ICT Innovations - 10 May 2011

“Catalysing European Competitiveness in a Globalising World”

by Alain Bravo Director General SUPELEC, Chair of FP7-ICT Interim Evaluation Panel

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/information_society/evaluation/rtd/fp7_interim/catalysing_european_competitiveness_v3.pdf

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Panel report:Summary

ICT programme is– Relevant– Solid and largely well implemented

11 recommendations grouped in 3 sets of actions– Strengthening European ICT research in a

globalising world– Exploiting the pervasiveness of ICT via

integrated policies– Sharing risk

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Conclusions and recommendations (1/3)

Strengthening European ICT research in a globalising world

1) Continue with ICT in FP8 in a further strengthened form, flexibility and interdisciplinarity are needed to support dynamic and radical ICT innovation

2) Continue to build ERA combining national and European programmes (but) – clarify (fit for purpose) of portfolio of instruments and– address issues of dual management

3) To ensure balance between consensus-based R&D and longer term – expand (FP7) and extend FET (FP8)

4) Keep extending global reach of FP7-ICT– taking into account characteristics and capabilities of various

parts of the world (reciprocity, longer term competitiveness)– more proactive policy and EU presence in pre-

normalisation and standardisation

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The new ERA instruments: the JTIs & the AAL JP

Value of the new initiatives– Proved particularly effective in mobilising industry stakeholders– Led to an enhanced involvement of SMEs in research at European level– Allows researchers to strengthen and broaden their R&D alliances with

industry participants – Especially in ARTEMIS and the AAL JP, allowed for a pronounced

involvement of key immediate or end users of the technologies

Overall evaluation of the participants– High level of relevance because of the strong alignment with industry &

user needs – Current implementation methods criticised, especially because of the

difficulties and additional costs caused by the dual governance

ERA 2020 vision: To build a globally competitive Research and Innovation System optimised at the European level, aligning

regional and national policies and institutions to this new scale

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FET – Future and Emerging Technologies new ideas for ICT research

An incubator and pathfinder for new ideas and themes for long-term research in the area of ICT

FET Proactive• top-down approach• spearheading transformative

research and supporting community building

FET Open• bottom-up approach• exploring new and

alternative ideas at the frontiers

61 M€ 110 M€

High risk research, offset by potential breakthrough with high technological and/or societal impact

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Conclusions and recommendations (2/3)

Exploiting the pervasiveness of ICT via integrated policies

5) ICT task force spanning across DGs to coordinate ICT-relevant policy development

6) Explore opportunities for demand-based measures that open new arenas for innovation …

– (aggregating and) making visible user needs– deepen the role of demand side in the ICT programme and– its links to take-up and practice

7) use the power of higher education system in spreading innovation and providing new skills and competencies

– encourage participants to develop curricula in new and emerging areas

8) To reach the Programme’s immediate ICT objectives two major actions are needed

– reverse the downward trend in industry participation– incorporate plans for large-scale ICT test-beds for advanced

services

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The increasing pervasiveness of ICT …

R&D in ICT involves a wide range of stakeholders from the most varied market sectors

Participation in FP7 mainstream ICT by the actors in the value chainbase: 3,315 participations; Calls 1-4, end 2009

Information Services 4%

Healthcare Services3%

Other Public Services6%

PA governance4%

Business Services8%

Electronic Components6%

Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Devices

17%

Systems engineering, Software & IT Services

30%

Consumer Electronics Manufacturing

8%

Transport Eq. Manufacturing

4%

Other Manufacturing3%

Network Operators & Telecommunication

Services7%

Demand side

Supply side

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Links to demand are weak in some areas

• 50% of the participants: collaboration in RTD of all actors in the product/service value chain is a key factor for the achievement of excellence in R&D

• Participants pointed at a limited involvement in FP7 ICT of key immediate or end users in the Programme, including private enterprises as well as Public Authorities and NGOs

• The alignment of the research results with the user needs was a concern voiced by ~30% of the industry participants in FP7 mainstream ICT research

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Human capital and research/innovation capacity building

• Higher Education key for new ICT skills, multidisciplinary competences, dissemination of ICT research

• Higher Education institutions accounted for ~40% of the overall participation & funding – ~80% were important players at national or European level– a high-level involvement of European research leaders in the

fields of ICT

• Little explicit transfer of knowledge from research and innovation to the ‘education’ pillar – ‘educational outreach’ activities implemented, amongst others, in

the fields of robotics and photonics – doctoral schools …

• Little evidence on the development of joint Master Programmes - one of the positive effects of the NoEs in FP6

Under-emphasis of the third element in the knowledge triangle

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Conclusions and recommendations (3/3)

Sharing risk …

9) to ensure participation of key European players and attract global participants, EC must:

– reduce administrative burden and (perceived) arbitrariness of auditing practice

– radically overhaul the financial regulations ensuring the principle of shared risk and mutual trust

10) to increase SME participation:– simplify and reduce the burdens of their

participation with a lightweight form of subcontracting or associate partnership

11) To reduce the waste of effort in proposal writing:

– test a more sophisticated 2-stage application process with proposals going into 2nd stage having 30-50% chance of funding