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In the view of the current panel, while the ICT Programme retains its full relevance and its solid
and largely well-implemented character, the current review stresses the need for three essential
sets of action
• Strengthening European ICT research in a globalizing world,
• Exploiting the pervasiveness of ICT via integrated policies
• Sharing risk
STRENGTHENING EUROPEAN ICT RESEARCH IN A GLOBALISING WORLD
1. To support the use of ICT and the competitiveness of European industry, the Commission
should continue the ICT Programme in a further strengthened form through the rest of FP7
and into FP8 while ensuring it has the flexibility and interdisciplinarity needed for dynamic and
radical ICT innovation.
2. To continue to build a European Research Area that combines the needs and assets of
national and European programmes, the Commission should clarify and more clearly
communicate how the portfolio of instruments at its disposal is intended to support both ICT
Programme and ERA goals. It should, with the Member States, especially address issues of
dual management, separate reporting and lack of coordination.
3. To ensure that the ICT Programme contains a good balance between consensus-based R&D
and longer-term, more disruptive R&D, the Commission should expand the resources of FET
during the second part of FP7 and the scheme should be extended into FP8.
4. To respond to the globalisation of R&D and to make best use of potential global partnerships,
the Commission should continue to extend the global reach of the ICT Programme. It should
develop a more nuanced strategy that takes account of the differing characteristics and
capabilities of various parts of the world. This must be complemented by a proactive policy to
ensure EU presence at the leading edge of pre-normalisation and formal standardisation
processes.
EXPLOITING THE PERVASIVENESS OF ICT VIA INTEGRATED POLICIES
5. To develop ICT policies and programmes that respond to ICT’s pervasiveness across all parts
of society and the economy, the Commission should take the lead by establishing an ICT Task
Force with members spanning appropriate Directorates General, to coordinate ICT-relevant
policy development.
6. To take adequate account of the needs of the demand side, and the potential innovation and
policy stimuli it provides, the Commission should ensure that the work of the Task Force is
complemented by activities that connect ICT Programme design with wider (especially
societal) foresights. It should explore the opportunities to create demand-based measures
that open new arenas for innovation and growth by grouping and making visible user needs.
DG-Infso should also aim for better coordination with other Directorates General and with ICT
user communities in order to deepen the role of the demand side – both public and private – in
defining and implementing the Programme and its links to take-up and practice.
To make best use of the power of the Higher Education system in spreading innovation and
providing the skills and competencies needed for competitiveness, the Commission should
incorporate elements in future Calls that encourage participants to develop curricula in new
and emerging areas as part of the activities funded.
8. To improve the structure of the ICT Programme, to reach the Programme’s immediate ICT
objectives and the wider objectives of FP7, the Commission should take two major actions (a)
to make greater efforts to reverse the downward trend in industry participation; (b) to
incorporate plans for large-scale ICT test beds for advanced services.
SHARING RISK
9. To enable the continued participation of key European players and to make the programme
sufficiently attractive to global participants, the Commission must reduce the damaging
administrative burden and the growing arbitrariness of auditing practices. It can address this
by undertaking a radical overhaul of the financial regulations and their implementation, and
ensuring that the underlying principle is one of shared risk and mutual trust.
10. To increase SME participation, in particular, and simplify and reduce the burdens of their
participation, the Commission should create a flexible, lightweight and well-defined form of
sub-contracting or associate partnership.
11. To reduce the current massive waste of effort in writing good-quality but nevertheless fruitless
proposals and to make it more attractive to participate in the Programme, the Commission
should test a more sophisticated two-stage application process in part of the Programme.
Proposals proceeding to the second stage should have a 30-50% chance of obtaining funding.