating effort on key RTD challenges. This Work Programme proposes a structure
around seven challenges that should be addressed if Europe is to be among the world leaders
in next generation ICT and their applications.
The challenges are driven either by industry and technology objectives or by socio-economic
goals. For each challenge precise targets and deliverables are identified in a 10 year time
frame.
In pursuit of the challenge targets, a set of research objectives will be called for in 2007.
These objectives are described in the next chapters of the Work Programme and will provide
the focus for the Calls for proposals. For each objective, the Work Programme defines the
target outcome of the supported research and the expected impact of these outcomes on the
European economy and society.
2.3.1 Overcoming technology roadblocks and reinforcing Europe's industrial strengths
For European industry to be among the leaders in ICT in the next ten years, our researchers
and engineers have to master three ICT challenges. These have been identified in
particular with the help of the European Technology Platforms in ICT and are as follows:
� The converged communication and service Infrastructure that will gradually replace
the current Internet, mobile, fixed and audiovisual networks.
� The engineering of more robust, context-aware and easy-to-use ICT systems that self
improve and self-adapt within their respective environments.
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� The increasingly smaller, cheaper, more reliable and low consumption electronic
components and systems that constitute the basis for innovation in all major products
and service.
2.3.2 Seizing new opportunities and applying ICT to address Europe's socio-economic
challenges
Four challenges for ICT research are driven by socio-economic goals and are in line with
the flagship initiatives of i2010:
� Digital libraries, knowledge and content development tools and applications that will
help us preserve, develop and disseminate our cultural assets, improve our learning and
education systems and strengthen the creativity of our society.
� ICT tools for sustainable Health systems enhancing our ability to monitor our health and
well-being and to treat major illnesses and diseases.
� Intelligent and safe vehicles and technologies for environmental sustainability and
energy efficiency that are key requirements of our citizens.
� ICT systems and applications for better inclusion and independent living of all citizens.
In addition to the seven Challenges, a Future and Emerging Technologies activity will
continue to foster trans-disciplinary research excellence in emerging ICT-related research
domains.
The Challenges in this Work Programme build on and extend the Ambient Intelligence
vision developed in the previous Framework Programmes.
2.4
Funding schemes
The activities supported by FP7 will be funded through a range of "Funding schemes" as
specified in Annex III of FP7. These schemes will be used, either alone or in combination, to
fund actions implemented throughout the Framework Programme. The funding schemes used
for the research objectives identified in this Work Programme are the following:
1.
Collaborative projects (CP)
Support to research projects carried out by consortia with participants from different
countries, aiming at developing new knowledge, new technology, products, demonstration
activities or common resources for research. The Funding Scheme allows for two types of
projects to be financed: a) "small or medium-scale focused research actions"(STREP), b)
"large-scale integrating projects" (IP).
2.
Networks of Excellence (NoE)
Support to Joint Programme of Activities implemented by a number of research organisations
integrating their activities in a given field, carried out by research teams in the framework of
longer term cooperation.
3.
Coordination and support actions (CSA)
Support to activities aimed at coordinating or supporting research activities and policies
(networking, exchanges, coordination of funded projects, trans-national access to research
infrastructures, studies, conferences, etc). These actions may also be implemented by means
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other than calls for proposals. The Funding Scheme allows for two types of projects to be
financed: a) "Coordination Actions"(CA), b) "Specific Support Actions" (SA).
This work programme specifies for each of the research objectives, the type(s) of funding
scheme(s) to be used for the topic on which proposals are invited.
2.5
Involving SMEs and feeding innovation
The role of SMEs in innovation is undisputable. In ICT, they play a vital role in the
development of new visions and in transforming them into business assets. They have a large
capacity to focus their research effort and to take fast technical and business decisions.
The Community research programmes in ICT provide major opportunities for SMEs to
finance high-risk, early-stage research and development, to build strategic partnerships and to
operate outside their local markets with higher value innovative products and services.
Particular attention is paid to SMEs' needs and potential in the definition of the priorities of
the ICT Work Programme. Building on the experience of SMEs' participation in ICT research
under FP6, the aim is to ensure that SMEs constitute an important part of the ICT research
consortia together with large companies, universities, and public research labs.
The rules for participation in FP7 will also encourage further SME participation. For SMEs in
FP7 projects, the Community financial contribution may reach a maximum of 75% of the
total eligible costs (as compared to 50% in FP6 and before). The ICT theme in FP7 is
therefore expected to draw a high number of innovative SMEs that are ready to undertake
research and development both in emerging technology fields with high growth potential and
in key ICT application fields.
2.6
Developing global partnerships
The external dimension of the programme aims at supporting European competitiveness
through research partnerships with third countries and at addressing issues of common interest
and mutual benefit in support of other EU policies, in particular development policies.
International cooperation will be implemented through:
� The opening of all ICT programme objectives to the participation of third country
organisations from all International Cooperation Partner Countries (ICPC, see Annex 1)
and industrialised countries. All of the ICT theme is open to third country participation. In
addition, for several Objectives of the Work Programme, the participation of third country
partners is particularly encouraged.
� Specific International Cooperation Actions (SICAs) consisting of collaborative projects
with ICPC countries in areas of mutual interest and dedicated to cooperation on topics
selected on the basis of their scientific and technological competences and needs. Political
dialogues with third countries and regions as well as international support projects have
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allowed the identification of potential cooperation priorities that are of mutual interest and
benefit. The SICAs will have specific rules for participation8.
The international cooperation activities proposed in this Work Programme have three main
objectives:
� To improve cooperation in the development of standards and interoperable solutions and
in roadmapping in order to enable the wider uptake of the results of European research
and to improve the competitiveness of European industry. This will contribute to the
achievement of economies of scale in the global context of technology exploitation. It
will be implemented by supporting mainly Coordination and Support Actions bringing
together European and international stakeholders. Depending on the areas addressed, they
will target industrialised regions such as the USA and Japan and/or emerging economies
such as China, Russia, India and Latin America.
These Coordination and Support Actions will be called for within the relevant objectives
and under horizontal support actions for international cooperation. Examples include the
areas of future networks, security, networked media, nanoelectronics, photonics, control
systems, ICT for co-operative transport systems, and ICT for independent living and
inclusion.
� To improve scientific cooperation for the mutual benefits of Europe and target regions.
This will be implemented with third countries where there is clear reciprocity in
knowledge sharing and in the areas where there is value for European and third country
organisations to cooperate. It will also help support other Community policies notably the
development policy.
Support will be provided to SICAs in the areas of 'ICT for risk assessment and patient
safety' and 'ICT for environmental disaster reduction and management'. In addition
international collaboration actions will be supported in the areas of "Open Source
Software", "language and speech technologies" and "accessible and inclusive ICT". A
total of up to 1212 M is expected to be devoted to international cooperation activities.
These are described in detail in the relevant objectives and in the horizontal action on
International Cooperation.
In addition, third country participation is particularly encouraged in collaborative projects
on specific topics addressed in the objectives on Embedded Systems design, Future and
Emerging Technologies (FET) and through the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems
scheme.
� Finally support to activities linked to ICT-based research infrastructures: This will be
done mainly in the FP7 Capacities programme but parts related for example to the future
Internet are addressed in this Work Programme.
In order to support coherence at the Framework Programme level, coordination will be sought
with ICT-related international cooperation activities launched under the Capacities9 and
People10 Specific Programmes.
8 For Collaborative Projects, at least four independent legal entities of which at least two must be established in different
Member States or Associated countries and at least two must be established in different ICPC countries.
9 http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/capacities/home_en.html
10 http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/people/home_en.html
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2.7
The socio-economic dimensions of ICT
The economic and social transformations triggered by ICT are wide-ranging, complex, and
multifaceted. We are no longer at the dawn of the Information Society but witnessing and
experiencing its deployment at all levels of economic activity and social interaction. In
addition, technological roadmaps are pointing to even more radical socio-economic changes.
Most R&D projects have a clear socio-economic dimension from the outset. This may
include, for example, evidence-based impact assessment and pro-active initiatives in order to
accelerate diffusion and societal acceptance.
The programme will also support social and economic research, launched through calls for
tenders, to create a better understanding of trends and impacts at the level of society and of
the economy, including the global economy. This will complement assessments of the impact
of individual projects, help assess the impact of the ICT programme as a whole, and support
impact assessments of specific policy options.
In addition, wider benefits are expected to arise from the research projects and actions
supported under this programme in terms of their contribution towards science education, and
outreach and communication activities.
The pursuit of scientific knowledge and its technical application towards society requires the
talent, perspectives and insight that can only be assured by increasing diversity in the research
workforce. Therefore, a balanced representation of women and men at all levels in research
projects is encouraged.
2.8
European Technology Platforms in ICT and the Work programme
European technology Platforms (ETPs) bring together the main industry and academic
research stakeholders in a particular field with the aim of better coordinating their research
and related activities and achieving common goals. An important outcome of each ETP is a
Strategic Research Agenda agreed by its members that also commit to its implementation.
These Strategic Research agendas11 constitute an important input to the Work Programmes in
FP7.
The industrial and academic research stakeholders in ICT have at the time of publication set
up European Technology Platforms in nine ICT fields. These cover the fields of nano-
electronics, photonics, micro-systems, embedded systems, software and services, mobile
communications, networked media, satellite communications and robotics.
2.9 Joint Technology Initiatives
The Commission's proposal for the Cooperation Programme indicates that in a limited
number of cases, the scope of an RTD objective and the scale of the resources involved justify
setting up long term public private partnerships in the form of Joint Technology Initiatives.
These initiatives, mainly resulting from the work of European Technology Platforms and
covering one or a small number of selected aspects of research in their field, will combine
11 Individual Strategic Research Agendas of the European Technology Platforms in ICT are available on the following Web
page: http://cordis.europa.eu/ist/about/techn-platform.htm
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private sector investment and national and European public funding, including grant funding
from the Research Framework Programme and loan finance from the European Investment
Bank. These will be implemented on the basis of the appropriate articles of the EU treaty
including Article 171.
The Commission is planning to propose two Joint Technology Initiatives to be funded from
the ICT theme in the Cooperation programme in FP7 in the areas of Nano-electronics and
Embedded Computing Systems. Parts of research under Challenge 3 on electronic
components and systems are expected to be implemented through these two Joint Technology
Initiatives. The Commission envisages making specific proposals in 2007 to set up these
Initiatives.
2.10 Co-ordination of non-Community research programmes
The actions undertaken in this field in FP7 include the coordination of national or regional
research programmes or initiatives (see Appendix 3) and the participation of the Community
in jointly implemented national research programmes (Treaty Article 169). The actions will
also be used to enhance the complementarity and synergy between the Framework
Programme and activities carried out in the framework of intergovernmental structures such
as EUREKA, EIROforum and COST.
The coordination of national or regional research programmes or initiatives are called for
within several objectives in this Work Programme. In addition, the participation of the
Community in national research programmes jointly implemented on the basis of Article 169
is planned in the area of ICT for Ambient Assisted Living. This will be the subject of a
separate decision.
Objectives under Challenges 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 as well as FET call for the coordination of
national or regional research programmes or initiatives. There is in addition a horizontal
action concerning International cooperation.
2.11 Links with other Programmes
Links with ICT in the CIP
The ICT theme in FP7 is one of the two main financial instruments in support of the i2010
initiative that is the Union's policy framework for the information society. The other main
financial instrument is the ICT specific programme within the Competitiveness and
Innovation programme (CIP). ICT in the CIP aims at ensuring the wide uptake and best use of
ICT by businesses, governments and citizens. ICT in FP7 and ICT in the CIP are therefore
complementary instruments aiming at both progressing ICT and its applications and at
making sure that all citizens and businesses can benefit from ICT.
Links with the Research Infrastructure part of the Capacities Programme
Support will be provided to ICT-based research infrastructure (eInfrastructure) under the
Research Infrastructures part of the Capacities programme. This will build on the success of
the GEANT research network and the research Grids infrastructure supported in FP6 and will
provide higher performance computing, data handling and networking facilities for European
researchers in all science and technology fields. Coordination between this activity and the
ICT theme in the cooperation programme will ensure that the latest and most effective
technology is provided to European researchers. Support will also be given to other ICT
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research infrastructure under the targeted calls of the Capacities programme. These will cover
areas such as ICT Living Labs, clean rooms for nano-electronics and Embedded Systems
research facilities.
Links with the other Specific Programmes in FP7
In addition to the ICT theme in the Cooperation Specific Programme, the ICT research and
development community will also be able to benefit from the other specific programmes that
are open to all research areas including the Ideas, People and Capacities programmes.
3 Content of calls in 2007
3.1
Challenge 1: Pervasive and Trusted Network and Service Infrastructures
With its strengths in communication equipment, devices, networks and eServices, Europe is
well placed in the world-wide race to define and develop the network and service
infrastructures of the future. These will generate new economic opportunities with new
classes of networked applications, whilst reducing operational expenditures. The current
internet, mobile, fixed and broadcasting networks and the related software service
infrastructure need to progress accordingly in order to enable another wave of growth in the
on-line economy and society over the next 15 years.
The challenge is to deliver the next generation of ubiquitous and converged network and
service infrastructures for communication, computing and media. This entails overcoming the
scalability, flexibility, dependability and security bottlenecks, as today's network and service
architectures are primarily static and able to support a limited number of devices, service
features and limited confidence. Such new infrastructures will permit the emergence of a large
variety of business models capable of dynamic and seamless end-to-end composition of
resources across a multiplicity of devices, networks, providers and service domains.
The future infrastructures envisaged will need to:
- Be pervasive, ubiquitous and highly dynamic. They have to offer almost unlimited
capacities to users, by supporting a wide variety of nomadic interoperable devices and
services, a variety of content formats and a multiplicity of delivery modes. They also have
to support context awareness and the dynamic behaviour needed for applications with
requirements that vary with time and context ;
- Guarantee robustness, resilience, trust and security compatible with networks and
software service platforms reaching a complexity and scale that are an order of magnitude
greater than those of today's infrastructures;
- Support networked and managed business and service convergence across a multiplicity
of environments such as the home, businesses, or nomadic situations.
This entails addressing the evolution from today's large legacy infrastructures towards new
infrastructures by striking a balance between backward compatibility requirements and the
need to explore disruptive architectures to build future internet, mobile, broadband, and
associated service infrastructures.
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The evolution drivers of this Challenge relate primarily to the technological evolution of
ubiquitous mobile and broadband networks, the availability of dynamic services platforms,
trust and security, in the context of converged and interoperable networked environments. In
this respect, the proposed activity largely relates to the technological roadblocks and socio-
economic scenarios identified in the Strategic Research Agendas of the eMobility, NESSI,
NEM and ISI European Technology Platforms.
Participation of organisations from third countries is encouraged for those research activities
where mutual benefits can be demonstrated. This relates notably to i) the possibility of
progressing through joint strategic research partnerships towards global consensus and
standards; ii) opportunities for mutual benchmarking; iii) the exchange of best practices,
including regulation and socio-economic issues as technological drivers; iv) large-scale
validation of technologies and networked applications in a global context. The participation of
third country partners and the selection of the most promising targeted regions are left to the
initiative of the proponents.
Proposals for large scale integrating projects cutting across several of the objectives 1.1 to 1.5
of Challenge 1 and addressing interrelated objectives from an overall system perspective are
encouraged. The intention is to significantly advance the state-of-the-art for each of the
targeted objectives and to obtain a federating, multiplier and catalytic effect on the expected
impacts.
Objective ICT-2007.1.1: The Network of the Future
Target outcome
a) Ubiquitous network infrastructures and architectures supporting: i) convergence and
interoperability of heterogeneous mobile and broadband network technologies ii) flexible
and spectrum efficient radio access enabling ubiquitous access to broadband mobile
services for short range to wide area networking ; iii) elimination of the barriers to
broadband access and ultra high speed end to end connectivity with optimised protocols
and routing; iv) context awareness; v) optimised traffic processing between core and edge
networks; vi) scalability, delivering an order of magnitude increase in the number of
connected devices and enabling the emergence of applications that are machine-to-
machine or sensor-based - beyond RFID - and are capable of functioning within a
multiplicity of public or private operating environments.
b) Optimised control, management and flexibility of the future network infrastructure,
supporting the evolution towards cognitive networks and capable of: i) enabling seamless
end to end network and service composition and operation across multiple operators and
business domains; ii) supporting a wide diversity of service attributes and requirements,
which will be an order of magnitude more complex than those of today's infrastructures,
through support of programmability and dynamic features, with reconfigurability of
resource allocation, of protocols and routing, self organisation and management; iii)
managing in real time new forms of ad-hoc communications with intermittent
connectivity requirements and time-varying network topology; iv) enabling intelligent
distribution of services across multiple access technologies with centralised or distributed
control.
c) Technologies and systems architectures for the Future Internet, aimed at overcoming
the expected long term limitations of current internet capabilities, architecture and
protocols, driven by the need for: generalised mobility; scalability from the perspective of
devices, service attributes and application environments; security; trusted domains; new
forms of routing and content delivery with dynamic peering of end to end delivery and
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control, of ad-hoc connectivity in a generalised wireless environment. The work of
exploratory nature will address how various classes of new requirements constrain the
foreseeable evolution of the internet and identify corresponding long term solutions.
d) Coordination and support actions: i) roadmapping and conference support; ii) co-
ordination with related national or regional programmes or initiatives
Expected impact
� 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.
Funding schemes
CP, NoE, CSA
Indicative budget distribution
17112 M:
- CP 154 M of which a minimum of 72 M to IP and a minimum of 36 M to STREP;
- NoE 12 M;
- CSA 5 M
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.1.2: Service and Software Architectures, Infrastructures and
Engineering
Target outcome
a) Service architectures, platforms, technologies, methods and tools that enable context-
awareness and discovery, advertising, personalisation and dynamic composition of
services. They should support flexible business models, provide for service management,
and guarantee end-to-end quality of service. They will cater for multiple component
technologies and support vendor independence. Opportunities for standardisation should
be exploited.
b) Service/software engineering approaches development processes, product lifecycle and
tools for dynamically composed systems with dependable quality of service and reliability
properties and promoting new open development paradigms with a higher degree of
involvement of joint user and development communities.
12 An amount from the 2008 budget is expected to be added for which a new financing decision to cover the budget for that
year will be requested at the appropriate time.
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c) Strategies and technologies enabling mastery of complexity, dependability, and
behavioural stability in complex systems and in systems evolving over time without
central design. Appropriate mechanisms should guarantee end-to-end quality of service.
d) Virtualisation tools, system software, middleware and network-centric operating
systems, including Grid-based systems, that orchestrate unlimited, heterogeneous and
dynamic resources distributed across multiple platforms as a single entity, and provide
platform-independent access and sharing of knowledge, processing, communication,
storage and content. They also enable the definition and execution of tasks and workflows
for collaboration and operation across multiple domains and optimise usage of distributed
resources.
e) Coordination and support actions for: i) roadmapping, strategy and policy formulation,
clustering of activities, support for standardisation and conference support; ii) co-
ordination with national or regional programmes or initiatives.
Expected Impact:
Improving the competitiveness of enterprises and the efficiency of organisations in Europe
by:
� Allowing the creation of dynamic services with guaranteed properties and new
networked applications capable of interoperation across a wide variety of business
domains and organisations of all sizes. Supporting all organisations developing or using
software and services, particularly SMEs, to improve their competitiveness and adjust to
the emerging global service economy.
� Increased efficiency and productivity in software development and higher level of
software reliability through novel service and software engineering tools and improved
mastering of complex systems.
� New opportunities, notably for SMEs, through open and standard platforms and
interfaces for: software and service development; middleware for resource sharing; and
next generation operating systems.
Funding schemes
CP, NoE, CSA
Indicative budget distribution
10212 M:
- CP 91 M of which a minimum of 38 M to IP and a minimum of 30 M to STREP;
- NoE 9 M;
- CSA 2 M
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007-1.3: ICT in support of the networked enterprise
Target outcome
a) Generic integrated solutions for inter-enterprise interoperability and collaboration in the
context of the networked enterprise.
b) Architectures and platforms for the integrated enterprise supporting massively distributed
networked devices, notably enhanced RFID-based systems.
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c) Tools and technologies that enable intra-enterprise collaboration and the definition and
execution of tasks and workflows for operation across multiple domains.
Research results should support highly distributed operations, reduced life cycle cost, and
integration with legacy systems. The work should in particular support business networks
addressing the specific needs of SMEs.
Expected Impact:
� Improving the competitiveness of enterprises in Europe by fostering the creation of new
networked applications and services capable of interoperation across a wide variety of
business domains and organisations of all sizes.
� Reinforcing Europe's technology and industry strengths in application and business-
specific software, service and applications development.
Funding schemes
CP, CSA (one CA for coordination of EU activities on RFID and one SA for global RFID-
related standardisation activities involving in particular organisations from China, Japan,
Korea and USA)
Indicative budget distribution
2612 M:
- CP 25 M of which a minimum of 9 M to IP and a minimum of 9 M to STREP - 1 M for
2 CSAs
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.1.4: Secure, dependable and trusted Infrastructures
Target outcome
a) Security and resilience in network infrastructures: building and preserving flexible,
scalable and context-aware, secure and resilient architectures and technologies to enable
dynamic management policies that ensure end-to-end secure transmission of data and
services across heterogeneous infrastructures and networks, including dynamic networks
of tiny insecure devices, and multiple provider, business and residential domains; real
time detection and recovery capabilities against intrusions, malfunctions and failures;
b) Security and trust in dynamic and reconfigurable service architectures supporting
assured and scale-free composition of services and service coalitions with managed
operation across several administrative or business domains, enabling flexible business
models;
c) Trusted computing infrastructures ensuring interoperability and end-to-end security of
data and services; increased security and dependability in the engineering of software and
service systems to ensure the design and development of trustworthy applications and
services;
d) Identity management and privacy enhancing tools with configurable, context-
dependent and user-controlled attributes in static and dynamically changing environments;
trust policies for managing and assessing the risks associated to identity and private data.
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e) Longer term visions and research roadmaps; metrics and benchmarks for comparative
evaluation and open technology competitions, in support of certification and
standardisation; international cooperation and co-ordination with developed countries;
coordination with related national or regional programmes or initiatives and; coordination
of FP7 projects addressing security, dependability, privacy and related ethical issues
across different challenges and objectives of this work programme.
Expected Impact
� ICT users empowered to handle their digital identity and personal data and to protect their
privacy, turning the European view on privacy into an economic advantage; strengthened
trust in the use of networks, software and services for governments, businesses and
consumers.
� A strong and competitive ICT security industry in Europe.
� Substantially improved security and dependability of networks and service infrastructures
having a complexity and scale that are an order of magnitude greater than those of today's
infrastructures.
� Wider use of metrics, standards, evaluation and certification methods and best practices in
security of networks, infrastructures, software and services.
Funding schemes
a-d): CP, NoE; e) CSA
Indicative budget distribution
7712 M:
- CP 69 M of which a minimum of 24 M to IP and a minimum of 24 M to STREP;
- NoE 5 M;
- CSA 3 M
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.1.5: Networked Media
Target outcome:
a) Interoperable multimedia network and service infrastructures that
- offer a seamless, personalised and trusted experience of i) multimedia services and
applications; ii) home management and control services; iii) media content, for users
in a variety of roles (consumer, producer or manager of communication and media),
locations, contexts and mobility scenarios;
- maintain the integrity and the quality of the media whilst enabling automatic and
intuitive enrichment at every step of the media lifecycle;
- are optimised in particular for unstructured distribution, delivery, sharing, storage and
intelligent retrieval of media and applications, and that enable variable media
distribution patterns between multiple users.
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b) End-to-end systems and application platforms that enable i) intuitive, intelligent,
professional and non-professional creation, manipulation, storage/handling/search,
management and rendering of media; ii) new creative forms of interactive, immersive and
very high quality media (such as 3D, virtual and augmented reality) as well as new forms
of experiences for individual users or user communities.
c) Roadmapping and conference support, for co-ordination with related national or
regional programmes or initiatives, for international standardisation and interoperability
initiatives.
Expected Impact:
� World leadership in a new generation of media technologies providing significantly
higher performances in terms of intelligence, scalability, flexibility, speed, capacity, ease
of use and cost.
� New and sustainable market opportunities based on converged business models between
content, telecom, broadcast and consumer electronics industries. Reinforced European
position vis-�-vis global interoperability and standardisation initiatives.
� Widespread adoption of new digital media consumption and production patterns.
Enhanced quality of life through new usage forms contributing to social, intellectual and
leisure well-being. New opportunities for content production and exploitation.
Funding schemes
a-b): CP, NoE; c): CSA
Indicative budget distribution
7312 M:
- CP 65 M of which a minimum of 26 to IP and a minimum of 20 M to STREP;
- NoE 6 M;
- CSA 2 M
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.1.6: New Paradigms and Experimental Facilities
Target outcome
a) Advanced networking approaches to architectures and protocols, designed to cope
with increased scale, complexity, mobility and requirements for security, resilience and
transparency of the Future Internet coupled with their validation in large scale testing
environments based on a combination of physical and 'virtual' infrastructures.
b) Interconnected test beds addressing novel distributed and reconfigurable protocol
architectures; novel distributed service architectures, infrastructures and software
platforms; and advanced embedded or overlay security, trust and identity management
architectures and technologies. Test beds for systems that provide trusted access to e-
services with users requiring no administration and security skills.
c) Coordination and support actions for: i) standardisation and conference support; ii) co-
ordination with related national or regional programmes or initiatives.
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Expected Impact
� Strengthened European position in the development of the Future Internet.
� Wider take-up of technological developments in networks and service infrastructure
facilitated by a comprehensive validation of the technological and service choices.
� Global consensus towards standards and strengthened international co-operation through
interconnected test beds and interconnection capabilities offered to third countries.
� Higher confidence in the secure use of the Internet through test beds enabling trusted
access to e-Services.
Funding schemes
CP, NoE, CSA
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-2
Objective ICT-SEC-2007.1.7: Critical Infrastructure Protection
(Joint Call between ICT and Security Themes FP7-ICT-SEC-2007-1 )
The interoperability and interconnectivity of supply systems is one of the cornerstones of the
functioning of our societies. The vulnerabilities in the intercommunication of systems,
equipment, services and processes and their resilience against malicious attacks of terrorism
and (organised) crime are elementary to the security of the citizens.
The objective of the joint call is to make key infrastructures of modern life, such as energy
production sites and transmission systems, storage and distribution, information and
communication networks, sensitive manufacturing plants, banking and finance, healthcare, or
transportation systems more secure and dependable. The aim is to protect such critical
infrastructures that can be damaged, destroyed or disrupted by deliberate acts of terrorism,
natural disasters, negligence, mismanagements, accidents, computer hacking, criminal activity
and malicious behaviour and to safeguard them against incidents, malfunctions and failures.
The joint call is structured around two specific foci.
1. Focus of the ICT Theme
The first focus is called for by the ICT theme and is addressing technology building blocks for
creating, monitoring and managing secure, resilient and always available information
infrastructures that link critical infrastructures so that they survive malicious attacks or
accidental failures, guarantee integrity of data and continuous provision of responsive and
trustworthy services, and support dynamically varying trust requirements. This includes:
a) Understanding and managing the interactions and complexity of interdependent critical
infrastructures; mastering their vulnerabilities; preventing against cascading effects;
providing recovery and continuity in critical scenarios (including research towards
designing and building self-adapted and self-healing complex systems); security and
dependability metrics and assurance methods for quantifying infrastructure
interdependencies.
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b) Designing and developing secure and resilient networked and distributed information
and process control systems; systemic risk analysis and security configuration and
management of critical information infrastructures and dynamic assurance frameworks
for interconnecting them with critical infrastructures; availability of security forensics.
c) Developing longer term visions and research roadmaps; metrics and benchmarks for
comparative evaluation in support of certification and standardisation; international
cooperation and co-ordination with developed countries; coordination with related
national or regional programmes or initiatives.
Funding schemes: a) and b): CP (STREP only); c) CSA
2. Focus of the Security Theme
The second focus is called for by the Security theme13 and is addressing technology building
blocks for creating, monitoring and managing secure, resilient and always available transport
and energy infrastructures that survive malicious attacks or accidental failures and
guaranteeing continuous provision of services. The following topics are called:
Topic ICT-SEC-2007-1.0-01: Risk assessment and contingency planning for
interconnected transport or energy networks
Technical content / scope: The task is to develop integrated frameworks and agreed, common
methodologies for (a) global analyses and assessment of risks, failures and vulnerabilities of
transport or energy infrastructures, and (b) management and contingency planning based on
the compilation and analyses of emergency plans, to ensure interoperability between
interconnected and interdependent heterogeneous transport or energy infrastructures.
Funding scheme(s): Collaborative project and Coordination and support action (aiming at
supporting research activities.
Topic ICT-SEC-2007-1.0-02: Modelling and simulation for training
Technical content / scope: Security crises concerning cross-border interconnected European
transport or energy infrastructures can lead to effects with high impacts of disruption. The
task consists of modelling & simulation including scenario building for handling security
incidents to support the training of crisis managers.14
Funding scheme(s): Collaborative project.
Topic ICT-SEC-2007-1.0-03: Optimised situational awareness through intelligent
surveillance of interconnected transport or energy infrastructures
Technical content / scope: The task consists of developing tools that integrate smart
surveillance information from interconnected and heterogeneous transport or energy
infrastructures in order to build up high level situation awareness. The objective is to enable
optimized decision making required for cross-border interoperable crisis management to
ensure secure, resilient and always available transport or energy infrastructures.15
13 For more details concerning these topics consult the Security Work Programme.
14 See also COM(2005) 576 final. Green Paper on a European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection.
15 Same as previous footnote.
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Funding scheme(s): Collaborative project.
Topic ICT-SEC-2007-1.0-04: ICT support for first responders in crises occurring in critical
infrastructures
Technical content / scope: The task consists of developing novel technologies for personal
digital support systems as part of an integral, secure emergency management system to
support first responders in crises occurring in various types of critical infrastructures under all
circumstances. The action has to build upon ongoing research on emergency management,
secure wireless communication, first responder technologies, etc. See as well topic SEC-2007-
4.3.03 Personal equipment with a view to compatibility and complementarity16.
Funding scheme(s): Collaborative project.
Expected impact:
� Significant improvement in the security, performance, dependability and resilience of
complex and interdependent critical infrastructures while considering as well
organisational dynamics, human factors, societal issues and related legal aspects.
� Reinforce European industry's potential to create important market opportunities and
establish leadership.
� Contribution to establishing, strengthening and preserving trust in the use of technologies
for the protection of critical infrastructures. This includes creating sufficient awareness and
understanding of all relevant issues for the take-up of their outcome (e.g. regarding
potential classification requirements, international co-operation needs, communication and
implementation strategies etc.), in order to ensure acceptance of such technologies by
relevant stakeholders.
� More effective protection through enhanced co-operation, coordination and focus across
Europe, and contribution to the development and promotion of metrics, standards,
evaluation and certification methods and best practice in security of critical infrastructures.
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
FP7-ICT-SEC-2007-1
16 For more details concerning this topic consult the Security Work Programme.
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3.2
Challenge 2: Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics
The increasing complexity of our society and economy places greater emphasis on artificial
systems such as robots, smart devices and machines which can deal autonomously with our
needs and with the peculiarities of the environments we inhabit and construct. This challenge
is to extend systems engineering methods to deal with open-ended and frequently changing
real-world environments. A primary aim is to develop system capabilities to respond
intelligently to gaps in the system's knowledge and to situations or contexts that have not been
specified in its design. In order to meet this challenge, a mix of innovative scientific theory
and technology is needed, based on natural and artificial cognition, in conjunction with new
systems design and engineering principles and implementations for machines, robots and
other devices which are robust and versatile enough to deal with the real world and to behave
in a user-friendly and intuitive way with people in everyday situations.
Artificial cognitive systems, advanced interaction technologies and intelligent robots will help
open up new opportunities for industry in Europe. Reinforcing leading edge research in these
domains will help extend technologies into tomorrow's industries and markets, in fields of
potentially high socio-economic significance like industrial production, learning, healthcare,
public safety, environmental monitoring, and in emerging sectors such as service robotics.
Autonomous surveillance systems can, for example, save crucial time in emergencies or
hazardous situations. Artificial cognitive systems and intelligent robots can extend the
capabilities of people to perform routine, dangerous or tiring tasks, especially in previously
inaccessible, uncharted, or remote spaces on land, sea or air.
Scientific research will also improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying
artificial and natural cognition, in particular learning and the development of competences
requiring goal-setting, reasoning, decision-making, language, communication and co-
operation. It will enable us to build machines that can understand, learn and generate concepts
and translate them across languages with degrees of robustness and versatility not possible
today. And it will spur breakthroughs in advanced behaviours of robots, such as in
manipulating objects and interacting socially, which are key to their further penetration into
real world environments.
The proposed activity supports industrial competitiveness by addressing technological
challenges and socio-economic scenarios as identified inter-alia in the Strategic Research
Agenda of EUROP, the European Technology Platform on robotics.
Objective ICT-2007.2.1 (ICT-2007.2.2): Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics
Target outcome:
a) Artificial systems that fulfil one or both of the following requirements:
� they can achieve general goals in a largely unsupervised way, and persevere under
adverse or uncertain conditions; adapt, within reasonable constraints, to changing
service and performance requirements, without the need for external re-programming,
re-configuring, or re-adjusting.
� they communicate and co-operate with people or each other, based on a well-
grounded understanding of the objects, events and processes in their environment, and
their own situation, competences and knowledge.
Work will result in demonstrators that operate largely autonomously in demanding and
open-ended environments which call for a suitable mix of capabilities for sensing, data
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analysis, processing, control and acting; and for communication and co-operation with
people or machines or both. Where required, systems will integrate high-level cognitive
competencies; for example, for reasoning, planning and decision-making, and for active
environmental modelling.
Proposals satisfying the above requirements should focus on one of the following areas:
Robots handling, individually or jointly, tangible objects of different shapes and sizes,
and operating either fully autonomously (as for instance in difficult terrains with a need
for robust locomotion, navigation and obstacle avoidance) or in co-operation with
people in complex, dynamic spatial environments (e.g. domestic environments).
Robots, sensor networks and other artificial systems, monitoring and controlling
material and informational processes e.g. in industrial manufacturing or public services
domains. This may include information gathering and interpretation in real-time
emergency or hazardous situations (e.g. through multi-sensory data-fusion) or in virtual
spaces related to real world objects and people.
Intuitive multimodal interfaces and interpersonal communication systems providing
personalised interactivity in real-world and virtual environments, based on improved
human interaction modelling and understanding of contextually-referred
communication, for example, by signs and signals in all modes (such as sound, vision,
touch) and modalities (such as natural language, both spoken and written), through
autonomous adaptation and by addressing user needs, intentions and emotions.
Work proposed in any of these areas should, as appropriate:
� develop and apply engineering approaches that cater for real-time requirements (if
present) and systems modularity, and ensure the reliability, flexibility, robustness,
scalability and, where relevant, also the safety of the resulting systems; and develop
criteria for benchmarking these properties;
� contribute to the theory and application of learning in artificial systems, tackling
issues related to the purposive and largely autonomous interpretation of sensor-
generated data arising in different environments, and to novel design and
implementation principles of pertinent systems architectures.
� explore and validate the use of:
> advanced sensor, actuator, memory and control elements, components and
platforms, based on new, possibly bio-mimetic, materials and hardware designs �
e.g. for the realisation of systems with greater structural and functional diversity and
modularity,
> new, possibly bio-inspired, information-processing paradigms, and of models of
natural cognition (including human mental and linguistic development), adaptation,
self-organisation, and emergence; and take account of the role of systems
embodiment and affordances.
> new ways of combining statistical, knowledge driven and cognitive approaches to
language understanding, generation, and translation by machines.
b) A principled approach to structuring research in relevant areas, addressing in
particular learning in artificial systems, the requirements for cognitive capacities of
robotic, interactive and language support systems, and including the development of
experimental scenarios, the development or construction of resources for experimentation,
and the development of performance metrics and definitions of autonomy levels for
artificial systems.
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c) Co-ordination with related national or regional research programmes or initiatives.
Expected impact:
� Leading-edge technology companies creating new products and services, and enhancing
existing ones.
� New markets such as: extending the industrial robotics market to flexible small scale
manufacturing, opening up services (professional and domestic) markets to robots, novel
functionalities for embedded systems and assistive systems for interpersonal
communications, such as support of dynamic translation, and effective medical
diagnostics and therapeutics.
� Robust and versatile behaviour of artificial systems in open-ended environments
providing intelligent response in unforeseen situations, and enhancing human-machine
interaction
� Extended capabilities of people to perform routine, dangerous or tiring tasks in previously
inaccessible, uncharted or remote spaces; saving critical time in emergencies or hazardous
situations.
� Leading-edge research in Europe through collaborative and multidisciplinary
experimentation with approaches to achieving machine intelligence and artificial cognitive
systems, and through investigation of what artificial and natural cognitive systems can and
cannot do.
Funding schemes
a): CP; b): NoE; c) CSA (CA only)
Indicative budget distribution
ICT Call 1:
8212 M:
- CP 74 M of which a minimum of 39 M to IP and a minimum of 13 M to STREP;
- NoE 7 M;
- CSA 1M (CA only)
ICT Call 312:
Calls:
ICT Call 1 [82 M]; ICT Call 312
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3.3
Challenge 3: Components, systems, engineering
The share of electronic components in the value of engineered products and their impact in
terms of added functionality and cost-efficiency is expected to reach unprecedented levels
over the next few years. Europe has major strengths in the supply of hardware and software
components and their integration and deployment into intelligent systems, from portable
devices to cars, airplanes, health systems and manufacturing plants.
The challenge is to strengthen Europe's position as a leading supplier of electronic
components and systems. This will support the competitiveness of industrial strongholds such
as automotive, avionics, industrial automation, consumer electronics, telecoms and medical
systems. In all these domains Europe's leadership depends heavily on the capacity to engineer
and produce electronic components and systems and to integrate these into products across all
sectors. Furthermore, the social dimension is not to be underestimated given the increasingly
important role of electronics in the functioning of modern society.
In addition to input received through various consultations with a large group of research
stakeholders, research orientations under this Challenge are in line with the Strategic
Research Agendas of European Technology Platforms ENIAC (on nanoelectronics), EPoSS
(on systems integration), PHOTONICS21 (on photonics) and ARTEMIS (on embedded
systems).
Research addressing this Challenge in particular will encourage international cooperation
under the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems scheme.
This research will enable Europe's industry to stay at the forefront of electronics
developments and applications. As industry depends ever more on chip making and on
embedded software, it is of strategic importance to maintain vibrant chip making and chip
integrating functions in Europe as well as the related industries further down the electronics
"food chain". All these need early access to latest ICT. Intelligent functions embedded in
components and systems will be a key factor in revolutionising many different applications in
health, safety and security, transport, and provision of environmentally friendly sustainable
applications, and many more. These will also greatly improve industrial production processes
by adding intelligence to process control and the manufacturing shop floor, and in helping to
improve logistics and distribution, thereby increasing productivity.
Objective ICT-2007.3.1: Next-Generation Nanoelectronics Components and Electronics
Integration
Target outcome:
The objectives are to advance miniaturisation in baseline CMOS technology targeting 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").
a) "More Moore" targets nanoelectronics devices beyond 32 nm following the International
Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). Specific issues are the increasing
process variability and expected physical and reliability limitations of devices and
interconnects as well as the need for new circuit architectures and characterisation
methods and techniques.
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"More than Moore" targets heterogeneous System-on-Chip (SoC) i.e. cost efficient
integration of computing, processing and storage with other system functions of various
scaling factors (such as analogue, RF [from extremely low frequency up to millimetre-
wave and beyond], high speed, high power, high voltage, and interface technologies) on a
single chip. It also targets System-in-Package (SiP) i.e. integration of different types of
chips and devices in a single package or compact subsystem. Specific issues are power
consumption, electro-magnetic interference and heat dissipation.
Industrially-driven projects will target:
1. Advances in Integration and Miniaturisation Technologies, and in Devices
covering nanoelectronics process technology, metrology, materials, basic device and
interconnect structures and related concepts and tools for modelling and simulation for
below 32 nm CMOS and for System-on-Chip. Changes in the electrical
characteristics, in thermal and mechanical behaviour, in performance, reliability,
testability, manufacturability and power consumption of the components need to be
addressed. Integration technology also includes wafer level packaging, assembly
technology, integration of passives and 3D packaging.
2. Design technologies for next-generation components and electronics integration.
They must support a chip complexity of billions of transistors and take into account
the increased process variability and changing performances of the advanced devices
and processes. This requires a step increase in design productivity for instance through
standardised Intellectual Property reuse and scalable and programmable chip
architectures. Also targeted are design platforms for SoC and SiP supporting a
heterogeneous, global and comprehensive performance simulation of different
technologies covering multiple aspects including electrical, optical, mechanical and
thermal behaviour. Emphasis will be put on SoC and SiP system design solutions from
formal application specification down to physical implementation, and on the
effectiveness of co-simulation between different description levels.
3. Manufacturing technologies for: reliable, cost effective industrial manufacturing of
sub-45 nm chips; SoC and SiP processes; flexible, automated, adaptive, on-demand
and short cycle time manufacturing under economically favourable conditions. This
will be based on: (i) models, tools and equipment for AEC/APC-based17
manufacturing and maintenance; supporting metrology, characterisation and
information tools and methods; (ii) advanced modelling techniques and chip design
for increasing manufacturability, production yield, testability and reliability and
linking manufacturing with design; (iii) alternative pattern transfer technologies, such
as maskless lithography; (iv) characterisation techniques supporting multi-site and
single wafer, small batch manufacturing; (v) handling of thin wafers and assembly of
single chips. This also includes preparatory activities for 450-mm wafer processing
and joint assessment of manufacturing and metrology equipment for chips and SiPs by
equipment suppliers and users.
b) "Beyond CMOS" targets advanced technologies and functional devices beyond the
traditional ITRS shrink path. It involves new non-FET based logic and memory, and its
possible integration with CMOS. A matching of integration, manufacturability and system
capability requirements shall be demonstrated in industry-guided pilot projects.
c) Support measures will complement the research activities:
17 AEC/APC Advanced Equipment and Process Control
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- Access to prototyping, design expertise and training for SMEs.
- Access for universities and research institutes to affordable industrial design tools,
state-of-the-art technologies for prototyping and training.
- Roadmapping, benchmarking and definition of selection criteria for the industrial use
of "Beyond CMOS" technologies.
- Stimulating the interest of young people in pursuing a multidisciplinary career
encompassing electronics.
- Supporting the development of RTD strategies through roadmapping, consensus
building, coordination with Member or Associated States, and international
cooperation.
- CSA aiming at coordinating related national, regional and EU-wide RTD programmes
or activities.
Expected impact:
� Strengthened competitiveness of European nanoelectronics supply industry across a
complete value-chain involving large, mid-sized and small companies, enabling European
industry to lead and anticipate progress in the context of the ITRS roadmap.
� New electronics applications of high economic and socio-economic relevance in e.g.
communications, health, environment, transport and security.
� European research organisations in leading positions with an increased number of high-
skilled jobs in design and user industries and related services.
Funding schemes
a-b): CP, NoE; c): CSA
Indicative budget distribution
7312 M:
- CP 59 M of which a minimum of 23 M to IP and a minimum of 18 M to STREP;
- NoE 7 M;
- CSA 7 M
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.3.2: Organic and large-area electronics, visualisation and display
systems
Target outcomes
a) Organic and large-area technologies for logic, memory and light-emitting
functionalities addressing e-paper, smart systems on tags, low-cost RFIDs, lab on chip
devices, intelligent packaging, displays, signage, and intelligent lighting systems.
Emphasis will be: on large-area and low-cost manufacturing technologies like printing
involving additive processes and related materials; on new device structures; on advanced
modelling, simulation, and characterisation for circuit design; on encapsulation,
interconnects and system in foil integration; on innovative sensing, energy storage and
scavenging, and power management functions. Attention should be paid to the overall
manufacturing aspects including cost, capital investment and environmental impact.
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Support measures will include access to advanced manufacturing and design
competences, training and education for organic and large area electronics, joint user
assessment of prototype equipment from European suppliers and will develop synergies
between the electronics and the printing sectors on circuit design, manufacturing
equipment and standardisation.
b) Advanced visualisation systems and novel display technologies. Visualisation systems
extending colour gamut and dynamic range beyond current state-of-the-art, taking into
account human vision and perceptual models. They should support multi-viewer, unaided
and unrestricted 3D viewing, as well as natural interaction modalities. This includes signal
acquisition, processing and representation technologies for 3D-systems. Research results
are to be integrated into working prototypes addressing key professional and consumer
applications. Further outcomes will be portable display systems such as zero-power /
'ruggedised' displays, flexible and/or transparent devices, energy efficient micro-
projectors, and lightweight high-resolution vision glasses.
Expected impact
For large area and printed electronics:
� Reinforcement of Europe's leading role in this promising technology domain enabling
traditional industry to benefit from progress in these fields.
� New market possibilities and new manufacturing paradigms, thereby creating new
opportunities for local employment.
� New generation of electronic devices opening up a range of new usage opportunities.
For visualisation and display systems:
� Strengthening of European scientific and business position leading to breakthroughs and
innovative solutions for professional and consumer markets.
� Wider use of the third physical dimension for professional applications, movies, games
and TV.
Funding schemes
CP, NoE, CSA
Indicative budget distribution
5412 M:
- CP 48 M of which a minimum of 12 M for IP, and a minimum of 19 M for STREP;
- NoE 3 M;
- CSA 3 M
Call:
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.3.3: Embedded Systems Design
Target outcomes
a) Theory and methods for system design: Methods that can increase system development
productivity while achieving predictable system properties, including dependability and
security. This will require a formal framework for systems design in addition to holistic
and adaptive component-based design and verification methods. Key issues encompass
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heterogeneity (building embedded systems from components with different
characteristics); composability; predictability of extra-functional properties such as
performance and robustness (e.g. safety, security, timing and resources); concepts and
tools for specifying and evaluating security properties; adaptivity for coping with
uncertainty; and unification of approaches from computer science, electronic engineering
and control. International cooperation should address foundational research challenges
and provide mutual benefits; cooperation activities with the US National Science
Foundation (NSF) will continue and extend to other countries.
b) Suites of interoperable design tools for rapid design and prototyping: integrated tool
chains that respond to the needs of industry for designing and prototyping embedded
systems. Research will contribute to one or more of: (1) increased interoperability of tools
from SME vendors (Funding schemes: STREP, CSA); (2) consolidating tool developer's
joint RTD work through strong long-term partnerships that enjoy the commitment of
major tool users (Funding schemes: IP); and (3) open tool frameworks facilitating new
entrants and the integration of the tool chain including associated standardisation
(Funding schemes: STREP, CSA). Key issues include: (i) technology for efficient
resource management, (ii) optimising compiler technologies, including parallelisation,
taking into account features of the targeted execution platforms and extra-functional
requirements; (iii) optimised tools respecting trade-offs when co-developing hardware and
software; and (iv) model-driven development.
c) Coordination of national, regional and EU-wide R&D programmes: initiatives to
advance the European Research Area in the field of embedded systems.
Expected impact
� Increased productivity of system development by at least one order of magnitude, making
it possible to assemble systems in modular fashion.
� Improved competitiveness of European companies that rely on the design and integration
of embedded systems in their products by reducing costs and time to market.
� Emergence and growth of new companies that supply design tools and associated
software. Stimulate high-tech European companies that offer innovative solutions and
tools for embedded systems design.
� Reinforced European scientific and technological leadership in the engineering of
complex systems.
� Enhanced synergies between national policies, stronger impact of European RTD
strategies and emergence of a European Research Area in embedded systems.
Funding schemes
a): CP (STREP only), NoE; b): see details in the text above; c): CSA
Indicative budget distribution
3412 M:
- CP 29 M of which a minimum of 4 M to IP [IP apply to target outcome b)-2) only] and a
minimum of 16 M to STREP;
- NoE 4 M;
- CSA 1 M
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Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.3.4: Computing Systems
Target outcomes
a) Novel architectures for multi-core computing systems: New architectures and the
corresponding system-level software and programming environments advancing from
single to multi-core scalable and customisable on-chip systems incorporating multiple,
networked, symmetric or heterogeneous, fixed or reconfigurable processing elements.
Priorities include: (1) versatility in terms of performance, power and coping with the
requirements of entire classes of applications and markets, ranging from low-end
consumer electronics to high-end computing architectures and applications; (2)
programmability to allow harvesting the full potential of the hardware at reasonable effort;
and (3) reliability and availability. This includes interconnection (from bus to network-on-
chip), memory hierarchies, security, operating systems and run-time tools, languages and
resource/domain-aware compilers supporting parallelism and concurrency.
b) Reference architectures for generic embedded platforms: Development of a limited
number of reference designs/architectures for embedded platforms that allow industrial
users to engineer new applications with minimal effort. Reference designs/architectures
should be as generic as possible, cutting across application domains, and be accompanied
by appropriate tools and component libraries. The initial priorities are conceptualisation,
analysis, design, demonstration and evaluation of the prototype platforms. The
architectures will concentrate on composability, networking, robustness/security,
diagnosis/maintainability, and resource management, evolvability and self-organisation.
Expected impact
� Mastery of new computing architectures allowing European companies to achieve world-
leading positions in computing solutions and products.
� Increased market share of European suppliers through the availability of inexpensive
generic embedded platforms.
� Widespread integration of powerful computing solutions in products.
� European excellence in computing architectures, system software and platforms.
Strengthened European competence in the use of high-end computing to enable the
development of new applications.
Funding schemes
a): CP (STREP only), NoE; b): CP (STREP only)
Indicative budget distribution
2112 M:
- CP 17 M;
- NoE 4 M
Call:
FP7-ICT-2007-1
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Objective ICT-2007.3.5: Photonic components and subsystems
Target outcomes
a) Core photonic components and subsystems, which are essential in multiple application
fields: (1) High performance lasers. (2) High brightness, power efficient solid-state light
sources for ICT and general lighting applications. (3) Optical fibres for high performance
and for specific functions. (4) High performance image sensors. (5) Sensors exploiting
innovative sensing principles.
b) Application-specific photonic components and subsystems for application fields, which
are strategic for Europe and which are important drivers of photonics technology
development: Components and subsystems for: (1) truly cost effective broadband core
networks at 40 Gb/s or beyond per channel. (2) scalable, future-proof and economic
broadband access and local area networks. (3) minimally invasive medical diagnosis and
prevention. (4) sensing for environment, well-being, safety and security.
RTD on photonic components and subsystems may also cover related materials and
fabrication technologies (including mounting and packaging), and related photonic system
concepts.
c) Underlying technologies: (1) Integration and manufacturing technologies: Holistic
approaches for: reducing the size and cost of photonic components and subsystems;
improving their performance, manufacturability and testability; increasing their degree of
functional integration; advancing photonic/electronic convergence. (2) Design
methodologies and tools: Holistic and widely applicable approaches for designing
photonic components to improve design quality and efficiency. This includes work on
modelling, simulation and characterisation.
d) Complementary measures
-
Joint assessment by users of prototype components, subsystems and equipment
from European suppliers.
-
Networking, integration and structuring of advanced photonics RTD capacities and
activities.
e) Support measures
-
Access to centres of expertise and foundries to facilitate the deployment of
advanced technologies.
-
Raising the interest of young people in careers in photonics, and stimulating cross-
national schemes for graduate education.
-
Supporting the development of RTD strategies through roadmapping, consensus
building, coordination with Member or Associated States, and international
cooperation.
Expected Impact
� Leading position of European industry in high-value photonic products.
� New photonic based applications in several industrial sectors with emphasis on
communications, health, well-being, environment, safety and security.
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� Continued European leadership in RTD in photonics from components to systems,
securing the necessary human resources and knowledge to design, produce and use new
generations of photonic components.
Funding schemes
a-c): CP; d): CP, NoE; e): CSA
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-2
Objective ICT-2007.3.6: Micro/nanosystems
Target outcomes:
a) Next-generation smart systems18: Major breakthroughs in intelligent sensor and actuator
systems complexity, miniaturisation, networking, and autonomy. Micro/nanoscale smart
systems with higher performance at lower cost and lower power consumption for specific
applications. Energy-management, scavenging and storing techniques. Design and
packaging technologies for new sensors, actuators and microsystems, their combination
and integration. Innovative devices and integrated systems with very high density mass
storage capacity building upon progress in solid-state semiconductors, micro/nanodevices,
mechanics, optics, electronics and magnetism.
b) Micro/nano/biotechnologies' convergence: Converging micro/nano, bio and information
technologies for the development and production of integrated systems for specific
applications, such as environmental monitoring, agriculture and food quality management,
safety, security, biomedical and lifestyle applications. Innovative bioMEMS, biosensors,
lab-on-chip microsystems and autonomous implants and bio-robots. Research will also
address packaging, multilevel interfacing, manufacturing, as well as ethical and societal
issues.
c) Integration of smart materials: Integration of micro-nano technologies and smart
systems into new and traditional materials, e.g. textiles, glass, paper, etc. Major outcome
is a new generation of advanced polymeric, biocompatible, bioconnective, flexible and
very durable materials. Emphasis is on integration into, for example, smart fabrics
(SFIT19) using micro/nanosystems at the fibre core, microelectronics components, user
interfaces, power sources, software, all-in-one fabric, for personal (wearable) or other
applications. Issues such as user-friendliness, quality, cost and comfort should be
considered.
d) From smart systems to viable products: Advanced microsystems manufacturing
technologies for the whole value chain (design, materials, processes, micro-/nano-scale
devices, packaging testing and reliability) with a focus on cost-effective sensor/actuator
and system integration technologies, supported by alternative fabrication and testing
18 Smart systems are understood as systems able to sense, diagnose, describe and qualify a given situation as well as able to
mutually address and identify each other. They are able to interface, interact and communicate with their environment and
with other smart systems.
19 Smart Fabric Interactive Textiles
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processes for short time-to-markets. Pre-industrial validation of new manufacturing
concepts suitable for large-scale production will also be addressed.
e) Smart systems for communications and data management: Smart micro/nanosystems
enabling wireless access and facilitating intelligent networking with emphasis on the
hardware required for communications and the management of smart device information.
This includes solutions for adaptable RF and HF technologies (e.g. RFID, RF-NEMS and
HF-NEMS). Data management, storage and processing functions of smart systems will
also be addressed.
f) Support actions will ensure broad access to micro/nanosystems manufacturing
technologies, in particular by SMEs, identify training and education needs of the area
proposing appropriate measures and establish specific measures aiming at coordination
and dissemination of smart systems integration RTD at European level.
Expected impact
� Substantial improvement on various aspects of smart systems integration: Higher product
quality and reliability, increased miniaturisation, integration and functionality, lower
costs, reduced power consumption, higher speed requirements and/or shorter time-to-
market.
� Transformation of industrial production by adding intelligence to process control and the
manufacturing shop floor, and by improving logistics and distribution - thereby increasing
productivity.
� Increased market share for European companies across different industrial sectors by
delivering systems with new functional capabilities and improved quality within a
competitive timeframe.
Funding schemes
a-e): CP, NoE; f): CSA
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-2
Objective ICT-2007.3.7: Networked Embedded and Control Systems
Target outcomes:
a) Middleware: seamless connectivity and inter-working of embedded systems through new
platforms that support composability, scalability and minimal power consumption while
offering open interfaces to third parties for application development. Emphasis is on (1)
programmability; (2) dynamic reconfiguration and ontologies; (3) enabling privacy,
security and trust; and (4) predictable connectivity and QoS awareness. Priority
application domains are: private/home/building, nomadic and manufacturing. Support
may also be provided to industry-driven initiatives for sharing software source code and
for standardisation activities in the broader embedded systems domain.
b) Cooperating objects and Wireless Sensor Networks: spontaneous cooperation of
objects in spatial proximity in order to jointly execute a given task. This will require (1)
new methods and algorithms to support different cooperation concepts and modes; (2)
hardware/software platforms including operating systems or kernels and communication
protocols to enable distributed optimal execution; and (3) programming abstractions and
support tools to facilitate third party programming of self-organising systems composed of
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heterogeneous objects. Research challenges also include dynamic resource discovery and
management, semantics that allow object/service definition and querying for data and
resources, advanced control that makes the systems reactive to the physical world, as well
as security and privacy-enabling features. While the developed technology should be
generic, it should be driven by an entire class of ambitious future applications in which
scalability and deployment should be addressed. International cooperation on foundational
research with the USA and other countries is encouraged.
c) Control of large-scale complex distributed systems: New engineering approaches that
ensure efficient, robust, predictable, safe and secure behaviour for manufacturing and
process plants and for large scale infrastructures such as distributed energy production,
energy distribution, airports or seaports etc. Key challenges include (1) developing
generic modelling and design methods, dynamically reconfiguring architectures,
languages and scalable algorithms for the control of evolvable, distributed and adaptable
systems; (2) mastering complexity, temporal and spatial uncertainties such as delays and
bandwidth in communications and node availability; and (3) integrating advances in
sensor networks for closing the control loop. Research should strengthen and consolidate
European excellence in systems sciences and engineering by encouraging the control,
computer and communications sciences and engineering communities to work together.
International cooperation with the USA, Russia and W. Balkans is encouraged.
Expected impact:
� Control of 10 times more complex systems at 10% of today's effort. Achieve 100% plant
availability, reduce maintenance time and cost by 50% and industrial accidents by 30%.
� New services and applications that are tailored to specific needs, seizing new market
opportunities.
� More efficient, flexible, secure, easier to maintain and more productive large
infrastructures (e.g. power grid, water supply), manufacturing and process plants.
� Enable low-cost monitoring of the environment and natural resources.
Funding schemes
a) CP (STREP only), CSA for source code sharing and for standardisation initiatives
b) CP (STREP only), NoE
c) CP (STREP only), CSA for international cooperation
Indicative budget distribution12
Call:
FP7-ICT-2007-2
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3.4
Challenge 4: Digital Libraries and Content
In today's society individuals and organisations are confronted with an ever growing load and
diversity of information and content, and with increasing demands for knowledge and skills.
Coping with these demands requires progress in three closely related domains. First, content
should be made available through digital libraries and its long-term preservation, accessibility
and usability must be ensured. Second, we need more effective technologies for intelligent
content creation and management, and for supporting the capture of knowledge and its
sharing and reuse. Third, individuals and organisations have to find new ways to acquire,
contribute and exploit knowledge, and thereby learn.
The challenge, therefore, is to harness the synergies made possible by linking content,
knowledge and learning; to make content and knowledge abundant, accessible, interactive and
usable over time by humans and machines alike. This should take into account current trends
in content production and consumption and particularly the move from few-to-many to many-
to-many models. Europe, with its unique cultural heritage and creative potential, is well
placed to take advantage of this paradigm shift and to be a key actor in the knowledge
economy.
The research is expected to firmly establish digital libraries services as a key component of
digital content infrastructures, allowing content and knowledge to be produced, stored,
managed, personalised, transmitted, preserved and used reliably, efficiently, at low cost and
according to widely accepted standards.
The support of more personalised and collaborative services, particularly within self-
organising communities, will lead to more creative approaches to content and knowledge
production.
Improvements are also expected in terms of the usability, accessibility, scalability and cost-
effectiveness of the resulting methods, technologies and applications with respect to large
amounts of data and concurrent users.
The work will strengthen the link between content, knowledge and permanent learning
processes. It will improve our ability to master and exploit content and knowledge and to
learn in increasingly dynamic working environments.
The work carried out under this challenge will contribute to the implementation of the "i2010:
Digital Libraries" initiative.
Objective ICT-2007.4.1 (ICT-2007.4.3): Digital libraries and technology-enhanced
learning
Target outcome
For digital libraries
Medium term:
a) Large-scale European-wide digital libraries with innovative access services that
support communities of practice in the creation, interpretation and use of cultural and
scientific content, including multi-format and multi-source digital objects. They should be
combined with robust and scalable environments which include semantic-based search
capabilities and essential digital preservation features. Particular attention is given to cost-
effective digitisation processes and to the use of digital resources in multilingual and
multidisciplinary contexts.
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Longer term:
b) Radically new approaches to digital preservation, such as those inspired by human
capacity to deal with information and knowledge, exploring the potential of advanced ICT
to automatically act on high volumes and dynamic and volatile digital content,
guaranteeing its preservation, keeping track of its evolving semantics and usage context
and safeguarding its integrity, authenticity and long term accessibility over time.
There is a specific focus on the creation of a network of centres of competence for digitisation
and preservation, building upon, pooling and upgrading existing resources in the Member or
Associated States.
For technology-enhanced learning
Medium term:
c) Responsive environments for technology-enhanced learning that motivate, engage and
inspire learners, and which can be embedded in the business processes and human
resources management systems of organisations. They support the transformation of
learning outcomes into permanent and valuable knowledge assets. Focus is on the mass-
individualisation of learning experiences with ICT (contextualized and adaptable to age,
situations, culture, and learning abilities), through pedagogically-inspired solutions for
competency, skills and performance enhancement. Activities integrate pedagogical and
organisational approaches and exploit, where relevant, interactivity, collaboration and
context-awareness. Interdisciplinary research should deliver a convincing and
theoretically sound body of evidence as to which approaches are effective and under
which circumstances.
Longer term:
d) Adaptive and intuitive learning systems, able to learn and configure themselves
according to their understanding and experience of learners' behaviour. Cross-disciplinary
research on the synergies between learning and cognition in humans and machines should
lead to systems able to identify learner's requirements, intelligently monitoring progress,
capable of exploiting learners' abilities in order to let them learn better, and able to give
purposeful and meaningful advice to both learners and teachers either for self-learning or
for learning in a collaborative environment.
Research on both themes of this objective is to be carried out by cross-disciplinary teams and
it should include empirical evaluation studies assessing the broader socio-economic context in
which technology is to be embedded.
Expected impact
� Unlocking people's and organisations' abilities to access content, master it, transfer it to
the desired contexts and preserve it over time. Widespread use of these resources in the
collaborative creation of cultural experiences.
� EU-wide migration of content to digital form involving memory institutions (libraries,
archives and museums), leveraging national initiatives, and resulting in a significant
increase of content available through digital libraries.
� Faster and more effective acquisition of knowledge, competences and skills, increased
knowledge worker productivity, and more efficient organisational learning processes.
Funding schemes
CP, NoE, CSA
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Indicative budget distribution
ICT Call 1:
4412 M:
- CP 38 M of which a minimum of 17 M to IP and a minimum of 9 M to STREP;
- NoE 4 M;
- CSA 2 M
ICT Call 312
Calls
FP7-ICT-2007-1 [44 M], FP7-ICT-2007-312
Objective ICT-2007.4.2 (ICT-2007.4.4): Intelligent Content and Semantics
Target outcome
Medium term:
a) Advanced authoring environments for the creation of novel forms of interactive and
expressive content enabling multimodal experimentation and non-linear story-telling.
These environments will ease content sharing and remixing, also by non-expert users, by
automatically tagging content with semantic metadata and by using open standards to
store it in networked repositories supporting symbolic and similarity-based indexing and
search capabilities, for all content types.
b) Collaborative automated workflow environments to manage the lifecycle of novel and
legacy media and enterprise content assets, from the acquisition of reference materials to
the versioning, packaging and repurposing of complex products, including their linguistic
and cultural adaptation to target markets and user groups. Empirical results from the
psychology of human perception and attention will be used to identify salient multimedia
segments and apply summarisation and encoding schemes that will improve content
storage and transmission without affecting its perceptual properties.
c) Architectures and technologies for personalised distribution, presentation and
consumption of self-aware, adaptive content. Detecting and exploiting emergent ambient
intelligence they will use features embedded in content objects and rendering equipment
to enable dynamic device adaptation, immersive multimodal experiences and contextual
support of user goals and linguistic preferences. Privacy preserving learning algorithms
will analyse user interactions with devices and other users so as to update and effectively
serve those goals and preferences.
d) Actions geared towards community building, intended to stimulate cross-disciplinary
approaches and a more effective user/supplier dialogue, and other measures, including
field validation and standards, aimed at a faster uptake of research results. Usability and
technology assessment studies, economic analyses and roadmaps to chart the
democratisation of personal and community based multimedia production and
management tools.
Longer term:
e) Semantic foundations: probabilistic, temporal and modal modelling and approximate
reasoning through objective-driven research moving beyond current formalisms.
Theoretical results will be matched by robust and scalable reference implementations.
Usability and performance will be tested through large scale ontology mediated Web
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integration of heterogeneous, evolving and noisy or inconsistent data sources ranging
from distributed multimedia repositories to data streams originating from ambient devices
and sensors, supporting real time resolution of massive numbers of queries and the
induction of scientific hypotheses or other forms of learning.
f) Advanced knowledge management systems for information-bound organisations and
communities, capable of extracting actionable meaning from structured and unstructured
information and social interaction patterns, and of making it available for activities
ranging from information search through conceptual mapping to decision making. Such
systems will exploit semantics embedded in multimedia objects, data streams and ICT-
based processes, and rely on formal policies to manage user access as well as audit trails
in support of dynamic virtual organisations. Research advances will be embedded within
end-to-end systems using computer-tractable knowledge in support of dynamic data and
application integration, automation and interoperation of business processes, automated
diagnosis and problem-solving in a variety of domains. Robustness, scalability and
flexibility will be tested in real-life settings, together with interworking with legacy
systems.
Expected impact
These activities will make digital resources that embody creativity and semantics easier and
more cost-effective to produce, organize, search, personalise, distribute and (re)use, across the
value chain.
� Creators will be able to design more participative and communicative forms of content.
� Publishers in creative industries, enterprises and professional sectors will increase their
productivity with innovative content of greater complexity and ease of repurposing.
� Organisations will be able to automate the collection and distribution of digital content
and machine-tractable knowledge and share them with partner organisations in trusted
collaborative environments.
� Scientists will operate more efficiently by automating the link between data analysis,
theory and experimental validation.
Funding schemes
CP, NoE, CSA
Indicative budget distribution
ICT Call 1: 4412 M:
- CP 40 M of which a minimum of 17 M to IP and a minimum of 10 M to STREP;
- NoE 1 M;
- CSA 3 M
ICT Call 312
Calls:
FP7-ICT-2007-1 [44 M], FP7-ICT-2007-312
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3.5
Challenge 5: Towards sustainable and personalised healthcare
Europe is facing the challenge of delivering quality healthcare to all its citizens, at affordable
cost. Prolonged medical care for the ageing society, the costs of managing chronic diseases,
and the increasing demand by citizens for best quality healthcare are major factors. Healthcare
expenditure in Europe is already significant (8.5% of the GDP on average) and rising faster
than overall economic growth itself20. The emerging situation calls for a change in the way
healthcare is delivered and the way medical knowledge is managed and transferred to clinical
practice. ICT are key to implement these changes in this information-intensive domain.
ICT may offer useful capability to improve illness prevention and safety of care, facilitate
active participation of patients and enable personalisation of care that open new opportunities
in health and disease management. The new capabilities of modelling, simulation and
biomedical imaging, combined with knowledge about diseases that ranges from molecular to
organ and system levels, give rise to a new generation of predictive medicine. This will bring
radical improvements to the quality and efficiency of our healthcare systems.
In this challenge support will go to highly interdisciplinary research aiming at:
� Improved productivity of healthcare systems21 by facilitating patient care at the point of
need, health information processing and quicker transfer of knowledge to clinical practice.
� Continuous and more personalised care solutions, addressing the informed and
responsible participation of patients and their informal carers (family/friends) in care
processes, and responding to the needs of elderly people.
� Savings in lives and resources by focusing on prevention and prediction rather than on
costly medical interventions after symptoms and diseases have developed.
� Higher patient safety by optimising medical interventions and preventing errors.
� Leadership of the eHealth and medical imaging/devices industry that is well rooted in
Europe, and attracting back to Europe research activities of the pharmaceutical industry.
All activities will address user needs, personal data security, confidentiality, privacy as well
as the reimbursement scheme and legal framework for using new systems. Validation should
include quantitative indicators of the added value and potential impact of the proposed
applications. The integration in healthcare processes and the interoperability of eHealth
systems should be part of the design and validation of the proposed solution. Solutions for
chronic disease management will address the needs of many citizens (notably the elderly) for
better health, well-being and mobility therefore contributing directly to the priority of
achieving an Inclusive European Information Society as set in the strategic framework,
i2010 � European Information Society 201022.
20 Health at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2005.
21 It is estimated that redundancy and inefficiency account for 25-40% of the $3.3 trillion spent worldwide on healthcare
every year ("The no-computer virus", Economist, 28 April 2005).
22 See COM (2005) 229 final : "i2010 � A European Information Society for growth and employment"
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Objective ICT-2007.5.1: Personal Health Systems for Monitoring and Point-of-Care
diagnostics
Target outcome:
a) Personalised Monitoring: Innovative systems and services aimed at health status
monitoring for persons at risk or with chronic health conditions, including those associated
with ageing23. Solutions will be based on wearable or portable/mobile ICT systems, which
empower citizens to participate in healthcare processes and facilitate remote monitoring and
care at preferred environments, including homes. Emphasis will be on non-invasive or
minimally-invasive, multi-parametric monitoring, combined with expert feedback and care, in
closed-loop systems. Multi-parametric monitoring will encompass various health parameters
(e.g. vital body signs or biochemical analytes) that determine the health state of an individual,
and can also include information regarding activity, location, social and environmental
context. Intelligent systems will combine and correlate multi-parametric data with expert
biomedical knowledge. The developed systems will be interoperable with electronic medical
records and the proposed solutions will have potential for adoption in actual healthcare
systems. Specific focus will be on:
1) Chronic disease management: Proposed solutions will have potential for integration in
the healthcare process, including nursing care, primary or secondary healthcare and
homecare. Intelligent closed-loop approaches will detect and assess trends and
episodes, facilitate adaptive care (e.g. drug administration or new treatment regime)
and promote doctor-patient interaction. This will be done, where clinically valid,
remotely, anytime, anywhere, avoiding hospitalisation of patients.
2) Preventive monitoring for people at risk (e.g. with personal/family history related to a
disease or medical episode) to identify evolving patterns/trends in health and lifestyle
parameters (e.g. in immune system status, sleep, nutrition, activity), which indicate
elevated risks of developing diseases or reveal episodes at early stages. Solutions will
ensure the necessary involvement of healthcare professionals, facilitate personalised
guidance, encourage citizen compliance or prompt for early medical intervention.
b) Point-of-Care diagnostics: Systems for multi-analyte screening applications at primary
care level. These will be portable or handheld devices, based on e.g. microarray and Lab-
on-a-Chip technologies, capable of carrying out multiple tests at e.g. genome, proteome,
metabolome levels. They will be able to identify predisposition to diseases, enable early
diagnosis of a disease or their recurrence, and also provide detailed information to aid
treatment, such as dosage advice or indicate when an individual should not be treated by a
particular drug. Systems will demonstrate significant advances in sensitivity and
specificity, and also in processing, analysis and quality control of the data produced.
Particular attention will be paid to the interface with hospital and laboratory information
systems and with electronic medical record systems.
Projects will aim at targeted solutions that integrate all necessary technologies and
components (e.g. sensors and networks, interfaces, intelligent algorithms, services over
converged platforms). Wherever necessary, new technologies and components will be
developed.
c) Coordination and Support Actions on the following three topics: (1) RTD roadmap on
Personal Health Systems identifying emerging technologies and potential applications,
23 Specialised activities related to elderly, such as integration of health and social care systems, will be coordinated with
Challenge 7.
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taking into account user demand, business aspects, ethical and legal considerations. (2)
Reliability aspects of wireless transmission of health-related information and any needs
for exclusive radio frequency bands for continuous provision of care. (3) Promotion and
further recommendations for interoperability of Personal Health Systems with other
eHealth systems, in the landscape of continuous care.
Expected impact:
� A valuable contribution to the stabilisation of the cost of the health delivery systems
without compromising the quality and efficiency of healthcare. Improving the
productivity of healthcare systems by facilitating of patient care at the point of need
and through better health information processing. Accelerating the establishment of
interoperability standards and secure and seamless communication of health data
between all involved partners, including patients.
� Reinforced leadership of the EU Personal Health Systems industry, including
consumer ICT products for initial assessment, monitoring and management of the
health status.
� Higher quality care at the patient location, and resource savings by reducing
hospitalisation and costly medical interventions. Better support and increased
reassurance for people at risk. Facilitation of more active participation of citizens in
illness prevention and care processes.
Funding schemes
a-b): CP (IP only); c): CSA
Indicative budget distribution
6012 M:
a-b): CP 59 M; c): CSA 1 M Up to one CSA of maximum 500 K EC funding and 1 year
duration for each topic
Call:
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.5.2: Advanced ICT for Risk Assessment and Patient Safety
Target outcome:
a) Advanced computerised adverse event systems: Identification of common patterns in
safety-relevant events beyond merely reporting nosocomial infections and/or Adverse
Drug Events (ADE). These alerting and management support systems must incorporate
new tools for prediction, detection and monitoring of adverse events and other relevant
events impacting on patient safety. The solutions should be based on innovative data
mining, integration techniques of existing databases and electronic health record systems,
decision support systems, intelligent medication delivery (e.g. RFID-based), and adverse
event reporting systems. Emerging technologies like semantic mining and semantic
information integration should be validated on multimedia databases. Each proposal will
include a validation scheme leading to quantitative benefits.
b) New risk prediction for large scale events: Investigation of all aspects related to ICT
research in new risk prediction, assessment and management tools for preparation,
surveillance, support and intervention in case of large-scale adverse health events. All
relevant stakeholders in Europe and worldwide will be involved. This will complement
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the efforts made by Directorate General Health and Consumer Protection's Health
Emergency Operations Facility (HEOF) which uses a set of ICT tools to facilitate the
spread of information concerning health related crisis24.
c) Collaboration with Latin America countries: Following previous and existing
activities such as @Health project and @LIS programme (Alliance for the Information
Society)25, a research project (SICA) will aim at establishing collaboration between EU
constituency and their Latin America counterparts in the area of patient safety. The
proposal should build cooperation, transfer of technology and demonstration activities in
the area of alert and decision support systems based on Electronic Health Records. The
proposal should focus on the use of EU standards in this area.
Expected impact:
� World-leading levels of patient safety with fewer medical errors and optimised
medical interventions resulting in savings of lives and resources.
� Early alerts and improved management of large scale health-related crises through
effective and automated risk prediction, assessment and management.
� Accelerated and wider adoption of future electronic health record systems.
� International cooperation between EU constituency and the Latin America
counterpart. Uptake of EU standards in the electronic Health Records area in Latin
America.
Funding schemes
a): CP; b): CSA (Up to one CSA of maximum 1 year duration); c) CP (STREP only / SICA)
Indicative budget distribution
2612 M:
a): CP 22 M of which a minimum of 8 M for IP and a minimum of 8 M for STREP
b): CSA: 1 M
c) CP (STREP only / SICA): 3M
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.5.3: Virtual Physiological Human
Target outcomes:
Patient-specific computer models for personalised and predictive healthcare and ICT-
based tools for modelling and simulation of human physiology and disease-related processes.
a) Patient-specific computational modelling and simulation of organs or systems
targeting specific clinical needs such as prediction of diseases, early diagnosis, disease
quantification, surgery planning, treatment and training. The computational models
should go beyond the state of the art of available models and be multilevel when
24 See http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_threats/com/Influenza/influenza_en.htm
25 See http://ec.europa.eu/comm/europeaid/projects/alis/index_fr.htm
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appropriate. Projects will address one or more of the clinical application areas defined in
the paragraph below "Clinical applications and demonstrations".
b) Data integration and new knowledge extraction: Innovative software tools for data
mining, representation, formalisation and image processing able to integrate
heterogeneous multimedia information from distributed databases. These tools will be
developed specifically for (1) Coupling scientific research data with clinical and large
empirical databases with focus on the association of genotype-related data and
phenotype-related data with specific computational models of diseases and treatments;
(2) Automated image processing and analysis for the extraction of bio-medical
parameters/markers used to assess the presence or evolution of a disease, focusing on
specific organs and/or disease and demonstrating quantitative benefits in diagnosis and
prognosis. Projects will address one of the clinical application areas defined in the
paragraph below "Clinical applications and demonstrations".
c) Clinical applications and demonstration of tangible benefits of patient-specific
computational models: All projects addressing the two technical bullets above will fall
into one of the following application areas: (1) Intelligent medical simulation
environments for surgery training, planning and interventions; (2) Prediction of disease or
early diagnosis by integrating patient specific knowledge and predispositions obtained in
biomedical imaging; (3) Advanced environment for simulation and assessment of the
efficacy and safety of specific drugs.
All models will be fully verified and validated, so that they can be deployed as part of an ICT
infrastructure that provides integral access to clinical users. The use of open environments and
open-source software is expected to allow for future extensions of models.
d) Networking action on integrating European research in the field of multilevel modelling
and simulation of human anatomy and physiology. Sustainable integration will be
achieved through a rather limited partnership with demonstrated scientific excellence.
Jointly executed research will focus on methodological issues and mechanisms that
favour sharing knowledge, multidisciplinary training programmes and reusable software
tools.
e) Coordination and support actions on (1) Enhancing security and privacy in VPH, in
particular for patient data processed over distributed networks. The proposed solutions
will address the implications of the use of genetic data, e.g. genetic predispositions, and
identify the required technology developments and implementation challenges. (2)
Specific International Cooperation Action on healthcare information systems based on
Grid capabilities. Insight into research activities undertaken in the target countries of
Latin America, Western Balkans, Mediterranean countries, aiming at optimizing the use
of bio-medical data and computing resources. New opportunities for collaboration will be
explored and a set of future activities identified.
Expected impact:
� New environments for predictive, individualised, evidence based, more effective and
safer healthcare. Reduced medical errors and improved patient safety through
simulation of adverse drug effects on patient models. Accelerated development of
safer drugs and medical devices through in-silico environments.
� Improved semantic interoperability of biomedical information and contribution to a
common health information infrastructure.
� Strengthened leadership of EU medical imaging industry contributing to attracting
back to Europe the research activities of the pharmaceutical industry.
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� Increased European multidisciplinary research excellence in biomedical informatics
and molecular medicine by fostering closer cooperation between ICT, medical device,
medical imaging, pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
Funding schemes
a-c): CP; d): one NoE; e): CSA
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-2
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3.6 Challenge 6: ICT for Mobility, Environmental Sustainability and Energy
Efficiency
This challenge focuses on systems for safer and more efficient mobility of people and goods
and on raising Europe's capacity for sustainable growth. Europe has ambitious goals for
sustainable development26 related to climate change and clean energy, sustainable transport
and sustainable production and consumption. These require a new push in ICT research in
these areas, involving major stakeholders such as the automotive and transportation
industries, equipment suppliers, the telecommunications industry, motorway, road
infrastructure and fleet operators, utility providers, public authorities, civil protection and
service providers.
Research under this challenge addresses the major socio-economic challenges caused by
Europe's increasing demand for mobility: increasing congestion, high consumption of energy,
pollutant emissions, and above-all accidents causing fatalities and injuries. The forecast
increase of 26% in vehicle-kilometres and 38% in goods transport up to 2010 could in the
worst case lead to a loss of 4% of the GDP in Europe, if counter measures are not taken. ICT
research on transport issues, as identified notably in the Strategic Research Agendas of the
ERTRAC European Technology Platform27 and the eSafety Forum28, addresses these
challenges.
ICT research also addresses unsustainable trends which undermine future economic growth
and impact severely on the quality of life and health of European citizens: increased demand
for natural resources (e.g. 1-2% per year for energy, growing water consumption per person
per day), rising waste volumes, degraded environment, higher risk exposure to diverse
pollutants and to ever more frequent disasters. Through the research identified this challenge
will actively contribute to the renewed sustainable development strategy, including the Water
Framework Directive, the European Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution and the Action Plan
on Environment and Health.
One major goal of this challenge is to achieve mobility in Europe that is virtually accident-
free, efficient, adaptive, clean and comfortable. This includes reducing the energy consumed
by transport with new ICT technologies applied to vehicles, transport systems, logistics and
traffic management. In particular, the research is expected to make a major contribution
towards the goal of achieving 50% reduction in road fatalities by 2010. The research, which
will make an important contribution to the i2010 "Intelligent Car" Initiative29, is expected
to strengthen the competitiveness and technological leadership of Europe's automotive and
supplier industries on the very competitive world markets. The challenge also contributes to
the objectives resulting from the mid-term review of the 2001 Transport White Paper30.
Another major goal is to reap the benefits of ICT to optimise the use of natural resources
throughout their life cycles, including energy, to design smarter and cleaner processes with
minimum waste, and to contain environmental degradation and related threats on human lives,
infrastructures and the environment. In particular, research will help to achieve the EU targets
of taking the lead towards more sustainable consumption and production in the global
economy, hence contributing to a cleaner, safer and healthier global environment. Research
will contribute to a stronger European capacity of mastering, predicting and managing the
26 European Council: Austrian Presidency Conclusions: 16th June 2006, http://ec.europa.eu/sustainable/sds2006/index_en.htm
27 http://www.ertrac.org/pdf/publications/ertrac_agenda_dec2004.pdf
28 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/esafety/doc/esafety_2006/fp7_ict_stakeholders_input_pub.pdf
29 "Raising Awareness of ICT for smarter, safer and cleaner vehicles", COM(2006) 59 final of 15 February 2006
30 Keep Europe Moving � Sustainable mobility for our continent, COM(2006) 314 finals, 22.6.2006
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environment and its resources making use of ICT tools that interoperate reliably in a single
information space.
Objective ICT-2007.6.1: ICT for Intelligent Vehicles and Mobility Services
Target outcome
a) ICT research in Intelligent Vehicle Systems will offer a higher degree of accident
prevention through improved driver-warning strategies, hazard detection, actuation and
sensing including sensor fusion and sensor networks, as well as the integration of
independent safety systems and their interaction with the driver. Key targets are increased
performance, reliable and secure operation as well as making vehicles "cleaner". New
generation advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) will increase vehicles'
intelligence and contribute to safer and more efficient driving.
b) Research in Mobility Services for People aims at ICT for user-centred `always-on'
mobility services based on location-aware enhanced personalised services such as
context-aware personal communications and always-available information access.
c) ICT research in Mobility Services for Goods targets safer, more secure, efficient and
environment-friendly ICT-based freight transport solutions in both urban and long-haul
operations, supporting the most suitable selection of modes for consignments and
safeguarding them along the transport chain as requested by Commission's
Communication on freight logistics31. Closer cooperation between actors in the field is a
key issue.
Research under b) and c) will integrate a number of advanced technologies, e.g. low-cost
GNSS receivers, software defined radio technologies, high-accuracy hybrid positioning
systems combined with dynamic navigation services, semantic web and multi-agent
technologies, as well as technologies such as RFID and smart tags in combination with
advanced sensors, communication and mobility management systems. Projects will also
address issues such as the development of business models for public private partnerships.
For a-c) specific needs of trucks, buses, two-wheelers and fleets, e.g. in public transport and
logistics operations, will be addressed covering also the associated needs of other transport
modes.
d) Coordination and Support Actions aim at the preparation of standards, agreed
specifications and the ramping up of Field Operational Tests.
Expected impact
� World leadership of Europe's industry in the area of Intelligent Vehicle Systems and
expansion to new emerging markets.
� Improved safety, efficiency and competitiveness of transport systems across Europe,
with strong contribution to growth and jobs and towards the objective of reducing road
fatalities by 50% in EU-25 by 2010.
� New targets for efficiency and environmental friendliness in Europe's transport sector
through new mobility services.
� Higher mobility of people and goods across different transport modes through the
provision of accessible and reliable information services.
31 COM(2006) 336 final of 28 June 2006: "Freight Logistics in Europe � key to sustainable mobility"
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Funding schemes
a): CP; b-c): CP, CSA; d): CSA
Indicative budget distribution
4912 M:
- CP 46 M of which a minimum of 14 M for IP and a minimum of 19 M for STREP;
- CSA 3 M
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.6.2: ICT for Cooperative Systems
Target outcome
a) ICT research in Co-operative Systems will deliver advanced, reliable, fast and secure
vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication for new functionalities,
real-time traffic management and new levels of support to active safety systems in
vehicles and to the driver. By combining technologies such as accurate positioning and
improved sensor networking, research is expected to lead towards "zero-accident"
scenarios. An increasing number of vehicles with ICT-links to the transport infrastructure
will make it possible to optimise traffic management at large scale.
b) Field Operational Tests are large-scale test programmes aiming at a comprehensive
assessment of the efficiency, quality, robustness and user-friendliness of ICT solutions
for smarter, safer and cleaner vehicles and real-time network management.
c) Coordination and Support Actions in the framework of the Intelligent Car initiative
aim at international co-operation, standardisation and training activities as well as to
assess socio-economic impact.
Expected impact
� Common pan-European architecture, standards and deployment model for co-
operative systems.
� World leadership of Europe's transport industry in the emerging area of Co-operative
Systems and in road and network operator's tools.
� Significant improvements in safety, security, energy efficiency, emissions reduction,
comfort and sustainability of transport. This includes contribution towards the
objective of reducing fatalities with 50% in EU-25 by 2010, and on longer term work
towards the "zero-fatalities" scenario and a contribution to a significant reduction in
the energy consumption and congestion in road transport.
� Proof-of-concept to all stakeholders through Field Operational Tests ensuring the
wider take up of intelligent vehicle systems and co-operative systems.
Funding schemes
a): CP, NoE, CSA; b): CP; c): CSA
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
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FP7-ICT-2007-2
Objective ICT-2007.6.3: ICT for Environmental Management and Energy Efficiency
Target outcome
a) ICT RTD in Collaborative Systems for Environmental Management aims to integrate
environmental monitoring and management with an enhanced capacity to assess
population exposure and health risks, to report to and alert targeted groups and to
organise efficient response. The target is a Single Information Space for the Environment
in Europe in which environmental institutions, service providers and citizens can
collaborate or use available information without technical restraints. The activities will
aim at dependable, flexible and user-centric shared solutions for sustainable use of natural
resources and for better management of ecosystems including the mitigation of
environmental degradation and associated threats. Research is expected to deliver
visionary concepts and techniques, or strategic integrated approaches for ICT systems
addressing environmental applications that are cost-effective, easy to set up and to
operate. The focus is on generic systems that will integrate to a large extent autonomous,
adaptive sensor networks32, extended data fusion, rapid and secure access to distributed
information, modelling, simulation and visualisation as well as computing facilities for
decision making. Full attention will be on the optimisation of complex data flows across
all decision levels, across borders and sectors. Typically, these collaborative systems will
be validated in the case of fresh surface water, ambient air, outdoor or indoor.
b) One Coordination and Support Action in each of the following areas shall address (1)
the rapid adoption of standards, protocols and open architectures, in support of the
INSPIRE, GMES and GEOSS33 initiatives in a holistic way; (2) coordination and
roadmapping aspects of ongoing and future research in the field of ICT for natural or
industrial disaster risk reduction and emergency management; (3) building the European
Research Area in the field of ICT for environmental sustainability.
c) New and affordable ICT for Energy-intensive Systems for: (1) design and simulation
of energy use profiles covering the entire life-cycle of energy-intensive products
(manufacturing, use and disposal), services and processes; (2) intelligent and interactive
monitoring of energy production, distribution, trading and use, e.g. intelligent metering,
network management, in-house consumption management; and (3) innovative tools,
business models and platforms for energy efficiency service provision providing
continuous and accurate information to decision makers, in industry and policy making.
The focus is on energy-neutral new or renovated home and working environments and
efficient management of local power grids.
d) Coordination and Support Actions for the definition of research agendas,
dissemination of research results in ICT-enabled energy-efficiency, promotion of best
practice and awareness-raising activities Europe-wide and world wide.
e) Specific International Cooperation Action (SICA) in ICT for environmental disaster
reduction and management, the assessment of natural hazards and communities
vulnerability together with the development and interoperability of rapidly deployable
ICT-based solutions for public warnings and emergency management.
Expected impact:
32 See theme Security and Space for activities on satellite monitoring in support of GMES
33 http://www.gmes.info, http://inspire.jrc.it, http://www.earthobservations.org
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� Innovative applications and breakthrough ICT solutions in environmental monitoring
and management, with perspectives for wide deployment and new market
opportunities, while consolidating research efforts and building a European Research
Area in the field.
� World-best technological capability to respond adequately to major environmental
threats, with links to major environmental initiatives in Europe.
� World leadership in ICT-enabled energy efficiency through intelligent solutions and in
support of Europe's objective to save 20% of energy consumption by 202034.
� Wide take-up of ICT systems to enable future buildings to become at least energy-
neutral
� Position Europe in the international context for development of new ICT-supported
approaches to produce, distribute and trade energy efficiently.
� Reduction in personal energy usage through analysis of information coming from the
developed monitoring systems.
Funding schemes
a): CP; b): CSA; c):CP (STREP only); d): CSA; e): CP (STREP only / SICA), CSA
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-2
34 Green Paper on Energy Efficiency "Doing more with less"
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3.7
Challenge 7: ICT for Independent Living and Inclusion
ICT provides a major opportunity to integrate people at risk of exclusion and empower
individuals to fully participate in the knowledge society. ICT also offers important means to
address the challenges associated to the ageing population such as the rise in number of
people with high disability rates35, fewer family carers, and a smaller productive workforce.
For many people, in particular for groups at risk of exclusion, e.g. the growing part of the
population that is over 60, the complexity and lack of utility, accessibility and usability of
ICT is a major barrier.
The objective is to respond to these trends by mainstreaming and radically improving the
accessibility and usability of new ICT solutions. This should ensure a better adoption and
acceptance of ICT by people with disabilities, functional limitations or lacking digital
competences, and may have a large spill-over effect to the wider society. In addition, new
opportunities offered by ICTs will be exploited to help offset the impact of the ageing
population, significantly prolonging independent living and increasing active participation in
the economy and in society. Finally new ICT solutions for improving social cohesion will be
explored and developed.
EU-level activities under this challenge address essential longer term RTD in ICT for
independent living and active ageing and are expected to be complemented by a major
initiative based on Article 169 of the Treaty, bringing together the research programmes of
Member or Associated States for large-scale trans-national collaboration on applied RTD for
`Ambient Assisted Living'. A close coordination between these two actions will be ensured.
This challenge requires a multi-disciplinary and user-centred approach to RTD combining
advanced technology research and systems level integration. Resulting solutions should meet
user requirements and achieve wide acceptance.
Between 2010 and 2012, the research is expected to provide a substantial contribution
towards the i2010 objective of an inclusive society and deliver ICT solutions that, in line with
the 2006 Riga Ministerial declaration on Inclusion, help substantially reduce the 30% of the
European population currently not using ICT. Research is also expected to provide prototypes
of systemic ICT-based solutions capable of extending independence and prolonging active
participation in society for the ageing population, as well as advanced solutions for other
groups at risk of exclusion, notably marginalised young people. This should help create
important new market opportunities for European industry and establish global leadership in
inclusive ICT.
Objective ICT-2007.7.1: ICT and Ageing
Target outcome
a) Advanced prototypes of systemic solutions for independent living and active ageing,
including mobility aspects and reorganization of integrated care and rehabilitation
processes, leading to a significant prolongation of personal autonomy and participation
in society across prevailing age-related impairments. The longer term multi-disciplinary
work should build on and integrate progress in a number of underpinning technologies36
35 Age and disability are strongly correlated: 15% of the EU population has a disability; 70% of them will be over 60 by
2020.
36 Examples are home platforms, mobile communications, context/location aware sensors, sensor networks, sensor data
collection and fusion, micro and embedded systems, advanced robotic systems.
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and complement relevant work already launched under FP6. Proposals should aim to
increase system efficiency and end-user acceptance by exploring usage of novel
approaches such as self-learning and adapting systems, affective computing principles,
models of human behaviour, human activity recognition, the flexibility of new mobile
paradigms and devices, tracking technologies and sensors, ontologies for sharing of
contextual information between different services and objects, 3D based multi-media
interaction systems and virtual community technologies with appropriate privacy and
ethical safeguards.
b) Open systems reference architectures, standards and platforms enabling systems and
services for independent living, smart workplaces and mobility. These should support
seamless integration and plug-and play operation of sensors, devices, sub-systems and
integrated care services into cost-effective, self-maintaining, reliable, privacy-respecting
and trusted systems.
c) RTD roadmaps and socio-economic research including recommendations on how to
best address ethical and privacy questions associated to ICT and ageing.
d) Contribution to standards setting, and strategic international cooperation with US
and Japan ensuring global relevance and impact of European RTD and preparation of
future research areas within ICT & ageing.
Proposals should have ambitious objectives at the level of a complete system and aim at
breakthroughs that go well beyond the state of the art. Industrial participation is encouraged in
order to promote technology transfer and strengthen the exploitation potential. Due account
shall be taken of the special accessibility and usability needs of the target user group. The
work shall wherever possible build on test environments allowing for early user involvement
and impact analysis in the RTD process.
Expected impact
� Increased personal independence, prolonging active participation in society and
integrated care processes for the ageing population.
� New markets for independent and active living products and services through a set of
open standards and platforms providing seamless and reliable integration of devices
and services.
� Strengthened European industrial position in ICT and Ageing technologies and
services by creating a common longer-term RTD agenda including relevant
standardisation efforts and ethical or privacy issues.
� Reinforced European academic and industrial knowledge base and excellence in
multi-disciplinary research on ICT for independent living and active ageing.
Funding schemes
a): CP; b): CP (IP only); c-d): CSA
Indicative budget distribution
2612 M:
- CP 23 M of which a minimum of 10 M to IP and a minimum of 5 M to STREP;
- CSA 3 M
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
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Objective ICT-2007.7.2: Accessible and Inclusive ICT
Target outcome
a) New approaches and solutions for deeply embedding generalised accessibility
support within future mainstream ICT-based products and services. Examples are user
interfaces and content representations adaptable to people with specific needs. It
includes open, plug & play accessibility architectures and standards enabling a seamless
integration of personalised assistive solutions for ICT access. The research is expected
to develop and demonstrate the proposed solutions in a realistic user context and strong
industrial participation is envisaged to promote consensus building and facilitate
exploitation.
b) New methods and tools for computer simulation of the user interaction and
computer-based validation frameworks (e.g. immersive environments) providing
support to developers of ICT-based products and services for verification and
optimisation of accessibility features at all development stages.
c) Advanced self-adaptive ICT-enabled assistive systems based on non-invasive Brain
to Computer Interaction (BCI), possibly combined with other interaction modalities.
The multi-disciplinary research should aim to combine a critical mass of European
research to integrate progress in sensor technology, self-adaptive systems and assistive
technologies into effective BCI-based systems usable outside the laboratory, e.g. in a
home environment. The solutions should be capable of compensating for functional
impairments and augmenting the individual performance of people with disabilities, in
application fields such as access to ICT-based products and services, neuro-prosthesis
control and support to rehabilitation and training.
Proposals addressing sub-area b) and c) are expected to contribute to the emergence of
common European implementation platforms, RTD roadmaps, dissemination and outreach
activities. Industrial participation is encouraged.
d) Targeted and exploratory ICT research on innovative communication and shared
creative environments aimed at facilitating social inclusion of marginalised young
people. A limited number of small scale preparatory actions should contribute to a
future research agenda. Proposals addressing this area should be supported by
organisations having a track-record in research on ICT and marginalised young people.
e) In the field of accessibility: Coordination of national research activities (CA-only). In
the field of assistive technologies: Coordination of constituencies and development of
future research agendas; international co-operation with North America and Asia;
achieving a better understanding of ethical issues; market requirements, barriers and
cost-benefit aspects.
Expected impact
� New market opportunities for European industry and promote a global leadership in
inclusive ICT.
� Mainstreamed accessibility of ICT and radical improvement in accessibility of future
ICT products and services37 � including ubiquitous and friendly access to public
information - by people with disabilities and functional limitations. Open, standards-
37 Examples are digital terrestrial and mobile television, next generation mobile handsets, web 2.0, content management
systems, Digital Rights Management solutions, virtual/immersive environments, home appliances
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based and seamless interfacing of general purpose and assistive ICT and embed
personalised accessibility features deep into mass-market ICT technology design.
� Facilitated development and production of accessible ICT products and services
through the availability of new tools and methods to allow developers to verify and
optimise accessibility at all development stages.
� Wide spread practical use of BCI-based assistive technologies to demonstrate a
potential quantum leap in self-learning assistive solutions. (c)
� Stronger RTD capacity through delivery of proof of concept for ICT solutions
facilitating social inclusion of marginalised young people. (d)
Funding schemes
a): CP (IP only); b-c): CP (Up to one IP, STREP); d): CP (STREP only); e): CSA
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-2
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3.8
Future and Emerging Technologies
The challenge is the timely identification and substantiation of new directions that have a high
potential for significant breakthrough and that may become the foundations of the information
and communication technologies and innovations of tomorrow. This is especially important in
areas where industry roadmaps still contain major roadblocks that cannot be addressed by
incremental approaches.
Research will consist of radical interdisciplinary explorations of new and alternative
approaches towards future and emerging ICT-related technologies, aimed at a fundamental
reconsideration of theoretical, methodological, technological and/or applicative paradigms in
ICT. It will deliver proofs-of-concept for radically new options where none existed before, or
that demonstrate new possibilities where none were suspected. It will further establish a
credible and sufficiently strong science and technology basis in such new and emerging areas,
by supporting research for refining visionary concepts, by bringing them to the maturity level
where investment from industry can be attracted, and by helping new interdisciplinary
research communities to establish themselves as bridgeheads for further competitive RTD.
Expected impact:
Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) research is long-term and high-risk but `purpose
driven'. It derives its raison d'�tre from the broader context of the ICT programme to which it
explicitly contributes in at least two ways.
First, by being open to a broad spectrum of needs, opportunities and solutions, it avoids the
risk of `tunnel vision' in ICT research and acts as an early indicator of new directions and
opportunities for research in ICT (`FET-Open').
Second, it serves as a pathfinder that prepares for future directions in which the ICT
programme, together with industry, may create the critical mass that can really make a
difference for Europe in the long run (`FET proactive'). These directions are motivated by
fundamental long-term challenges in ICT that will be key to the long-term sustainability of a
technological future in Europe, such as:
� Rethinking the nature of computing, where basic notions of information, computation
and communication are revisited, and fundamental characteristics of matter (quantum
behaviour, dynamics of atoms, molecules, cells, neurons, photons) are exploited to
develop radically new types of logic and components (`QIPC and other quantum
technologies' and `Bio-ICT convergence').
� Opening new directions for the physical realisation of ICT beyond CMOS that can
achieve greater miniaturisation, efficiency and integration; and to learn to design and
manage massive numbers of such devices integrated in a single chip (`Nano-scale ICT
devices and systems' and `Massive ICT systems').
� To embrace change within ICT systems as a fundamental property, so that they can
develop, grow, self-assemble, replicate, evolve, adapt, repair themselves and self-
organise over long periods of time, while maintaining essential operational conditions
of security and dependability (`Pervasive adaptation').
� To understand and harness the transformational forces of new ICTs on society,
especially when large-scale deployment (of, for example, massive commercial
services, high bandwidth mobile communication, immersive collaborative
environments, surveillance systems or ubiquitous robotics) leads to emergent effects
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that are often unanticipated by the designers but readily exploited for new uses
(`Science of Complex Systems for socially intelligent ICT').
� To respond to increasing expectation for trustworthy, dependable and long-lasting
systems and information � expectations which current technologies cannot meet (`ICT
forever yours').
� To exploit the understanding of information processing in biological systems in order
to develop new perspectives in ICT with clear advantages in terms of functionality,
operating conditions (e.g. power needs, packaging requirements), resilience and
adaptability, or to achieve technologies that can be naturally combined with biological
systems (`Bio-ICT convergence').
� To master fundamental aspects of physical embodiment for smart devices in order to
pave the way for a whole new range of smart artefacts (e.g. robots) of unprecedented
diversity and behavioural characteristics (`Embodied Intelligence').
� To address the physical-virtual confluence that is enabled by advanced media and
interface technologies but, if it is to become a broader enabler, needs new directions
with a solid basis in research on human perception and action, the study of
experiences, awareness, and the development of tighter couplings between the human
and technological realms, leading to a re-conception of human-machine interaction
and machine perception (`Human-Computer Confluence').
This research will establish the scientific and technological foundations of the technologies
and innovations of tomorrow, in terms of knowledge, know-how and the readiness of a
vibrant research community.
FET-Open will call for STREPs (2-stage submission procedure) and for coordination actions
(CAs).
FET-proactive initiatives will call for STREPs, for IPs, or for both. In addition they will call
for coordination actions (CAs).
The stimulation of international cooperation on foundational research in the areas addressed
by a pro-active initiative is also encouraged. This is particularly relevant in Quantum
Information Processing and Communication (QIPC), where such international cooperation
will reinforce European leadership in this area. Similarly, international cooperation on
foundational research promises to further enhance European leadership in nano-scale ICT
devices and systems, and in complexity science, among others.
The following themes will be addressed in pro-active initiatives:
Call 1: FP7-ICT-2007-1
ICT-2007.8.1 Nano-scale ICT devices and systems
ICT-2007.8.2 Pervasive adaptation
ICT-2007.8.3 Bio-ICT convergence
Call 3: FP7-ICT-2007-3
ICT-2007.8.4 Science of Complex Systems for socially intelligent ICT
ICT-2007.8.5 Embodied Intelligence
ICT-2007.8.6 ICT forever yours
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The following themes are likely to be among future pro-active initiatives for funding in 2009-
2010:
Massive ICT systems. The objective is to research, demonstrate and validate new computing
architectures and algorithms that will allow designing, programming and managing future
high-performance ICT components with up to one Tera (1012) devices integrated in a single
chip.
Human-computer confluence. To investigate an invisible, implicit, embodied or even
implanted interaction between humans and system components, for natural interaction
(including communication) in surrounding environments, themselves augmented with
pervasive and ubiquitous infrastructures and services.
QIPC and other quantum technologies. To overcome major scientific, technological and
theoretical challenges for quantum technology to deliver on its promise to radically
outperform its classical counterpart not only in terms of processing speed, capacity and
communication security, but also, in the ability to solve classes of practical problems which
currently cannot be solved. This initiative also invites the exploration of a wider range of non-
classical implementations of ICT. More generally, it will be important to strengthen
international collaboration on foundational research in this area where Europe has established
itself firmly at the leading edge.
Objective ICT-2007.8.0: FET-Open
Target Outcome:
FET-Open addresses the widest possible spectrum of research topics that closely relate to
Information and Communication Technologies as these arise bottom-up. Since the supported
topics are not predefined by the Work Programme but identified by the researchers
themselves, FET-Open flexibly accommodates the exploration of new research horizons.
Unconstrained by established approaches, it offers the opportunity to try out an unproven idea
where the risk is too high for a larger RTD investment to be justified. Once established as
credible and valid, a research topic may gradually grow into a wider field, supported by a
dedicated research initiative or be taken over by mainstream programme activities in ICT.
Rather than doing blue-sky research, a project in FET-Open should contribute to the
realisation of a clear long term vision in the ICT domain and the project's objectives must
address a key challenge for the realisation of this vision.
Expected Impact:
For STREP:
� ICT-relevant, visionary, high quality, long-term research of a foundational nature,
involving bright new ideas of high-risk � high-pay-off, aiming at a breakthrough, a
paradigm shift, or at the proof of a novel scientific principle, or
� Research refining the visionary ideas that have gone past the proof-of-concept phase
to bring them to the maturity level where they could be taken up by the mainstream
ICT programme objectives.
For CA:
� Emergence, shaping and consolidation of new and dispersed research communities
and, where appropriate, the coordination of FET-relevant national or regional research
programmes or activities or the stimulation of international cooperation in any area of
relevance to FET. Each CA should aim at establishing critical mass, scientific
excellence and multi-disciplinary diversity, as appropriate, around a new scientific
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discipline or research topic, defining future research directions, federating the research
communities around a common challenge and contributing to the preparation of joint
programs of work.
Funding schemes
CP (STREP only), CSA (CA only)
Indicative budget distribution12
6 M
Call
Continuous, receivable from 19 March 2007 onwards
Objective ICT-2007.8.1: FET proactive 1: Nano-scale ICT devices and systems
Target outcome:
To demonstrate unconventional solutions to increase computing performance, functionality or
communication speed, or to reduce cost, size and power consumption of ICT components
beyond the expected limits of CMOS technology.
Research should cover at least one of the following points:
� Demonstration of new concepts for switches or memory cells, to substantially improve
performance, cost, integration density and/or power dissipation beyond those of ultimate
CMOS technology using nanostructures or non-charge based approaches. Complementary
challenges include circuit architectures, assembly and reconfiguration.
� Demonstration of new concepts, technologies and architectures for local and chip-level
interconnects with substantial improvements over current solutions. Key drivers are:
transmission speed, integration density, reduction in power consumption, integration of
new functions, ease of design and manufacturing.
� Demonstration of radically new functionalities by the integration of blocks from a few
nanometres down to the atomic scale into high added-value systems. Candidates include
NEMS and NEMS arrays; approaches based on photons, plasmons, phonons; approaches
exploiting internal degrees of freedom of atoms and molecules and based on atomic
precision control and addressability.
Coordination actions (CAs) should support the consolidation of research communities, their
visibility, the coordination of research agendas, the mapping and benchmarking of research at
European level, and the identification of drivers to assess research in nano-scale ICT devices
and systems. They also address the coordination of national or regional research programmes
or activities. The initiative also encourages international cooperation in foundational research
on topics described above.
Expected Impact
Projects on switches, memories or interconnects should open, verify and assess new
unconventional approaches to ICT. They should demonstrate proof of concept at laboratory
level to prepare future applied RTD. Projects on new functionalities should open radically
new directions in ICT devices and technologies and aim at experimental demonstrations of
principle, feasibility and concrete advantages.
Funding schemes
CP, CSA (CA only)
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Indicative budget distribution
1512 M:
- CP 14 M of which a minimum of 8 M to IP and a minimum of 3 M to STREP;
- CSA 1 M (CA only)
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.8.2: FET proactive 2: Pervasive adaptation
Target outcome:
Technologies and design paradigms for massive-scale pervasive information and
communication systems, capable of autonomously adapting to highly dynamic and open
technological and user contexts. Adaptation strategies (bio-inspired, stochastic or others) will
operate at different time scales and speeds, from short term adaptation to long-term evolution,
and will imply changes in software, hardware, protocols and/or architecture at different levels
of granularity and abstraction. Projects will focus on one or both of the following areas:
� Evolve-able and adaptive pervasive systems, able to permanently adjust, self-manage,
evolve and self-organise in order to robustly respond to dynamically changing
environments, operating conditions, and purposes or practices of use.
� Networked societies of artefacts that adapt to each other and to changing needs,
collectively harness dispersed information and pursue immediate or long-term goals for
context-sensitive service delivery in rapidly changing and technology-rich environments.
Both technological and user aspects (in a social context) need to be considered in a
multidisciplinary and integrated approach, considering in particular aspects such as:
� Adaptive security and dependability: theories, techniques and architectures, able to
cope with the volatile landscape of risks, threats, attacks and context dependent user
expectations for privacy and security in evolving and heterogeneous pervasive
systems.
� Dynamicity of trust: capabilities for establishing trust relationships between humans
and/or machines that jointly act and interact within ad-hoc and changing
configurations.
� Security for tiny and massively networked devices: efficient, robust and scalable
cryptographic protocols, algorithms and other security and privacy mechanisms,
including hardware-based ones, as well as collective, biologically or socially inspired
ones.
Coordination actions (CAs) should support the consolidation of research communities, their
visibility, the coordination of research agendas and, where appropriate, the coordination of
national or regional research programmes or activities. The initiative also encourages
international cooperation in foundational research on topics described above.
Expected impact:
Projects should make key contributions to achieving a new generation of massively scalable
systems that, in spite of heterogeneity, noise and often unreliable conditions, can display a
fundamental capacity for self-controlled adaptation and organisation. They should foster new
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human-centric services, reducing management and maintenance cost, and ensure security and
trust in pervasive applications, addressing the needs for both accountability and privacy.
Funding schemes
CP, CSA (CA only)
Indicative budget distribution
1512 M:
- CP 14 M of which a minimum of 8 M to IP and a minimum of 3 M to STREP;
- CSA 1 M (CA only)
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.8.3: FET proactive 3: Bio-ICT convergence
Target outcome:
New perspectives in ICT that exploit the understanding of information processing in
biological systems have demonstrable advantages in terms of functionality, operating
conditions, resilience or adaptability or lead to systems that can be naturally combined with
biological systems. Projects will integrate some of the following topics:
� Novel computing paradigms, derived from the information representation and
processing capabilities of biological systems (networks of neurons or other cells), or from
the computational interpretation of biological processes (molecular signalling,
metabolism) and with measurable advantages over current approaches to difficult
problems in information processing.
� Biomimetic artefacts: ad hoc hardware implementations of bio-inspired systems in areas
where standard devices do not provide the required performance. This may use analogue
and digital circuits, evolvable hardware, artificial cells, neuro-morphic chips or sensors for
achieving life-like functionality or properties such as self organisation, robustness or
growth.
� Bidirectional interfaces between electronic or electro-mechanical systems and living
entities, at or close to the cellular level, with adequate control and/or signal processing
algorithms, enabling direct interfacing to the nervous system or to other types of cells.
� Biohybrid artefacts, involving tightly coupled ICT and biological entities (e.g. neural or
other types of biological tissue) for new forms of computation, sensing, communication or
physical actuation or adaptation.
Coordination actions (CAs) should support the consolidation of research communities, their
visibility, the coordination of research agendas and, where appropriate, the coordination of
national or regional research programmes or activities. The initiative also encourages
international cooperation in foundational research on its topics described above.
Expected impact:
This multi-disciplinary research should foster joint progress and synergy in ICT and the bio-
and neuro-sciences. Novel computing paradigms should lead to a fundamental rethinking of
notions of information and computation that may be better suited for certain classes of
problems and that can be implemented in biological, biomimetic or biohybrid devices. Such
devices will need to satisfy requirements of, e.g. performance, resilience or energy
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consumption that are currently difficult to meet. Research on bio-interfaces and bio-hybrid
devices should enable new bio-compatible ICT uses that rely on direct interactions between
the technological and the living, such as for robust brain-machine interfacing or for powerful
sensory-motor capabilities.
Funding schemes
CP, CSA (CA only)
Indicative budget distribution
1512 M:
- CP 14 M of which a minimum of 8 M to IP and a minimum of 3 M to STREP,
- CSA 1 M (CA only)
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-1
Objective ICT-2007.8.4: FET proactive 4: Science of complex systems for socially
intelligent ICT
Target outcome:
Key concepts and tools for a data-intensive science of large scale techno-social systems, i.e.
systems in which ICT is tightly entangled with human, social and business structures which,
as a result, mutually transform each other for instance through evolution of acceptance, trust,
innovative uses and technology changes. Projects will develop systematic means to gain
knowledge on such systems and to model, predict and characterise their behaviour, their
dynamics and evolution. They will demonstrate the use of this understanding in novel
paradigms and designs for socially intelligent ICT. Projects will integrate the following
topics:
� Theoretical and algorithmic foundations for scaleable modelling and simulation of such
multi-level systems, taking into account the relevant technological, psychological and
social dimensions and with realistic diversity of behaviours, social and spatial structures
and knowledge on how humans and technologies relate to and impact on each other (e.g.
acceptance, use, trust).
� Data-driven simulation, tools and techniques able to cope with huge sets of
heterogeneous and often unreliable data to efficiently reconstruct dynamic system models
at multiple levels. This includes data-rich probing technologies, protocols and experiments
to gain realistic data on techno-social systems, and knowledge extraction based on
scaleable and distributed methods.
� Prediction and predictability: mathematical and computational methods that help to
characterize the nature and impact of transitions, novel properties and self-organising
effects that can occur as systems massively scale up. Understanding the limits of
predictability will allow reliable, quantitatively accurate predictions leading to strategies
for better guided ICT induced transformation or for keeping systems in their viability
domain.
Coordination actions (CAs) should support the consolidation of research communities, their
visibility, the coordination of research agendas, the coordination of national or regional
research programmes or activities. The initiative also encourages international cooperation in
foundational research on topics described above.
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Expected impact:
This research should contribute to a new multidisciplinary understanding of the ways in
which ICT changes, moulds and becomes part of the systems to which it is applied, and lead
to better targeted deployment of socially intelligent ICT systems. Breakthroughs will lead to
deeper understanding and the ability to predict and design for instance new generations of
autonomous information- or high-bandwidth communication systems by exploiting models of
self-organisation, adaptability and social behaviour. Applications include e.g. massive service
economies and other technology-dependent experimental economic models, ICT mediated
communities, P2P systems, emergency management and disaster relief systems. Projects
should indicate how efficient data gathering, simulation, prediction and control techniques
can lead to more human-centric systems, can harness collective intelligence or behaviour, can
support businesses and policy makers with best practices that have a clear and definable
societal and economic added value or can contribute to solving long-term challenges such as
sustainable growth, energy efficiency, or social inclusion.
Funding schemes
CP (IP only), CSA (CA only)
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-3
Objective ICT-2007.8.5: FET proactive 5: Embodied Intelligence
Target outcome:
New technologies and design approaches for building physically embodied intelligent agents
and artefacts, with emphasis on the relationship between shape, function and the physical and
social environment, and addressing one or several of the following:
� Mind-body co-development and co-evolution through permanent and extended multi-
modal interaction of agents with the physical and social environment. Projects will
develop a better understanding of the role of such interaction in open-ended learning and
adaptation processes, including morphological change for shaping perception, cognition,
cooperation and social intelligence. They will demonstrate qualitative and quantitative
improvements in agent capabilities and characteristics.
� Morphology and behaviour: new design principles for sensing, actuation and
locomotion components and for robot architectures that are based on a deeper
understanding of the role of form and material properties in shaping behaviour, and of the
ways in which these afford relationships and interactions with the environment and with
other agents. Projects will aim to demonstrate advantages in physical and performance
characteristics of the robot e.g. in terms of control, weight, flexibility, resilience, or other
characteristics.
� Design for emergence: design paradigms and techniques for purposive agents where
behaviour is not strictly programmed but robustly emerges from the interaction of the
various components (each with local intelligence), the environment and its ubiquitous
information resources. Projects will develop smart components and techniques for the
design of ambitious classes of scalable robotic systems, incorporating where possible prior
knowledge on tasks or environments, while leaving the necessary room for emergence and
adaptation.
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Coordination actions (CAs) should support the consolidation of research communities, their
visibility, the coordination of research agendas and, where appropriate, the coordination of
national or regional research programmes or activities. The initiative also encourages
international cooperation in foundational research on topics described above.
Expected Impact:
This research should advance the state of the art in intelligent systems and in particular in
robotics and ICT, as well as in other disciplines (neuroscience, sociology, biology). It should
bring essential contributions for achieving robotic systems of greater morphological diversity,
for a larger spectrum of uses, more natural and safer to interact with and more easily
integrated in everyday environments. This will be key to unlock the `long tail' of the robotic
service market by enabling a wide variety of affordable robots for specific uses.
Funding schemes
CP, CSA (CA only)
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-3
Objective ICT-2007.8.6: FET proactive 6: ICT forever yours
Target outcome:
The mass diffusion of digital systems and their pervasiveness in our everyday lives
increases our expectations on the dependability, security and longevity of these systems.
This requires new built-in mechanisms for enhancing confidence in their usage, for
protecting them from malicious intents and for preserving them from the threat of ageing,
in the context of highly decentralised and incremental development and deployment
practices. Projects should focus on one or several of the following:
� Eternal Systems: to develop a theoretical and practical framework for extremely long-
lived systems, requiring minimal intervention and management to thrive in spite of
changes in usage, host device, network context or data- and data protection formats.
Systems should be future proof, able to preserve and update their original functionality
in a machine-independent way, and ultimately by being self-sustaining and evolving.
� Knowledge, diversity and time: New approaches for eternal and reliable access to
knowledge assets, in which knowledge parts are produced locally, but exploited globally,
and are endowed with `a sense of time and context' to make them robust against ageing,
diversity of use and evolving semantics.
� Secure and dependable software: methods and tools for high-level verifiably secure
and dependable programming, and new metrics to aid assessability of the security and
dependability of highly distributed and heterogeneous software or of ambient systems.
Coordination actions (CAs) should support the consolidation of research communities, their
visibility, the coordination of research agendas and, where appropriate, the coordination of
national or regional research programmes or activities. The initiative also encourages
international cooperation in foundational research on topics described above.
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Expected impact:
The research should contribute to systems that are more versatile in their interaction with
modules, systems and services in their environment: adapting to change in the environment
with minimal intervention, harnessing dispersed and dynamic content by exchanging
knowledge at a semantic level that is robust against diversity of origin and use, preserving and
even changing original functionality and properties over time, providing security to their
environment through verifiably secure programming models, and offering assessable security
of systems in the context of their environment.
Funding schemes
CP (IP only), CSA (CA only)
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-3
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3.9
Horizontal support actions
Objective ICT-2007.9.1 (ICT-2007.9.2): International cooperation
In addition to specific international cooperation activities that are addressed in the relevant
objectives within the 7 Challenges and FET, horizontal international cooperation actions will
be supported under this objective.
Target outcome:
a) Identification and promotion of cooperation opportunities, support to policy dialogues
Promotion of the EU ICT programme and identification of co-operation opportunities in
fields of mutual interest by providing information in relevant countries and regions,
increasing visibility of mutual RTD potential and networking relevant stakeholders.
Actions will also aim at networking existing co-operation projects in view of exploiting
synergies, maximising impact and contributing to the definition of co-operation strategies.
Strengthened Information Society policy dialogues with main partners. Actions will in
particular ensure a co-ordination with the international activities launched in the
Capacities Specific Programme, notably the INCO-NET schemes, the development of
S&T Co-operation Partnerships and the support to the co-ordination of national policies
and activities on international S&T co-operation.
b) Development-related ICT research exploitation and cooperation roadmaps
Specific International Collaboration Actions aimed at establishing development-related
ICT research "cooperation roadmaps" identifying and federating initiatives at local,
regional or global level. The actions should help network relevant research communities
and may include the exploitation and adaptation of existing EU research results in these
contexts. These actions will focus on specific issues faced by developing ICPCs and will
seek the direct involvement of organisations from these countries. The themes to be
covered include:
� Language and speech technologies with particular focus on Arabic-speaking
regions / countries (including Mediterranean Partner Countries and ACP
countries). The overall objective is to reduce language barriers and broaden access,
usage and interaction between ICT services and applications. This preparatory
action will focus on requirements and options for cost-effective natural language
systems (written or spoken) in domains such as automated translation, information
retrieval and indexing. It will also aim to reinforce collaboration with Arabic
research communities on natural language processing (NLP) methods and
benchmarking, including for language resources such as corpora and knowledge
bases.
� Open Source Software with particular focus on Asia, ACP and Latin America. To
promote interoperability and the emergence of global open standards and
practices. The objective will be to concentrate on OSS-based tools, services or
applications of high potential for societal impact and wide diffusion of ICTs and to
address in particular issues such as security, dependability, quality of service,
maintainability and affordability.
� Accessible and inclusive ICT with particular focus on Latin America and ACP. To
address the challenges related to the wide adoption and diffusion of ICTs and
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services. The focus should be on low-cost approaches for access devices and
corresponding software, peripherals and infrastructures, as well as issues related to
the development of content and connectivity, notably through the deployment of
wireless services and mobile web applications.
Expected impact
Paving the way for strategic partnerships in view of gaining access to knowledge,
developing global standards and interoperable solutions and strengthening EU
competitiveness.
Wider diffusion of the information society, especially in developing countries and
strengthened EU policy for development.
Funding schemes
CSA
Indicative budget distribution12
ICT Call 1 - 6 M: a) 4 M with target regions ACP, Asia (excluding China) and b) 2 M
(each sub theme is expected to be covered by only one action)
ICT Call 312 a) with target regions Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Western Balkan
countries, Mediterranean Partner Countries, Latin America
Calls
FP7-ICT-2007-1 [612 M], FP7-ICT-2007-312
Objective ICT-2007.9.3 Trans-national co-operation among National Contact Points
Target outcome
Reinforcing the network of National Contact Points (NCP) for ICT under the Seventh
Framework Programme, by promoting further trans-national cooperation within this network.
The action will focus on identifying, understanding and sharing good practices and their
context. This may entail various mechanisms such as benchmarking, joint workshops,
training, twinning schemes and the establishment and operation of an effective partner search
mechanism across the network of NCPs. Practical initiatives to benefit cross-border audiences
may also be included, such as trans-national brokerage events. The specific approach should
be adapted to the nature of the theme and to the capacities and priorities of the NCPs
concerned. A degree of collaboration and networking with similar projects in parallel themes
� especially in the context of joint/coordinated calls will be encouraged.
Special attention should be given to helping less experienced NCPs to access the know-how
accumulated in other countries and to apply it in a locally relevant and efficient manner.
Proposals are expected to include and enable the active participation of all NCPs and other
organisations which have been officially appointed by the relevant national authorities in the
EU and associated countries. In individual special cases the NCPs can decide to subcontract
this activity to specialist agencies. Other participants from the EU and associated countries are
ineligible. If certain NCPs wish to abstain from participating, this fact should be explicitly
documented in the proposal
The action may also involve official FP7 contacts from third countries.
The Commission expects to receive a single proposal under this heading.
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It is expected that the project should last for a period of three years.
Expected impact
� An improved NCP service across Europe, therefore helping to simplify access to FP7
calls, lowering the entry barriers for newcomers, and raising the quality of submitted
proposals.
� A more consistent level of NCP support services across Europe.
� More effective participation of organisation from third countries, alongside European
organisations, in line with the principle of mutual benefit.
Funding schemes
CSA (CA only)
Indicative budget distribution12
Call
FP7-ICT-2007-3
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4 Implementation of calls
Budget
(M)
Call 1
Challenge 1:
1. The network of the future
171
2. Service and software architectures,
infrastructures and engineering
102
3. ICT in support of the networked enterprise
26
4. Secure, dependable and trusted infrastructures
77
5. Networked media
73
6. New Paradigms and experimental facilities
7. Critical infrastructure protection
Challenge 2:
1. Cognitive systems, interaction, robotics
82
Challenge 3:
1. Next generation nanoelectronics components and
electronics integration
73
2. Organic and large-area electronics and display
systems 54
3. Embedded systems design
34
4. Computing systems
21
5. Photonic components and subsystems
6. Micro/nanosystems
7. Networked embedded and control systems
Challenge 4:
1. Digital libraries and technology-enhanced
learning 44
2. Intelligent content and semantics
44
Challenge 5:
1. Personal health systems for monitoring and
point-of-care diagnostics
60
2. Advanced ICT for risk assessment and patient
safety 26
3. Virtual physiological human
Challenge 6:
1. ICT for the intelligent vehicles and mobility
services 49
2. ICT for cooperative systems
3. ICT for the environmental management and
energy efficiency
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Challenge 7:
1. ICT and ageing
26
2. Accessible and inclusive ICT
FET
Open scheme
6
1. Nano-scale ICT devices and systems
15
2. Pervasive adaptation
15
3. Bio-ICT convergence
15
4. Science of complex systems for socially
intelligent ICT
5. Embodied intelligence
6. ICT forever yours
Horizontal support actions
International cooperation
6
Trans-national co-operation among NCPs
Total 1019
Other expenditures
Independent experts assisting in proposal evaluations and project reviews
The ICT priority will support independent experts assisting in proposal evaluations,
project reviews and for the ICT theme evaluation and monitoring.
ICT conference, studies, evaluations and reviews
In addition to calls for proposals, calls for tenders are also expected to be published on
specific activities that the ICT priority will support. These include:
- he organisation of the ICT annual conference.
- Studies including socio-economics and impact analysis studies and studies to support
the monitoring, evaluation and strategy definition for the ICT priority in FP7 as well as
publications and support to other events (e.g. information, communication,
dissemination etc.).
Details will be provided in the texts of these calls for tender.
HFSP Programme
The ICT Theme will also support the Human Frontier Science Programme (HFSP) for
an amount of 1.5 M.
European Information and Communication Technologies Prize (EICTP)
Continued support will be given to the European Information and Communication
Technologies Prize (EICTP). This scheme promotes European innovation and
entrepreneurship in ICT through public recognition of companies that excel in turning
technology and research results into products for the market.
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In 2006, the EICTP superseded the European Information Society Technology Prize,
which operated from 1995 to 2005. The current EICTP contract is managed by Euro-
CASE and may be renewed to cover up to the 2007 and 2008 EICTP scheme for an
amount of 1.7 M.
IMS Secretariat
The ICT Theme will support the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems secretariat for an
amount of 0.1 M.
ICT Contribution to General FP7 Activities
Risk Sharing Finance Facility
In addition to direct financial support to participants in RTD actions, the Community
will improve their access to private sector finance by contributing financially to the
'Risk-Sharing Finance Facility' (RSFF) established by the European Investment Bank
(EIB).
The Community contribution to RSFF will be used, by the Bank, in accordance with
eligibility criteria set out in the Work Programme 'Co-operation' (Annex 4). RSFF
support is not conditional on promoters securing grants resulting from calls for
proposals described herein, although the combination of grants and RSFF-supported
financing from EIB is possible.
The Specific Programme 'Cooperation' stipulates that the Community contribution to
RSFF will be funded by proportional contributions of all Themes, except Socio-
economic Sciences and the Humanities. The amount contributed by the ICT Theme will
be committed entirely in 2007.
The use of the Community Contribution from the Specific Programme 'Cooperation'
will be on a 'first come, first served' basis and will not be constrained by the
proportional contribution of Themes. Further information on the RSFF scheme is given
in Annex 4 of this work programme.
Other contributions
In addition to RSFF, the ICT priority will also contribute to other general activities
including the Cordis service, EUREKA membership, the COST Programme and cross-
cutting ERA-NETs. A summary of this contribution is given below:
Cordis 2.089.730
Eureka 238.826
COST 8.955.986
ERA-NET 2.985.329
RSFF 48.760.000
Total 63.029.871
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A summary table of all the above expenditures is given in Appendix 4.
Call title: ICT Call 1
� Call identifier: FP7-ICT-2007-1
� Date of publication: 22 December 2006
� Closure date: May 8, 2007, at 17:00, Brussels local time
� Indicative budget: 1019 M
� Topics called:
Challenge Objectives
Funding
schemes38
Challenge 1: Pervasive and
ICT-2007.1.1 The network of
CP, NoE, CSA
Trusted Network and Service
the future
Infrastructures
ICT-2007.1.2 Service and
CP, NoE, CSA
software architectures,
infrastructures and engineering
ICT-2007.1.3 ICT in support of CP, CSA
the networked enterprise
ICT-2007.1.4 Secure,
CP, NoE, CSA
dependable and trusted
infrastructures
ICT-2007.1.5 Networked media CP, NoE, CSA
Challenge 2: Cognitive systems,
ICT-2007.2.1 Cognitive
CP, NoE, CSA (CA
interaction, robotics
systems, interaction, robotics
only)
Challenge 3: Components,
ICT-2007.3.1 Next generation
CP, NoE, CSA
systems, engineering
nanoelectronics components
and electronics integration
ICT-2007.3.2 Organic and
CP, NoE, CSA
large-area electronics,
visualisation and display
systems
ICT-2007.3.3 Embedded
CP, NoE, CSA
systems design
ICT-2007.3.4 Computing
CP (STREP only),
38 Each proposal must indicate the type of funding scheme used (IP or STREP for CP, where applicable; CA or SA for CSA,
where applicable � see Appendix 2)
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systems NoE
Challenge 4: Digital libraries and
ICT-2007.4.1 Digital libraries
CP, NoE, CSA
content
and technology-enhanced
learning
ICT-2007.4.2 Intelligent content CP, NoE, CSA
and semantics
Challenge 5: Towards sustainable ICT-2007.5.1 Personal health
CP (IP only), CSA
and personalised healthcare
systems for monitoring and
point-of-care diagnostics
ICT-2007.5.2 Advanced ICT for CP, CSA
risk assessment and patient
safety
Challenge 6: ICT for mobility,
ICT-2007.6.1 ICT for the
CP, CSA
environmental sustainability and
intelligent vehicles and mobility
energy
services
Challenge 7: ICT for independent ICT-2007.7.1 ICT and ageing
CP, CSA
living and inclusion
Future and emerging technologies
ICT-2007.8.1 Nano-scale ICT
CP, CSA (CA only)
devices and systems
ICT-2007.8.2 Pervasive
CP, CSA (CA only)
adaptation
ICT-2007.8.3 Bio-ICT
CP, CSA (CA only)
convergence
Horizontal support actions
ICT-2007.9.1 International-
CSA
cooperation
� Evaluation procedure:
- A one-stage submission procedure will be followed.
- The evaluation criteria and sub-criteria (including weights and thresholds), together
with the eligibility, selection and award criteria, for the different funding schemes are
set out in Annex 2 to this work programme.
� Indicative evaluation and contractual timetable: It is expected that the contract negotiations
for the shortlisted proposals will start as of June/ July 2007.
� Consortia agreements: Participants in all actions resulting from this call are required to
conclude a consortium agreement.
� Particular requirements for participation, evaluation and implementation: See Appendix 1
� The forms of grant which will be offered are specified in Annex 3 to the Cooperation work
programme.
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Call title: FET Open
� Call identifier: FP7-ICT-2007-C
� Date of publication: 22 December 2006
� Date from which proposals are receivable: 19 March 2007
� Closure date: 31 December 2008, at 17:00, Brussels, local time39
� Indicative budget40: 6 M
� Topics called:
Challenge Objectives
Funding
schemes41
Future and emerging technologies
ICT-2007.8.0
CP (STREP only),
FET
Open
CSA (CA only)
� Evaluation, selection and award criteria: see Appendix 5 of the Work Programme for
specific evaluation criteria applicable to FET Open. Eligibility criteria for the different
funding schemes are set out in Annex 2 to this work programme.
� Evaluation procedure:
- proposals for STREPs have to be submitted in two stages: first a short, strictly
anonymous, proposal of maximum five pages is submitted describing the key
objectives and motivation for the proposed work;
- short proposals may be submitted at any time from the opening of the call until the
final closure date (currently 31 December 2008 � see footnote 39). They are
evaluated anonymously as they come in with the help of remote evaluators;
- if the short proposal is successful, the proposers are invited to submit a full
proposal by a specified cut-off date. This cut-off date is determined by the
submission date of the short proposal, as indicated in the table below;
- full proposals are evaluated through a combination of remote evaluation and
panels of experts that convene in Brussels; they will not be evaluated
anonymously.
- proposals for CAs are submitted in one stage and will not be evaluated
anonymously.
39 It is planned that the call will subsequently be extended beyond 31 December 2008.
40 An amount from the 2008 budget is expected to be added for which a new financing decision to cover the budget for that
year will be requested at the appropriate time. The total amount is expected to be committed for successful proposals from
the cut-off dates up to and including 2/9/2008.
41 Each proposal must indicate the type of funding scheme used (IP or STREP for CP, where applicable; CA or SA for CSA,
where applicable)
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Batch
Start date of
End date/
Full STREP
CA proposal
short STREP
time of short
proposal cut-
cut-off date /
proposal
STREP
off date / time
time
submission
proposal
(following
period
submission
successful
period
short
proposals)
1 19/3/2007
3/5/2007
4/9/2007
4/9/2007
17:00
17:00
2 4/5/2007
4/9/2007
8/1/2008
8/1/2008
17:00
17:00
3 5/9/2007
8/1/2008
6/5/2008
6/5/2008
17:00
17:00
4 9/1/2008
6/5/2008
2/9/2008
2/9/2008
17:00
17:00
5 7/5/200842 2/9/2008 31/12/2008 31/12/2008
17:00
17:00
6 3/9/200842 31/12/2008
It is planned that
It is planned that
the call will
the call will
subsequently be
subsequently be
extended beyond
extended beyond
31/12/2008
31/12/2008
� Indicative evaluation and contractual timetable:
� Evaluation results for short proposals: three months from proposal reception;
� Evaluation results for full proposals: three months from the cut-off or closure date.
� Consortia agreements: It is not mandatory that participants in RTD actions resulting from
this call conclude a consortium agreement although such agreements are strongly
recommended.
42
It is planned that the call will subsequently be extended beyond 31 December 2008, at which time:
- the fifth full and CA proposal cut-off date may be revised
- the sixth full and CA proposal cut-off date will be fixed
- the sixth end date for short proposal submission may be revised
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5 Indicative priorities for future calls
Challenges are expected to remain largely valid well beyond this first work programme as
they express aims to be achieved in a 10-15 years timeframe. For the next Work Programmes,
changes will take place within the scope of the Framework and Specific Programmes. They
will take into account the experience from the first calls as well as technological
developments, socio-economic evolutions and political priorities.
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Appendix 1: Minimum number of participants
Minimum number of participants43 as set out in the Rules for Participation
Funding scheme
Minimum conditions
Collaborative project
At least 3 independent legal entities, each
of which is established in a MS or AC,
and no two of which are established in the
same MS or AC.
Collaborative project for
At least 4 independent legal entities. Of
specific cooperation actions
these, 2 must be established in different
dedicated to international
MS or AC. The other two must be
cooperation partner countries
established in different international
(SICAs)
cooperation partner countries
Network of excellence
At least 3 independent legal entities, each
of which is established in a MS or AC,
and no two of which are established in the
same MS or AC.
Co-ordination action
At least 3 independent legal entities, each
of which is established in a MS or AC,
and no two of which are established in the
same MS or AC.
Support action
At least 1 independent legal entity
43 MS = Member States of the EU; AC = Associated Country. Where the minimum conditions for an indirect action are
satisfied by a number of legal entities, which together form one legal entity, the latter may be the sole participant, provided
that it is established in a Member State or Associated country
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Appendix 2: Funding schemes
1. Collaborative projects (CP)
Support to research projects carried out by consortia with participants from different
countries, aiming at developing new knowledge, new technology, products, demonstration
activities or common resources for research. The size, scope and internal organisation of
projects can vary from field to field and from topic to topic. Projects can range from small or
medium-scale focused research actions to large-scale integrating projects for achieving a
defined objective. Projects may also be targeted to special groups such as SMEs.
The Funding Scheme allows for two types of projects to be financed: a) "small or medium-
scale focused research actions", b) "large-scale integrating projects".
a) Small or medium-scale focused research actions (STREP)
Targeting a specific objective in a sharply focussed approach; they shall have a fixed overall
work plan where the principal deliverables are not expected to change during the lifetime of
the project.
Their content will consist of either of the following two, or a combination of the two:
a) a research and technological development project designed to generate new
knowledge which would improve European competitiveness and/or address major
societal needs
b) a demonstration project designed to prove the viability of new technologies offering
potential economic advantage but which cannot be commercialised directly (e.g.
testing of product-like prototypes)
and naturally
c) project management activities.
Such type of projects could also include innovation-related activities, in particular with
respect to the management of the knowledge produced and the protection of intellectual
property.
b) Large-scale integrating projects (IP)
Larger scale actions, including a coherent integrated set of activities tackling multiple issues
and aimed at specific deliverables; there will be a large degree of autonomy to adapt content
and partnership and update the work plan, whereas appropriate.
Their content will consist of a combination of most or all of the following (indents a and/or b
being a must):
a) objective-driven research and development, i.e. clearly defined scientific and
technological objectives, aiming at a significant advance in the established state-of-
the-art; in addition, typically of multidisciplinary character
b) a demonstration project designed to prove the viability of new technologies offering
potential economic advantage but which cannot be commercialised directly (e.g.
testing of product-like prototypes)
c) innovation activities relating to the protection and dissemination of knowledge, socio-
economic studies of the impact of that knowledge, activities to promote the
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exploitation of the results, and, when relevant, "take-up" actions; these activities are
inter-related and should be conceived and implemented in a coherent way
d) training of researchers and other key staff, research managers, industrial executives (in
particular for SMEs), and potential users of the knowledge produced within the
project. Such training activities should contribute to the professional development of
the persons concerned
e) any other specific type of activity directly related to the project's objectives (as
identified in the relevant work programme or call for proposals)
f) project management activities.
2. Networks of Excellence (NoE)
Support to a Joint Programme of Activities implemented by a number of research
organisations integrating their activities in a given field, carried out by research teams in the
framework of longer term co-operation. The implementation of this Joint Programme of
Activities will require a formal commitment from the organisations integrating part of their
resources and their activities.
The funding scheme will support the long-term durable integration of research resources and
capacities (researchers, services, teams, organisations, institutions) in fields of strategic
importance for European research, through the establishment of a single virtual centre of
research, in order to overcome demonstrable, detrimental fragmentation, thus strengthening
European scientific and technological excellence on a particular research topic.
Networks of Excellence will aim at consolidating or establishing European leadership at
world level in their respective fields by integrating at European level the resources and
expertise needed for the purpose. This will be achieved through the implementation of a Joint
Programme of Activities (JPA) aimed principally at creating a progressive and durable
integration of the research capacities of the network partners while at the same time
advancing knowledge on the topic.
Since Networks of Excellence are aimed at tackling fragmentation of existing research
capacities, they should be implemented provided that:
� research capacity is fragmented in the (thematic) area being considered;
� this fragmentation prevents Europe from being competitive at international level in that
area;
� the proposed integration of research capacity will lead to higher scientific excellence and
more efficient use of resources.
The implementation of the Joint Programme of Activities will require a formal commitment
from the organisations integrating part or the entirety of their research capacities and
activities.
The Joint Programme of Activities (JPA) is the collective vehicle for achieving the durable
integration of the research resources and capacities of the Network of Excellence. In order to
do so, the JPA should consist of a coherent set of integrating activities that the participants
undertake jointly. The JPA will have several components:
� activities aimed at bringing about the integration of the participants research activities on
the topic considered, such as:
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o establishing mechanisms for co-ordinating and eventually merging the research
portfolios of the partners
o staff exchange schemes
o complete or partial relocation of staff
o establishment of shared and mutually accessible research equipment, managerial
and research infrastructures, facilities and services
o exploration of the legal requirements (facilitators/barriers) for durable integration,
o setting up of joint supervisory bodies
o measures for joint public relations ...
� jointly executed research to support the durable integration, e.g. systemic development, or
development of common tools, or at filling gaps in the collective knowledge portfolio of
the network, in order to make the research facilities useable by the network. (NB: in
addition to this research, participants in a network will pursue their "own institutional
portfolio", including research, development or demonstration in the area covered by the
network itself. The latter research, development or demonstration activities are not part of
the "joint programme of activities" and thus will not be part of the eligible costs of the
network)
� activities designed to spread excellence, such as:
o The main component of these activities will be a joint training programme for
researchers and other key staff;
o Other spreading of excellence activities may include: dissemination and
communication activities (including public awareness and understanding of
science), and, more generally, networking activities to help transfer knowledge to
teams external to the network.
o Spreading of excellence may also include the promotion of the results generated
by the network; in such a context, networks should, when appropriate, include
innovation-related activities (protection of knowledge generated within the
network, assessment of the socio-economic impact of the knowledge and
technologies used and development of a plan for dissemination and use of
knowledge), as well as any appropriate gender and/or ethical related activities
� all the network's activities should be carried out within a coherent framework for the
management of the consortium linking together all the project components and
maintaining communications with the Commission.
3. Coordination and support actions (CSA)
Support to activities aimed at coordinating or supporting research activities and policies
(networking, exchanges, trans-national access to research infrastructures, studies,
conferences, etc). These actions may also be implemented by means other than calls for
proposals.
The Funding Scheme allows for two types of actions to be financed: a) "co-ordination or
networking actions", b) "specific support actions".
a) Coordination or networking actions (CA)
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Coordinating or networking actions will always have to be carried out by a consortium of
participants, normally three from three different countries.
The coordination or networking actions cover the following activities:
the organisation of events - including conferences, meetings, workshops or seminars -,
related studies, exchanges of personnel, exchange and dissemination of good
practices, and, if necessary, the definition, organisation and management of joint or
common initiatives together of course with management of the action.
The coordination and networking actions normally stretches over a longer period.
b) Specific support actions (SA)
Specific support actions may be carried out by a single participant, which can be based in any
member state, associated country or a third country. Therefore there are no restrictions on the
size of the consortium.
Although normally awarded following calls for proposals, there are also the possibilities to
award specific support actions through public procurement carried out on behalf of the
Community or to grant support to legal entities identified in the Specific Programmes or in
the work programmes where the Specific Programme permits the work programmes to
identify beneficiaries.
The objective of specific support actions are to contribute to the implementation of the
Framework Programmes and the preparation of future Community research and technological
development policy or the development of synergies with other policies, or to stimulate,
encourage and facilitate the participation of SMEs, civil society organisations and their
networks, small research teams and newly developed or remote research centres in the
activities of the thematic areas of the Cooperation programme, or for setting up of research-
intensive clusters across the EU regions.
The specific support actions can be of different types covering different activities:
o monitoring and assessment activities, conferences, seminars, studies, expert
groups, high level scientific awards and competitions, operational support and
dissemination, information and communication activities, support for transnational
access to research infrastructures or preparatory technical work, including
feasibility studies, for the development of new infrastructures, support for
cooperation with other European research schemes, the use by the Commission of
external experts, management or a combination of these.
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Appendix 3: Coordination of national or regional research programmes
The objective of these actions is to step up the cooperation and coordination of research
programmes carried out at national or regional level in the Member or Associated States
through the networking of research programmes, towards their mutual opening and the
development and implementation of joint activities.
Under FP7 the coordination of national or research programmes is continued and reinforced.
Coordination projects can network four types of activities: (1) Information exchange � (2)
Definition and preparation of joint activities � (3) Implementation of joint activities � (4)
Funding of joint trans-national research actions:
� ERA-NETs and other coordination actions launched under FP6 wishing to submit a follow-
up proposal under FP7 have to propose a strong coordination action focusing directly on
steps three and four, in order to achieve mutual opening and trans-national research via
joint/common calls, joint/common programmes or, if appropriate, other joint trans-
national actions.
� New coordination actions, which address new topics and without any experience from FP6,
should address at least the first three steps, but are encouraged to aim at the "four step
approach", as described above.
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Appendix 4: Distribution of budget commitment
The distribution of budget commitment over 2007-08 is presented below. Most of the amount
for Call 1 is from the 2007 budget and is under the condition that the preliminary draft budget
for 2007 is adopted without modifications by the budget authority; the remaining amount for
Call 1 and the amounts for Calls 2, 3, FET-Open and the joint call with the security theme are
expected to be added from the 2008 budget for which a new financing decision to cover the
budget for that year will be requested at the appropriate time.
Indicative budget for the ICT Theme (2007 Work Programme)
2007 ()
FP7-ICT-2007-1 1.019.000.000
FP7-ICT-2007-2
FP7-ICT-2007-3
FET Open
Joint Call ICT-Security
General activities (see Section 4
63.029.871
Implementation of calls)
Other expenditures:
31.200.000
Independent experts assisting in proposal
evaluations and project reviews (15 M)
Annual ICT Conference (4 M)
Studies (6 M)
Publications and communication activities
and event support (2.9 M)
HFSP (1.5 M)
EICTP (1.7 M)
IMS secretariat (0.1 M)
Estimated total budget allocation
1.113.229.871
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Appendix 5: FET Open evaluation, selection and award criteria
A score will be awarded for each of the three criteria (Scientific/Technological Quality,
Impact and Implementation), based on the considerations listed below:
1. S/T quality (in relation to the topics addressed by the call) *
� Clarity of objectives and quality of the concept.
short STREP
� Innovative character in relation to the state-of-the-art.
�
Threshold: 3.5/5
Contribution to advancement of knowledge/technological progress.
� Plausibility and effectiveness of the outline of the S/T methodology,
and of a validation / assessment approach.
� Clarity of objectives and quality of the concept.
full STREP
� Innovative character in relation to the state-of-the-art.
�
Threshold: 3/5
Contribution to advancement of knowledge/technological progress.
Weight: 40%
� Quality and effectiveness of the S/T methodology and associated
work plan.
� Clarity of objectives and quality of the concept.
Coordination Action
�
Contribution to the co-ordination of high quality research.
Threshold: 3/5
� Quality and effectiveness of the co-ordination mechanisms and
Weight: 50%
associated work plan.
*
Proposals that are clearly out of scope of the call will be rejected on eligibility grounds
before the evaluation.
2. Implementation
short STREP
� Reasonable estimation of resources planned to be committed (budget,
Threshold: 2/5
person-months, equipment).
� Appropriateness of the management structure and procedures.
full STREP
� Quality and relevant experience of the individual participants.
� Quality of the consortium as a whole (including complementarity,
Threshold: 4/5
balance).
Weight: 20%
� Appropriate allocation and justification of the resources to be
committed (person-months, budget, staff, equipment).
� Appropriateness of the management structure and procedures.
Coordination Action
� Quality and relevant experience of the individual participants.
� Quality of the consortium as a whole (including complementarity,
Threshold: 3/5
balance).
Weight: 20%
� Appropriate allocation and justification of the resources to be
committed (person-months, budget, staff, equipment).
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3. Impact
short STREP
� Contribution at the European level towards the expected impacts
listed under FET-Open.
Threshold: 3.5/5
� Positioning with respect to the realisation of a long-term vision in the
ICT domain.
� Contribution at the European level towards the expected impacts
listed under FET-Open.
full STREP
� Broader beneficial impacts related to the objectives of FET-Open.
� Positioning with respect to the realisation of a long-term vision in the
Threshold: 3/5
ICT domain.
Weight: 40%
� Appropriateness of measures envisaged for the dissemination and/or
exploitation of project results, and management of intellectual
property.
� Contribution at the European level towards the expected impacts
listed under FET-Open.
Coordination Action
�
Broader beneficial impacts related to the objectives of the theme
Threshold: 3/5
(and/or area).
Weight: 30%
� Appropriateness of measures for spreading excellence, exploiting
results, and disseminating knowledge, including engagement with
stakeholders outside the network.
Thresholds are set for each criterion, as indicated in the tables above. In addition, an overall
threshold may also be set, as indicated in the table below. A proposal failing to achieve any of
these threshold scores will be rejected.
Overall
Threshold
short STREP
None
full STREP
3.5/5
Coordination
3.5/5
Action
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Glossary
3D Three
Dimensional
ACP Africa,
Caribbean,
Pacific
ADAS
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems
AEC
Advanced Equipment Control
"Ambient Intelligence"
A concept in ICT that presents what should come beyond the current
"keyboard and screen" interfaces to enable ALL citizens to access ICT
services wherever they are, whenever they want, and in the form that is
most natural for them.
APC
Advanced Process Control
BCI
Brain to computer interaction
CA Coordination
action
Call for Proposals
As published in the Official Journal. Opens parts of the workprogramme
for proposals, indicating what types of actions (RTD projects,
Accompanying actions etc.) are required. A provisional timetable for such
Calls is included in the workprogramme
CIP
Competitiveness and Innovation Programme
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/enterprise_policy/cip/index_en.htm
CMOS Complementary
metal-oxide
semiconductor
COST
COST supports co-operation among scientists and researchers across
Europe http://www.cost.esf.org/
CSA
Coordination and Support Action
EC
European Commission (europa.eu.int)
EICTP European
ICT
Prize
EIROForum
Partnership of Europe's seven largest intergovernmental research
organisations (http://www.eiroforum.org/)
ERA
European Research Area
ETP European
Technology
Platform
http://cordis.europa.eu/technology-platforms/home_en.html
EU European
Union
EUREKA
A Europe-wide Network for Industrial RTD (www.eureka.be)
Evaluation
The process by which proposals are retained with a view to selection as
projects, or are not retained Evaluation is conducted through the
application of Evaluation Criteria identified in the Workprogramme.
FET
Future and Emerging Technologies
FET
Field effect transistor (in Challenge 3)
FP
Framework Programme (EU � Sixth FP is FP6, etc. � cordis.europa.eu)
GEOSS
Global Earth Observation System of Systems (www.epa.gov/geoss/)
GMES
Global Monitoring for Environment and Security - http://gmes.jrc.it/
HEOF
Health Emergency Operations Facilty
HFSP
Human Frontier Science Program (www.hfsp.org)
ICPC
International Cooperation Partner Countries (see list in Annex 1)
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ICT
Information and communications technologies
ICTC
Information and Communication Technologies Committee
IMS
Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Initiative (http://www.ims.org/)
INSPIRE
Infrastructure for spatial information in Europe (www.ec-gis.org/inspire/)
IP
Large-scale integrating project
IP Internet
Protocol
IPR
Intellectual Property Rights
IST
Information Society Technologies (FP6 programme)
ISTAG
Information Society Technologies Advisory Group
ISTC
Information Society Technologies Committee
ITRS
International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors
NEMS Nano-Electromechanical
Systems
NoE Network
of
Excellence
NSF
National Science Foundation (http://212.208.8.14/nsf.htm)
P2P Peer
to
peer
QIPC
Quantum information processing and communication
RF Radio
Frequency
RFID Radio
Frequency
Identification
RTD
Research and Technology Development.
SFIT
Smart Fabric Interactive Textile
SICA
Specific International Cooperation Actions
SiP
System in Package
SoC
Systems on a- Chip
SA
Specific Support Actions
SME
Small or Medium Enterprise
STREPs
Small or medium scale focused research action
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