European Proposals and Reviews Information and Computation Technology ICT

1
European Proposals and Reviews Information and
Computation Technology (ICT)

• Reinhold Behringer

Research Conference 4. September 2006
Rev. 2
2
Outline

• Background
• ICT in FP-7
• Themes
• Funding Instruments
• Proposal Evaluation and Project Review
• Consequences

3
Presenters Background

• Running Stream Professor of Creative Technology,
  Innovation North (since 2005).
• Participated in proposal evaluations and project
  reviews in 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2006.
• Obtained an EU Marie-Curie Reintegration Grant in
  2006.

4
ICT in FP-7
5
Framework Programme 7

• 7 year programme, synchronised to EU fiscal
  perspective.
• 4 major objectives
• Cooperation
• Ideas
• People
• Capacities
• Total budget of 50.5B for 2006-2013

6
Cooperation

• Goal gain leadership in key scientific and
  technology areas.
• 9 thematic research areas
• Information society,
• Health,
• Transport (incl. aearonautics),
• Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials and new
  production technologies,
• Security and space,
• Energy,
• Environment,
• Food, agriculture, and biotechnology,
• Socio-economic sciences and the humanities.
• Joint, cross-thematic approaches to research
  subjects of common interest.

7
Ideas

• Establishment of an autonomous European Research
  Council (ERC), supporting basic research by
  individual teams.

8
People

• In FP-6 Marie Curie actions.
• Strengthen training, career prospects, mobility
  of European researchers.
• Mobility between university and industry,
  geographically.

9
Capacities

• Developing EUs research capacities through
  large-scale research infrastructure, regional
  cooperation, and innovating SMEs.

10
Joint Research Centre

• Non-nuclear activities of the Joint Research
  Centre.

11
Budget

• Cooperation and Ideas 70
• People and Capacities 20
• JRC and Euratom 10

12
Information Communication Technology (ICT)

• In previous FP-6 Information Society Technology
  (IST).
• Emphasis on development of novel technologies for
  information technology.
• "IST Vision anywhere anytime natural access to
  IST services for all"
• Proposed budget for ICT in FP-7 11B for 7
  years.
• Still needs approval by the European Parliament,
  expected November 2006.
• First calls are expected by end of 2006.

13
Technological Challenge Areas

• Pervasive and trusted network service
  infrastructures.
• Cognitive systems, interactive environments and
  robots.
• Higher performance and reliable components
  subsystems embedded systems.

14
Socio-Economic Challenges

• European digital content and knowledge factory.
• Sustainable and personalised healthcare.
• ICT for mobility, sustainable growth energy
  efficiency.
• ICT for independent living and inclusion.

15
Additional Themes

• Enriched Future
• Emerging Technologies
• Collaborative calls with other themes.

16
Social Context of ICT

• Demand for health and social care, esp. ageing
  population.
• Education, learning.
• Cultural heritage.
• Social inclusion, cohesion.
• Transport and environment.
• Security.
• Energy.

17
Integration of Technologies

• Personal environments
• Personal communication, computing devices,
  accessories, implants.
• Home environments
• Communication, monitoring, control, assistance
  seamless interoperability and use of all devices.
• Robotic systems
• Advanced autonomous systems cognition, action
  skills, natural interaction, miniaturisation,
  humanoid technologies.
• Intelligent infrastructures
• Tools for making infrastructures that are
  critical to everyday life more efficient and
  user-friendly, easier to adapt and maintain, more
  robust to usage and resistant to failures.

18
Applications Research

• ICT meeting societal challenges
• health, inclusion, mobility, environment,
  government
• ICT for content, creativity, and personal
  development
• new media, learning, access to cultural and
  scientific resources
• ICT for businesses and industry
• Cooperation, distributed work
• ICT for trust and confidence
• Identity, authentication, protection.

19
More Information

• PF-7 http//www.euractiv.com/en/science/7th-resea
  rch-framework-programme-fp7/article-117494
• Information Society in Europe general
  introduction http//europa.eu.int/information_soci
  ety/research/index_en.htm
• Towards ICT Research in FP-7 http//europa.eu.int/
  information_society/research/eu_research/fp7_ist/i
  ndex_en.htm
• IST in FP-6 http//cordis.europa.eu/ist/

20
Funding Instruments for FP-7

• RD Collaborative Project
• Network of Excellence
• Co-ordination Action
• Specific Support Action

21
Collaborative Projects

• Research projects, carried out by consortia with
  participants from different countries.
• Aimed at developing new knowledge, new
  technology, products, demonstration activities,
  or common resources for research.
• Small, medium-scale, or large-scale projects.

22
Networks of Excellence

• Joint program of activities.
• Longer-term collaboration between a number of
  research organisations, integrating their
  activities in a given field.

23
Coordination and Support Actions

• Support to activities aimed at coordinating or
  supporting research activities and policies.
• Networking, exchanges, trans-national access to
  research infrastructures, studies, conferences.

24
Other Support

• Support for Frontier research
• Individual national or transnational research
  teams, funded by the European Research Council.
• Support for training and career development of
  researchers
• Similar to Marie Curie actions.
• Research for the benefit of specific groups
• E.g. SMEs.
• Research carried out be universities, research
  centres, or others, for the benefit of groups,
  e.g. SMEs.

25
Proposal Evaluation and Project Reviews
26
Criteria for Good European Projects / Proposals

• Most important technical excellence.
• Also relevant
• Mix between research and exploitation
  (commercialisation).
• Ethical considerations.
• Consortium criteria
• Mix between large and small institutions.
• User group involvement.
• Well balanced European geography.

27
Finding Partners for Proposal

• Networking at conferences.
• Existing projects contact program managers.
• Join a consortium already before call comes out.
• Often, calls result as continuation of ongoing
  projects, initiated by the project partners.
• http//cordis.europa.eu/en/home.html
• Register interest, find partners, get information
  about activity areas.
• Amount of information may be overwhelming, but it
  is important to know!

28
Proposal Review

• Your proposal has been submitted.
• Now the European Commission has to make a
  decision on the funding of your proposal.
• Procedure (as in FP-6)
• Experts are invited to evaluate the proposals for
  a specific call according to a well defined set
  of criteria.
• Proposals receive a mark then they are ranked.
• The top proposals are accepted, until the
  allocated funding for the particular call has
  been completely allocated.

29
Project Review

• During the course of a project, a review takes
  place, showcasing the project progress and
  ensuring that it is on track.
• Again, independent experts are invited to
  evaluate the project progress, based on project
  reports and on presentations / demonstrations by
  the project team.

30
Evaluation and Review Process

• Review guidelines are published on the web.
• Evaluators read the proposal / reports and
  prepare their individual preliminary evaluation.
  Weighted scores are given for separate criteria.
• For certain criteria, a score threshold needs to
  be exceeded.
• Several evaluators are assigned to the same
  proposal / project.
• In group meetings (held in Brussels), the
  individual evaluations are discussed. The
  evaluators have to come to a consensus not just
  the average score is given, but all reviewers
  need to agree.
• If a difference of opinion remains, an
  arbitration meeting with additional reviewers is
  held.
• At the end of the session, the proposals are
  ranked, and are being funded from top down until
  funding allocation is depleted.

31
Involvement

• Being an expert evaluator for proposal evaluation
  and project review provides insight into funding
  process.
• Is also valuable for European networking.
• How to become an expert evaluator?
• https//cordis.europa.eu/emmfp6/index.cfm?fuseacti
  onwel.welcome
• Sign up into expert database.
• European Commission project officers will contact
  you, depending on needed expertise.
• Limitation experts can only be employed for a
  limited number of times for a specific research
  area.

32
Consequences for Your Project Activities

• All guidelines are well published is sometimes
  overwhelming.
• Follow in proposal preparation exactly the given
  instructions and guidelines.
• Address explicitly the objectives of the call and
  of the EU research.

33
Summary

• FP-7 provides many funding opportunities.
• ICT technology development in information
  science.
• Proposal submission and evaluation, as well as
  project reviews, follow the well published
  guidelines therefore inform yourself well!