E-Governance is the public sector’s use of information and communication technologies with the aim of improving information and service delivery, encouraging citizen participation in the decision-making process and making government more accountable, transparent and effective.(Definition UNESCO). It is closely related to the notion of e-Government.

Funding schemes refer to project types (formerly called "instruments"). They determine partnership size, budget, funding percentage and content (e.g. research in collaborative projects like Integrated Projects and STREPS; support activities in Support Actions, or coordination activities in Coordination Actions and Networks of Excellence). These funding schemes are attributed to each "target outcome" of the Objectives of the Work programme.

The term Emerging markets is used to describe a nation's social or business activity in the process of rapid growth and industrialization. Currently, there are approximately 28 emerging markets in the world, with the economies of China and India considered to be two of the largest. BRIC(S) is the acronym for the biggest emerging economies, i.e.

As a remedy after the financial and economic crisis that hit Europe (and the world) 2008/09, a European Economic recovery Plan 2010-2013 for Public-Private partnerships has been adopted.  The three PPPs represent a powerful means of boosting research efforts in three large industrial sectors - automotive, construction and manufacturing - which have been particularly affected by the economic downturn and where innovation can significantly contribute towards a more green and sustainable economy.

Education and training is addressed in the ICT Work Programme mainly under support or coordination actions. However, Integrated Projects might foresee training of researchers to improve their professional performance, and Networks of Excellence may use training to spread its excellence.

Digital  preservation  research  focuses  on  developing  technologies,  systems  and  tools  for safeguarding digital content. The objective is to preserve digital content in a more effective and cost-efficient manner while protecting its authenticity and integrity, significantly reducing the loss of irreplaceable information, and ensuring it may be reused in the future. (Source: Cordis)

Simulation is the imitation of some real thing, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system.Key issues in simulation include acquisition of valid source information about the referent, selection of key characteristics and behaviours, the use of simplifying approximations and assumptions within the simulation, and fidelity and validity of the simulation outcomes.[Source: Wikipedia]

Standardization (or standardisation) is the process of developing and agreeing upon technical standards. A standard is a document that establishes uniform engineering or technical specifications, criteria, methods, processes, or practices. Some standards are mandatory while others are voluntary. Voluntary standards are available if one chooses to use them. Some are de facto standards, meaning a norm or requirement which has an informal but dominant status.

Inclusion is a term used by people with disabilities and other disability rights advocates for the idea that all people should freely, openly and without pity accommodate any person with a disability without restrictions or limitations of any kind.

Collborative Projects are 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 (STREPs) to largescale integrating projects (IPs) for achieving a defined objective.

Role: Aimed at coordinating or supporting research activities and policies (networking, exchanges, trans-national access to research infrastructures, studies, conferences, etc).

Type of coordination and support action projects:
-Coordination or networking actions (CA)
-Specific support actions (SA)

For more information check FUNDING SCHEMES

In telecommunications and software engineering, scalability is a desirable property of a system, a network, or a process, which indicates its ability to either handle growing amounts of work in a graceful manner, or to be readily enlarged.

Cognitive systems are engineering systems with the capability to sense and understand an unstructured environment. Main challenge is to  design systems that can carry out useful tasks such as manipulation and grasping, exploration and navigation, communication and interaction etc. autonomously or semi-autonomously.

Pre-Commercial procurement (PCP) is an approach for procuring R&D services which enables public procurers to:

The European Commission established Information Society Policy Dialogues with a number of Third Countries, such as Brazil, to discuss relevant issues (e.g. Internet security) and identify priorities in mutual collaboration. Science and Technology Agreements (S&T Agreements) as those between the EU and Chile, Argentina and Brazil set the scene for continuous cooperation.

Interoperability is a property referring to the ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together (inter-operate). The term is often used in a technical systems engineering sense, or alternatively in a broad sense, taking into account social, political, and organizational factors that impact system to system performance.

Interoperability is addressed in the ICT work programme 2011/12 under the following challenges/ objectives:

In the context of environmental policy, climate change usually refers to changes in modern climate (see global warming). For information on temperature measurements over various periods, and the data sources available, see temperature record. For attribution of climate change over the past century, see attribution of recent climate change [Source: Wikipedia]

High tech is technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology currently available. The adjective form is hyphenated: high-tech or high-technology. (Source: Wikipedia)

Health care, or healthcare, refers to the treatment and management of illness, and the preservation of health through services offered by the medical, dental, pharmaceutical, clinical laboratory sciences (in vitro diagnostics), nursing, and allied health professions. Health care embraces all the goods and services designed to promote health, including “preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to individuals or to populations”.[Source: Wikipedia]

FET  Flagship  Initiatives  are  visionary,  science-driven,  goal-oriented, large-scale,  multidisciplinary  research  initiatives  nucleated  from  ICT  future  and  emerging technologies.  They  are  envisioned  to  be  long  term  programmes  on  a  scale  much  beyond current FET Proactive Initiatives.

e-Infrastructure refers to this new research environment in which all researchers - whether working in the context of their home institutions or in national or multinational scientific initiatives - have shared access to unique or distributed scientific facilities (including data, instruments, computing and communications), regardless of their type and location in the world. (Source: Cordis)

Unconventional computing is computing by a wide range of new or unusual methods. It is also known as alternative computing.

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a wireless network consisting of spatially distributed autonomous devices using sensors to cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or pollutants, at different locations.  The development of wireless sensor networks was originally motivated by military applications such as battlefield surveillance.

Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one location to another. In the ICT context, it can refer to ICT applications for this kind of physical transport (see below Challenge 6) or optical transport e.g.  infrastructures.

The term audio-visual (AV) may refer to works with both a sound and a visual component, the production or use of such works, or the equipment involved in presenting such works. Movies and television shows are examples of audiovisual presentations.

International cooperation in the programme aims to support European competitiveness and to jointly address, with other regions of the world, issues of common interest and mutual benefit, thereby   supporting   also   other   EU   policies   (sustainable   development,   environmental protection, disaster response, security etc).

Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) fosters exploratory research to open up new avenues across the full breadth of future information and communication technologies. It supports new and alternative ideas, concepts or paradigms of risky or non-conventional nature. FET aims to go  beyond  the  conventional  boundaries  of  ICT  and  ventures  into  uncharted  areas,  often inspired by and in close collaboration with other scientific disciplines.

Three-dimensional space is a geometric model of the physical universe in which we live. The three dimensions are commonly called length, width, and depth (or height), although any three mutually perpendicular directions can serve as the three dimensions. In the context of new technologies and the Internet, 3D is used for computer simulations (e.g. eHealth), virtual environments etc.[Source: Wikipedia]

A number of projects that have been successful in obtaining funding from the EU's ICT Programme are listed on our Successful Projects page.

The ageing society in the Western world poses challenges that can be addressed with ICT, such as independent living (e.g. through household robots or accident alerts).

Ageing well is addressed in the ICT work programme 2011/12  (p.62)under the following challenges/ objectives:

> Challenge 5: ICT for Health, Ageing Well, Inclusion and Governance

Trustworthiness is a moral value considered to be a virtue. A trustworthy person is someone in whom we can place our trust and rest assured that the trust will not be betrayed. [Source: Wikipedia]

In the ICT context, trustworthisness refers to ICT "that is secure, reliable and resilient to attacks and operational failures; guarantees quality of service; protects user data; ensures privacy and provides usable and trusted tools to support the user in his security management.

A wafer is a thin slice of semiconductor material, such as a silicon crystal, used in the fabrication of integrated circuit and other microdevices. (Source:Wikipedia)

Wafer processing is addressed in the ICT work programme 2011/12 (p. 41)under the following challenges/ objectives:

Small and medium enterprises (also SMEs, small and medium businesses, SMBs, and variations thereof) are companies whose headcount or turnover falls below certain limits.

The EU definition of SMEs since 2005 is as follows:

Service infrastructures in the ICT context are on-line service systems or platforms which support adaptability, interoperability, scalability etc. of services for citizens and businesses.

This topic is addressed in the ICT work programme 2011/12 under the following challenges/ objectives:

A semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity between those of a conductor and an insulator. The conductivity of a semiconductor material can be varied under an external electrical field. Devices made from semiconductor materials are the foundation of modern electronics, including radio, computers, telephones, and many other devices.

Challenge 1 of the ICT programme covers key technological developments in networking, digital media and service infrastructures. It features a Public-Private Partnership on Future Internet tools and platforms for novel Internet application development and deployment.

The objectives (=sub-themes) of this challenge are:

>Objective ICT-2011.1.1 Future Networks

Semantics is the study of meaning. The word "semantics" itself denotes a range of ideas, from the popular to the highly technical. It is often used in ordinary language to denote a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation.

In computer science, where it is considered as an application of mathematical logic, semantics reflects the meaning of programs or functions.

Challenge 4  is  the  foundation  of  a  knowledge  based  society;  it  is  in  digital  content  that knowledge  is  stored  and  from  digital  content  that  knowledge  is  extracted  and  exploited  by individuals and organisations across modalities and languages. This makes it crucial for this resource to be readily and reliably accessible over time to European citizens and enterprises  and  for  every  step  in  its  lifecycle  to  be  adequately  supported  and enhanced  in  response  to changes in the technology landscape.

Challenge 8 of the ICT programme  addresses  the  need  for  flexible  and  efficient  access  to  information  and knowledge, for educational, training and cultural purposes. It focuses on advances in how we learn through ICT and on enhancing the meaning and experiences from digital cultural and scientific  resources.  It  responds  to  societal  (active  and  responsible  learners)  and  economic needs of individuals and organisations (better skilled and creative workforce).

Challenge 3 of the ICT programme ist dedicated to alternative paths to components and systems, like electronic and photonic components, integrated micro/nanosystems, multicore computing systems, embedded systems and their monitoring & control and cooperating complex systems. It complements the developments undertaken in the ENIAC and ARTEMIS JTIs.

The objectives (=sub-themes) of this challenge are:

Search and retrieval in the ICT context refer to two main challenges of content management: How to provide easy and accurate access to the tremendous amount of avalable information on the Internet. Search engine optimisation through the use of networking techniques, and user feed-back profiling and contextualisation are some of the issues to be tackled.

Search and retrieval is addressed in the ICT work programme 2011/12 (p. 21, 58) under the following challenges/objectives:

Privacy is the ability of individuals to seclude themselves or information about themselves. The right to privacy is a fundamental right, laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights, most European Constitutions, and, amongst others, the Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of personal data.
Privacy can be seen as an aspect of security — one in which trade-offs between the interests of one group and another can become particularly clear. [Source: Wikipedia]

Open source software (OSS) is defined as computer software for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that meets the Open Source Definition or that is in the public domain. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified forms. It is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. [Source: Wikipedia]

Multimedia is media and content that utilizes a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun (a medium with multiple content forms) or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which only utilize traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material. Multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms. The term "rich media" is synonymous for interactive multimedia.[Source: Wikipedia]

Target oucomes are sub-divisions of the Objectives of the Work Programme. They explain what is expected under the specific objective under a challenge. Projects commonly can target one or more target outcomes of the same objective. Funding schemes are usually attributed per target outcome.

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are legal property rights over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs.

An immersive (digital) environment is an artificial, interactive, computer-created scene or "world" within which users can immerse themselves. Whereas some people use it as synonym for Virtual Reality, others define it as an environment that should surround the user naturally, like in a living room.

Sustainability, in a broad sense is the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems. In an ecological context, sustainability can be defined as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future.

See Technology-enhanced Learning

Inclusion or digital inclusion, also written eInclusion, is the term used within the European Union to encompass activities related to the achievement of an inclusive information society.

Carbon dioxide (chemical formula: CO₂) is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom.

Biomedical informatics is the broad discipline concerned with the study and application of computer science, information science, informatics, cognitive science and human-computer interaction in the practice of biological research, biomedical science, medicine and healthcare.

The Intelligent Manufacturing Systems initiative is an international collaboration framework between the EU and Norway, Australia, Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea, Switzerland and the US. (Source: Cordis)
See also:
European IMS site

Manufacturing takes turns under all types of economic systems. In a free market economy, manufacturing is usually directed toward the mass production of products for sale to consumers at a profit. In a collectivist economy, manufacturing is more frequently directed by the state to supply a centrally planned economy. In free market economies, manufacturing occurs under some degree of government regulation.(Source: Wikipedia)

The "Factories of the Future" is one of the three Public-Private Partnership included in the Commission's recovery package. It will consist of a research programme of 1.2 billion Euro to support the manufacturing industry in the development of new and sustainable technologies. The programme will be financed jointly by industry and the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme. The research programme will begin with coordinated calls for research proposals which should be launched in July this year.

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.

Energy Efficient Buildings = Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction.

Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (rail, ship, and truck), without any handling of the freight itself when changing modes. The method reduces cargo handling, and so improves security, reduces damages and losses, and allows freight to be transported faster. Reduced costs versus over road trucking is the key benefit for intracontinental use.

The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) is a methodological and technological framework that, once established, will enable collaborative investigation of the human body as a single complex system. The collective framework will make it possible to share resources and observations formed by institutions and organizations creating disparate, but integrated computer models of the mechanical, physical and biochemical functions of a living human body.[Source: Wikipedia]

The primary objective of the Unit 'Technologies for Information Management' is to co-fund research and development projects on innovative ICT technologies dealing with:

Photonics is the science of the emission, amplification, transmission, manipulation and detection of photons. It basically covers all technical applications of light over the whole spectrum from ultraviolet over the visible to the near, mid and far infrared. [Source: Wikipedia]

Nanoelectronics refers to the use of nanotechnology on electronic components, especially transistors. Although the term nanotechnology is generally defined as utilizing technology less than 100nm in size, nanoelectronics often refer to transistor devices that are so small that inter-atomic interactions and quantum mechanical properties need to be studied extensively.[Source: Wikipedia].

The Future Internet Public Private Partnership (FI-PPP) aims to advance Europe's competitiveness in Future Internet technologies and systems and to support the emergence of Future Internet-enhanced applications of public and social relevance. It addresses the need to make public service infrastructures and business processes significantly smarter (i.e. more intelligent, more efficient, more sustainable) through tighter integration with Internet networking and computing capabilities.

(Source: Cordis)

Internet-connected Objects provides  the  architecture  and  technological  foundations  for  developing context-aware,  reliable,  energy-efficient  and  secure  distributed  networks  of  cooperating sensors actuators and other smart devices and objects. This should enable person/object and  object/object  Internet-based  communications  opening  a  new  range  of  Internet  enabled services.

The Internet of Services is a vision of the Internet of the Future where organisations and individuals can find software as services on the Internet, combine them, and easily adapt them to their specific context. Users should be able to use software services that do exactly what they need.

Calls or Open Calls or Calls for Proposals open parts of the workprogramme for the submission of proposals, indicating what types of actions (Funding Schemes) are required. A provisional timetable for such calls is included in the work programme.

See FUNDING SCHEMES

Machine translation (MT) is a sub-field of computational linguistics or language technologies that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another.

This topic is addressed in the ICT work programme 2011/12 under the following challenges/objectives:

STREP: Specific Targeted Research Projects are multipartner research, demonstration or innovation projects. Their purpose is to support activities of a more limited scope and ambition than IPs.

For more information see Collaborative projects (CP)

The ICT 2010 event will take place in Brussels from 27 to 29 September 2010. This bi-annual event attracted almost 5000 participants in 2008. The programme consists of presentations (e.g. the ICT Work Programme 2011/2012), networking sessionr on most relevant topics, and an exhibition area.