BIULETYN INFORMACYJNY O PROGRAMACH BADAWCZYCH KOMISJI EUROPEJSKIEJ
	Nr 2/99	Redakcja Biuletynu	Styczeń 14, 99

Opis akcji kluczowych

Akcje kluczowe podzielone są na kilkadziesiąt kierunków działań (action lines).

Key Action I - SYSTEMS AND SERVICES FOR THE CITIZEN

Na rok 1999 zaplanowano 12 kierunków działań (Action Lines)

Objective: To develop and analyse scenarios (including the regulatory and info-ethical aspects) and new models for provision of general interest services, with appropriate mixes of on-line service, telepresence and direct human contact, and to quantify benefits in terms of wider accessibility (both geographically and to social groups), transparency, lower cost, higher quality or the availability of a wider range of services. Work will include socio-economic research to appraise the key social, economic, organisational and behavioural changes brought by the integration of IST in the general interest areas, define the 10-year vision of new modes of service delivery in these areas, and provide new metrics and evaluation criteria for monitoring progress. It will also include pilot projects to test and validate the new scenarios and models in a real context. Where appropriate, the work should support the enlargement of the European Union and its adaptation to Economic and Monetary Union. Take up actions should include industrial co-operation to provide common validation platforms for advanced services.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate affordable appliances and services for personal health status support to enable citizens to take a more active role in prevention, care and rehabilitation. The RTD work will focus on personal health systems that communicate with the rest of the health information infrastructure. It will be integrated with the development of advanced bio-sensors, transducers and microsystems, linked via communication facilities for secure information exchange with professional networks and interfaces with electronic health records. The results are expected to help the development of personal health services, to support the EU policy on health promotion, and to contribute to the growth of personal health-related industries.

Objective: To develop innovative medical systems for screening, diagnosis, treatment and therapy and to demonstrate their benefits based on measurable indicators. These systems will involve new generation devices based on micro- and nano-technologies, advanced medical imaging with integrated knowledge systems for diagnostic support, virtual and augmented reality based tools for medical treatment and education, and mobile and fixed secure systems for accessing personal health data. Work should also focus in part on the integration of new information systems for timely access to health data, and on innovative interfaces for easy acceptance by medical staff and the general public. The RTD work is to be complemented by actions promoting large-scale implementation trials and the use of standardised digital health records.

Objective: To demonstrate by 2003 a set of new generation telemedicine services for tele-consultation and provision of tele-care at the point of need. The work should focus on the development and integration of new technologies for telemedicine applications including specific aspects of: tele-robotics, medical digital assistants and advanced interfaces (including bio-sensors, transducers and micro-systems) integrated with dependable mobile and wireless information and communication services including satellite-based services. Emphasis should be on interoperability with the health information infrastructure and the development of new standardised protocols. The RTD is expected to provide tools for distributed health care services and to support access to care 24 hours a day across borders and for people in remote and isolated areas. The work will contribute to the development of future regulatory frameworks and codes of conduct for advanced telemedicine services.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate new tools, systems and services to enable people with special requirements to live independently. The work will address personal care, mobility and communication, and will enable improved access to a wider range of services, and greater participation in social and community activities for people with reduced mobility or impaired functions, including extending employment and learning opportunities. Support for independent living will include personal devices for tele-support, the design of systems for the home environment, and advanced solutions for professional and informal carers. Within this Action Line, design-for-all tools and methods are to be further developed and applied to provide a focus on affordable, universal access to mainstream products and services. Particular improvements are sought in user modelling so that systems and user interfaces can be more easily configured to and by the individual, and to the tasks being undertaken and the environment.

Objective: To develop advanced multimedia integrated sytems and services for administrations and other public bodies and to demonstrate the advantages of new services in terms of improved internal effectiveness, streamlining of inter-working between different levels (local, regional, national, EU) and types of administration, including public-private partnerships, and between administrations and citizens, institutions and business. Trustworthiness and accessibility of common data, auditability, real-time translation capability, robustness and user-friendliness are critical features of these systems and services. Work should support EU policies, in particular in terms of enlargement.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate innovative consultation, access and voting systems to support increased and equal participation in democratic processes, reduce costs and increase transparency in a user-friendly way. The systems are expected to facilitate contact with elected representatives and the understanding of proceedings of democratic institutions in simple low-cost ways. They are also expected to be applicable at local, regional, national or European level; to incorporate adequate safeguards for privacy and authentication and the handling of votes; to be simple to use, accessible and affordable to all electors and candidates. The work should be relevant to EU policies in terms of enlargement.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate at local, urban, regional and trans-boundary level systems and tools for coherent international environment monitoring and management. The work is expected to involve integration of diverse networked information sources including, as appropriate, high-resolution remote sensing, geographic information, advanced data mining and decision support systems. It is also expected to involve development of intelligent sensors, detectors, models and networks for monitoring of slow chronic changes, as well as pollution, and the assessment of new business models for value-added environmental information services. RTD is expected to contribute to European and global standards for environmental data exchange and to the preservation of natural resources. It should also support environmental planning and early warning.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate new tools and integrated systems for coherent emergency management, supporting the entire cycle from prevention, identification, mitigation and post-crisis follow-up for both natural and man-induced risks. The work, which is focused on severe weather, geological incidents, flooding, forest fires, landslides and industrial accidents, is expected to involve development and use of intelligent, mobile and networked sensors for real-time data collection, remote sensing, high performance visualisation systems combined with risk assessment models and real-time GIS. The systems should include tools for realtime command and control and the integration of data from satellite, fixed and mobile communication networks; they should include the provision of early warning and information to the citizen. The RTD is expected to contribute to establish and enhance European standards for generic emergency management tools, including those to be used for potential high impact environments such industrial plants and urban environments.

Objective: To develop intelligent information infrastructures for data capture, processing, exchange and distribution covering all transport modes to support traffic and demand management, collective and individual transport, and fleet and freight operations for the whole logistics chain. These objectives include the development and enhancement of surveillance, positioning, navigation, management, guidance and payment systems. Emphasis is placed on the enhancement of terrestrial and satellite communication, positioning and observation infrastructures (including UMTS and GNSS2) in view of their adaptation for traffic surveillance and control, tracking and tracing, telepayment and guidance. Priority will be given to media-independent and open architectures adapting mobile network intelligence and terminals for optimal use in transport. Image processing, monitoring technology and sensors should be further developed for surveillance. Work should include the development of new traffic control systems integrating processing, simulation, prediction and decision-support tools, including tools for managing large-scale events and crises.

Objective: To develop and validate on-board systems to improve the safety, comfort and more efficient use of vehicles, in particular in terms of obstacle and collision avoidance, human-centred vision, alertness enhancement and impairment watch, navigation, routing, traffic and weather information, maintenance and remote vehicle diagnostics and other info-mobility” systems. Work should include resource usage optimisation and environmental impact monitoring. Human-machine interface development and integration and aspects related to verification procedures for their take-up are to be considered. Priority will be given to systems common to all modes of transport and the on-board system architecture. The work will contribute to industrial consensus on common standards and interface protocols as a basis for incorporation of greater intelligence and communication facilities into all new vehicles by 2005.

Objective: To develop new components and distributed architectures for tourism information and communications systems supporting users and businesses, offering value-added services and multimedia information on accommodation, events, culture and leisure, together with booking and payment facilities. Work will focus on the customisation of data mining techniques, intelligent, multi-lingual, agent-based technologies and positioning systems. The emphasis is on the integration of emerging technologies and processes enabling service personalisation and interaction, assuring quality information, providing mobile access and providing information channels for all types of tourism service suppliers. The work should include benchmarking and best-practice identification measures.

Key Action II - NEW METHODS OF WORK AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

W 1999 wyodrębniono jedenaście kierunków działań (Action Lines):

Objective: To develop, quantify and demonstrate evolution scenarios and the potential social and economic impacts of new technologies and services on work and business in the next decade. Work should actively engage socio-economic research on the barriers faced by companies. It should be based on benchmarking, econometric models, new statistical indicators and technology foresight, to guide RTD and inform policy development. It should involve socio-economic research in the technology projects to aid in technology shaping and in identifying new skills requirements. Particular emphasis should be placed on identifying new opportunities for economic growth, employment, social inclusion and health and safety. Attention should also be given to entrepreneurship, equal opportunities, adaptability and to legal and policy issues related to networked organisational structures, such as virtual enterprises with respect to liability and IPR protection, in a global environment. Activities should include measures to raise public awareness and support the policy debates.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate tools for representing, capturing, accumulating and transferring distributed organisational knowledge in working environments. The focus is on increasing individual and organisational adaptability and accelerating “learning from experience” in networked organisations. The focus should be on the intangible corporate knowledge about relationships and business/organisation practices as well as about more formalised skills. The goal is to research and demonstrate tools and best practice supporting the variety of work and learning cultures in the EU, specifically including younger first-time employees. The work should involve multi-disciplinary research, technology development and trials in real work situation, which should serve as showcases of best practice.

Objective: To develop, integrate and evaluate innovative workplace technologies and concepts in a variety of work situations, including those involving mobility and dynamic roles, to create more effective and user-friendly work environments. The focus is on the research into integrated leading-edge technologies and tools for multi-sensory communication, information access and analysis, including for example augmented reality tools and wearables, and for individual and team creativity, giving due consideration to usability, health and safety, gender issues and the quality of working life. The work should involve multi-disciplinary research, technology development and trials in real work situations, which should serve as showcases for world-best workplace design.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate reference models, architectures and technologies that enable teams to work together across different, possibly mobile, locations and different time zones. These systems and services should allow sharing and managing information both in real-time and asynchronously, supported by appropriate models, simulations and analytical tools. The work is to involve the linking and integration of heterogeneous workplaces, and to support both intra-company as well as inter-organisational working.

Objective: To develop models, and demonstrate tools and systems for dynamic networked and virtual organisations, facilitating co-operation and the inter-operation of business processes, the management of large scale and complex business operations and on-line employee consultation. The work is expected to include benchmarking and evaluation of networked organisation models and the development of tools and systems for co-operative planning and scheduling of resources. Work should specifically address the needs of European SMEs as participants in global business networks and their infrastructure requirements, and on new business development. It is expected to contribute to business-led consensus building, for example on codes of practice, the legal framework and interoperability, including in the Global Business Dialogue, and to world-best showcases of new business practice.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate models, systems and tools enabling products and services to be designed and developed digitally for full life-cycle management. The focus is on digital prototyping, simulation and virtual reality support for distributed design, including requirements capture, development, production, distribution and maintenance, including upgrading. The products and services particularly envisaged are those which, in combination, make full use of embedded intelligence linked with external communication and information services. Work is expected to involve interaction between suppliers, products in use, and customers to maximise value, minimise overall environmental cost, and facilitate enhancement and re-use.

Objective: To develop innovative marketplace concepts and technologies as well as to assess various architectures and tools for virtual marketplaces and business communities. The work should include mediation systems and tools for brokerage, to enable new business models, new types of trade and trade in new types of services. The work should cover emerging technologies for billing, payment, VAT collection, interactions with administrations, negotiation and brokerage and mediation and should reflect European diversity in business organisation and networking, and in financial services.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate systems and services to facilitate balanced relationships between customers and a range of suppliers of goods and services. The focus is on: empowering customers as partners in the life-cycle management of goods and services, to facilitate maintenance, repair (particularly under guarantees), trading, customer feedback and personalisation; the management of personal information and preferences (in accordance with the EU data protection legislation), including enhanced customer influence on the provision of product and service information to them; and consumer protection, including advice and redress services. The work should contribute to an effective consensus on interoperability, enabling consumers to use the tools in all Member States with a wide range of suppliers, and on regulation, especially self-regulation.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate architectures, protocols, technologies, tools, systems and services, including the use of third-party services, allowing for a diversity of approaches to trust management, to allow identification and authentication of individuals and services and items of equipment in inter-business, retail and personal relationships, and to prevent unauthorised collection, recording and disclosure of data. Work is expected to enable equitable multi-role personal identification with adequate privacy-enhancing features under an individual’s control. Emphasis is placed on achieving international compatibility and interoperability, scalability and reconfigurability, to enable increased, flexible trans-border work, trade and collaboration.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate interoperable systems for secure electronic financial transactions, notably for use in the global marketplace and supporting the EURO, applicable in business-to-business, retail and transactions with public administrations. The work is expected to cover billing, payment, accounting and record keeping, as well as anonymous, small and micro payments. The focus is on scalability and interoperability between systems and on risk-management. The work is expected to include high-reliability and tamper-proof component development, including innovative smart-card and personal token systems.

Objective: To develop, validate and pilot the components, architectures, tools, systems and services to support the transfer of digital objects and their management as commercial assets. The focus is on providing best practice examples and validating business models on a large scale, which apply European strengths in innovative technologies and systems with a view to promoting widespread take-up amongst businesses. Attention should be given to global consensus on interoperable rights management systems, social, cultural, economic and legal impact assessment, and experimenting with advanced technologies for digital object rights and usage identification, including anonymity support and their integration into new business models.

Key Action III - MULTIMEDIA CONTENT AND TOOLS

Na rok 1999 wyodrębniono 12 kierunków działań (Action Lines)

Objective: To identify the key social, economic, organisational and behavioural changes stimulated by the widespread introduction of new IST in the audio-visual, creative and information industries as well as the education and cultural sectors. To quantify the current and potential future impact on growth and employment, on education and training approaches, on linguistic and cultural diversity, on our cultural/knowledge heritage. This should include the impact of advanced interactive audio-visual systems, complementarities and convergences between networked (e.g. Internet, future Web) and broadcast (e.g. digital interactive) delivery modes, new metrics and quality control criteria for valuing information assets, new business models for multimedia, audio-visual services and disintermediated communication, effective use and management of information, as well as the identification of key areas for new business and trade development.

Objective: To promote more creativity and better design of European multimedia content in key application areas (knowledge, business and lifestyle publishing) through the development of advanced content technologies. To improve multimedia authoring, design and production systems for handling radically new combinations of highly visual and interactive media forms, including 3-D, virtual reality, and broadband content. Expected benefits to be demonstrated include greater usability, functionality and productivity, as well as cross-media integration and new multi-platform publishing and broadcast applications. New distributed production processes and systems, new work flow procedures such as real-time tele-collaboration and new uses of interactive multimedia should be validated, with the active involvement of all actors concerned from production to distribution and use.

Objective: To validate and demonstrate access, delivery and personalisation of heterogeneous assets in large distributed, and multi-owner collections in key application areas (knowledge, business and lifestyle publishing). This includes the development and integration of automated content packaging and presentation systems, tailoring, Web-based and agent-based services, unified interfaces and search facilities across different information resources, new business models and dynamic transaction systems between collaborating content owners. The work is expected to contribute to open standards for interoperability and access management guidelines, including for consumer protection and privacy.

Objective: To improve access by citizens and by professionals to Europe’s fast-growing science and culture knowledge base, through developing advanced systems and services supporting large-scale distributed, multi-disciplinary collections of cultural and scientific multi-media resources. The technological focus is on rich representations, powerful immersive features such as 3-D visualisation, real-time virtual object manipulation and group interactivity, whether for multimedia retrieval, virtual galleries, mass media events or audio-visual distribution. Work is expected to develop new mixed-economy models for exploitation, repackaging and re-use. Work should also address interoperable access to distributed resources, whether through cross-domain resource discovery, interfaces or new architectures and standards, or whether through digital archives integrating library and museum objects.

Objective: To address new ways of representing, analysing, manipulating and managing different kinds of digital cultural objects from different media sources, with special attention given to surrogates of fragile physical objects. The work should focus on the sustainable development of valuable digital repositories in Europe's libraries, museums and archives. It should address the technical and organisational problems surrounding the viability of scaleable digital repositories, e.g. through testbed creation for: long-term preservation and content management in distributed heterogeneous collections (e.g. provenance, authenticity, identification and links). Particular attention should be paid to long-term accessibility, both by citizens and for scientific analysis, and to quality, affordability and acceptability.

Objective: To enable an education and training centre, company or service provider, to implement and maintain integrated learning services. Emphasis is placed on personalised learning in collaborative environments that involve high-quality pedagogic approaches. The RTD should address the development of re-usable components and a suite of modular building blocks and tools on the basis of an underlying open infrastructure supporting a wide range of flexible learning activities (learning by doing, collaborative and group learning). It should also address the development of environments that facilitate interaction, including social interaction, between learners and between teachers. This should encompass all functionality needed to develop, manage and deliver courses and benefits should be sought in terms of pedagogy, cost-effectiveness, service quality and scalability. The work is expected to be validated in more than one learning setting and specific discipline. It should contribute to on-going standardisation activities in open learning architecture and learning objects re-usability.

Objective: To integrate and demonstrate emerging technologies for the flexible university of the future through large-scale experiments in areas promoting European integration, and providing advanced facilities to allow learners to follow a personalised mix of courses, and to interact with teachers and each other in new ways. The work should promote higher-quality re-useable learning material; greater choice for learners through demand-driven course management; more consistent quality-management and more cost-effective on-line access to university and higher education facilities. To facilitate EU-wide implementation, the research should also address university teaching re-engineering, social and pedagogic requirements and cost-benefits. The learning context (subject domain, target populations), economic and organisational aspects of learning should be addressed in a focussed way. The work should help to set technical and operational standards and to stimulate collaboration with other sectors (e.g. academic-industry links, public-private partnerships).

Objective: To develop and demonstrate radically new approaches for improving the future training and re-training of the work force, building on new cognitive approaches enabled by emerging technologies. The RTD should cover intelligent, adaptable learning environments and new multimedia content, supporting the processes applied in real training situations. It should also address the experimental use of corporate knowledge networks, in particular for on-the-job training. The focus will be on the application of simulation and animation, 3-D visualisation and immersive virtual reality, and virtual presence for collaborative learning, group interaction and personal tutoring and evaluation. The work is expected to provide evidence of improved learning processes and associated benefits, for just-in-time training and lifelong learning in general, for individuals and corporations.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate multilanguage tools and processes for tele-business, distributed corporate knowledge management, and online information services, enabling individuals and workgroups to produce, handle, retrieve and communicate information in the language(s) of their choice. The scope includes powerful language analysis, transfer and generation tools, including on-line translation and summarisation aids; technology support for content localisation and software internationalisation; and language-sensitive search and presentation agents for text, speech and metadata. The work covers multilingual language resources in standard formats and should assess different take-up approaches, including the transfer of promising technologies to a broader range of languages.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate systems to enhance the naturalness of human-computer interaction through more cognitive, intuitive interfaces, whether monolingual, multilingual or multi-modal. The work should integrate robust and scaleable language technologies into highly interactive systems, in different application areas. The work will encompass linguistically unconstrained human-machine dialogue, command and navigation capabilities, and will address systems that understand messages embodied in speech, language and gesture. It will cover harmonised repositories of language and domain knowledge, as well as techniques for modelling user behaviour and acquiring task and application specific knowledge.

Objective: To explore new forms of multi-sensory contents enabling enhanced user perception and interaction, and to develop and evaluate the needed architectures, models and tools. The work should focus on enhancements to 3-D, virtual objects, hybrid (real-world and synthetic) objects, object-based content, intuitive interface development, and immersive animated content. It is expected to capitalise on European strengths in design, cultural diversity and audio-visual production creativity by involving directly creators and designers. It should include the integration of new forms of content with novel delivery mechanisms in new media.

Objective: To develop new coding and indexing technologies and to achieve wide industrial consensus on coding standards for next generation visual, auditory, 3-D and multi-sensory media and associated metadata, allowing search and retrieval by content characteristics. The work should focus on modularly exploitable and combinable generic components and should help to ease information access by focussing on multimedia content characteristics other than text based descriptors. It should demonstrate and validate emerging standards in public exhibitions and in the provision of experimental rich-content products and services.

Key Action IV - ESSENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES AND INFRASTRUCTURES

W roku 1999 wyodrębniono 25 kierunków działań:

Objective: To assess the social, economic and regulatory implications of both the convergence of communications, broadcasting, and distributed information access and information processing and their integration in home, office, mobile and non-traditional environments. This work is expected to inform policy development, drawing on scenario analysis and experience from integrated field demonstrations. To identify open interfaces, standards and codes of practice to support access to and the inter-working and inter-management of different infrastructures and services (hardware and software).

IV.2 Technologies for and the management of information processing, communications and networks, including broadband, together with their implementation, interoperability and application

This work focuses on “the development and convergence of information processing, telecommunications and broadcast network and system technologies”. RTD activities target the development of a high capacity, fully interoperable information infrastructure driven by requirements from fully distributed and shared applications. The goal is to enable interworking of applications in an adaptive and scalable infrastructure. They are complemented by take-up measures, in particular trial and best practice activities.

Objective: To develop and assess models, technologies and tools for the seamless and ubiquitous sharing and interactive use of applications and resources in geographically dispersed locations, in the context of heterogeneous hardware, software and communications architectures and systems. The focus will be on both development and execution environments to support distributed applications. The scope includes multi-tier architectures and middleware for interoperability, for interactive access to concurrently shared applications and services and for the cost-effective pooling of local- or wide-area-networked systems to build scalable application serving infrastructures.

Objective: To develop technologies and tools supporting the design and implementation of data- and/or compute-intensive real-time applications, such as online high-volume information handling, including data acquisition and control systems, and signal or image processing, including innovative approaches to signal representation and coding. This covers both consumer and professional applications. For consumer applications the focus is on cost-effective, mass-market embedded systems built by the integration of new technology off-the-shelf hardware and software components. For professional systems the focus is on performance and mastering complexity, including behaviour-based, modular and flexible systems with built-in self-learning and self-repairing capabilities.

Objective: To develop the next generation network technologies (including switches, routers, modems and access devices), with the associated protocols and signalling mechanisms, in order to enable integration at the transport level of multiple heterogeneous networks, and component and system interoperability. To develop new service independent architectures and systems to ensure all users have affordable access to nomadic multimedia services and service providers can easily incorporate new resources and users. The scope includes networks that will support advanced generic services with end-to-end Quality of Service, running over fibre, copper cable, radio, powerlines and broadcast channels. The work should ensure the interworking of core networks with local networks (mobile and fixed) and interoperability across the Internet, wide area, metropolitan area, local area and home networks.

Objective: To develop and validate technologies to support network interworking at the management and service platform levels, to increase intelligence, capacity, flexibility and functionality. The work includes methodologies and tools capable of managing the increased network complexity and supporting the introduction of new intelligent services. The target is to develop new open network management and service architectures, providing a framework for the convergence of network and broadcast services and technologies in multi-domain environments. The focus will be to provide anywhere, anytime communication supporting broadband and nomadic services. Open interfaces, common standards and codes of practice are to be developed.

Objective: To develop and demonstrate technologies and architectures for all-optical networks, which will allow end-to-end optical transmission across core and access networks, with transparent conversion of information between the optical and electrical domains. To exploit advances in optical signal processing, dense wavelength multiplexing, switching and routing, operation and management which support terabit capacity and beyond in the core network. The focus is on development of common design rules, interfaces and component specifications. The aim is to validate in field trials the technology for scalable, high capacity optical networks, and optical packet network nodes providing orders of magnitude enhancement of current network performance.

This work is “centred around the development, deployment, operation and evolution of software-intensive systems embedded in goods and services as well as facilitating production and enterprise processes”. Take-up actions, in particular best-practice initiatives form an important part of the work.

Objective: To develop and validate the innovative processes, methods and tools necessary to design, implement and manage software-intensive systems using a component-based approach. The focus is on re-use, the incorporation of new technology COTS components and evolutionary re-configuration. The work should result in the definition of processes, methods and their supporting technologies that enable the smooth and auditable integration of components from multiple independent sources into complex systems and services, possibly taking advantage of the “system families” concepts. This work is to be complemented by technology-transfer and best-practice initiatives to stimulate both real-life practice improvement and the take-up of the associated technologies.

Objective: To develop and validate processes, open distributed architectures, methods, components and tools that support service development and also enable users to dynamically create their own personalised services. The scope includes the development of basic service building blocks covering all aspects of service provision and the creation, development, provision, composition and management of innovative and intelligent services across heterogeneous platforms and networks through the integration of service components. The emphasis is on the support of service negotiation, trading, quality assurance and management. The work is to be complemented by take-up actions.

Objective: To achieve new capabilities, representation paradigms, models and tools to master complex and multi-disciplinary data and information (of enormously varying scales) and to support their transformation into “re-usable”, sharable and exploitable knowledge ontologies. The work is expected to involve developing knowledge-level methods and tools to increase the usability, capability and intelligence of applications, systems and networks Emphasis is placed on creating knowledge mediation methods, processes and tools that could support perception, modelling, reasoning and sharing, at various levels of abstraction. The scope includes behaviour-based, learning and self-organising systems. The work is to be complemented by take-up actions.

Objective: To develop and validate advanced information management methods and tools for very large-scale (e.g. beyond the terabyte volume), co-operative, information repositories. The work is intended to form a bridge between multimedia content applications, personal information systems and the enabling technologies, generic systems and open architectures. It should specifically cover techniques for the storage and management of information in higher orders of magnitude than presently widely available and advanced search and retrieval based on novel processing techniques, taking into account the likely distributed and heterogeneous nature of such repositories. The work is to be complemented by take-up actions.

This work addresses “the development and integration of advanced simulation and visualisation technologies and environments in all applications”.

IV.4.1 Real-time simulation and visualisation technologies

Objective: To develop and demonstrate large-scale and/or real-time distributed simulation and visualisation systems for design, to support control and business processes, for training and general-interest applications. The work covers basic modules and tools, as well as integrated environments and bridging technologies. Support to multi-scale multi-physics simulations, interoperability and re-usability of software components on heterogeneous distributed systems, and support for collaborative work are particular priorities. In addition to demonstrations and assessments, complementary work is expected to include both first-user and best-practice actions.

IV.4.2 Large-scale shared virtual and augmented environments

Objective: To develop and demonstrate models, languages and technologies for shared virtual and augmented environments and to explore human interaction in them, for both professional and consumer uses. The scope includes multi-sensory interaction within both reality-based and non-real virtual and augmented environments and their seamless integration with audio-visual representation and coding techniques. It covers new and improved virtual-reality modelling languages, virtual-presence concepts such as telepresence, avatars and autonomous agents, scalability and interoperability over distributed heterogeneous platforms and networks, and reducing the cost of access. The technological work should be complemented by large-scale demonstrators of new applications and by social and psychological research addressing both novice and experienced users.

IV.5 Mobile and personal communications and systems, including satellite-related systems and services

The work focuses on “the move to an integrated seamless network that ensures global personal connectivity and enables access to broadband wireless multimedia communications and services by anyone, from anywhere, at any time”. The work will be driven by advanced re-configurable radio concepts, extending from the terminal to the network, and permeating terrestrial, satellite, fixed and wireless services.

IV.5.1 Re-configurable radio systems & networks

Objective: To lay the foundations for allowing the radio network, including terminals and base stations, to adaptively/automatically adjust to traffic and user requirements. Architectures enabling the user to transparently access customised services over heterogeneous (terrestrial and satellite) networks operating across different frequency bands are to be developed and validated. Particular emphasis will be placed on the design and development of advanced re-configurable terminals and base stations, as well as on the appropriate download mechanisms.

IV.5.2 Terrestrial wireless systems and networks

Objective: To investigate, develop, test and validate advanced terrestrial wireless systems and architectures and their interworking and interoperation in particular with fixed/broadcasting networks. The range spans broadband wireless access and distribution systems, but also backbone wireless alternatives supporting interactive (quasi) real-time and bandwidth-on-demand services. It covers network planning, resource management techniques, flow control, signalling, quality of service focusing on managing complexity and on wireless-optimised protocols, security, intelligent roaming and handover schemes, and user/service profiling, notably for integrated communication and navigation/positioning systems.

IV.5.3 Integrated satellite systems and services

Objective: To develop, trial and validate novel technologies, architectures and innovative broadband services in the context of satellite-based communication systems, capable of providing access to low or high mobility users and inter-working with other infrastructures. The work ranges from technology developments to architectures and services trials and validations exploiting new spectrum frontiers. It covers spectrum/power efficient access schemes, support of packet-based services, integration of satellite and terrestrial networks, global network management, seamless service provision, and the integration of navigation and communication systems and services.

IV.5.4 Advanced tools and technologies for wireless communications

Objective: To investigate, develop, integrate and validate advanced,the innovative tools and wireless technologies that are necessary to facilitate a mass-market take-up of diversified wireless terminals, networks, services and applications, while maximising spectral efficiency and allowing in particular for the exploration of new spectrum frontiers. Such tools and technologies will address the needs of wireless terrestrial and satellite systems and networks operating in a broad range of frequencies. Particular emphasis is placed on the integration of such technologies in future generation broadband systems and networks, from cellular to broadband fixed radio access and broadband wireless local area networks.

IV.6 Interfaces making use of the various senses

This work addresses “the provision of intuitive ways to capture, deliver and interact with systems. It includes “the development and integration of advanced sensor, actuator and display technologies”.

IV.6.1 Adaptable multi-sensory interfaces

Objective: Development and demonstration of integrated multi-sensor subsystems using advanced sensor, actuator and display technologies including image and auditory scene processing. The scope includes the development of new interaction paradigms and inter-mediation technologies supporting intelligent multi-modal, multi-sensorial user interfaces for portable and/or wearable information appliances and systems. The approach should aim at affordability, ease of use and accessibility and be targeted to both consumer and professional individual and group users. The scope also includes the development and demonstration of technologies for advanced displays, including, as appropriate, integrated driver, image processing, touch-sensing and control electronics, aiming at low-cost, mass-market applications. The work is to be complemented by take-up actions.

IV.7 Peripherals, sub-systems and microsystems

The work on peripherals "addresses mass storage systems, subsystems with emphasis on partitioning, interconnection, packaging and testing of embedded systems and on microsystems comprising intelligent miniaturised systems combining sensing and/or actuating with processing functions".

IV.7.1 Peripherals technologies

Objective: To develop and demonstrate advanced technologies for magnetic, optical and magneto-optic mass-storage subsystems, including electronics for data storage, retrieval and verification. Development of dense, monolithic storage subsystems, including technologies for low-power, portable and harsh environment applications.

IV.7.2 Subsystems technologies

Objective: To develop and demonstrate technologies for the design, manufacturing and test of subsystems and embedded systems comprising multi-component assemblies comprising of active and passive elements and associated software, that constitute the functional blocks of information processing and communications systems and networks. The scope covers advanced interconnection, including opto-electronic interconnection, and packaging technologies including materials, processes and equipment together with work on system partitioning methodologies and test techniques. The scope covers emphasis will be on low-cost approaches to minimal packages and direct attachment and high-density interconnection substrates. The scope includes the assessment of advanced equipment for the manufacture of electronics subsystems, encapsulation and attachment of semiconductor devices, and services to facilitate the access of users to advanced subsystem integration technologies.

IV.7.3 Microsystems

Objective: To develop and validate multi-function intelligent microsystems. The work has a strong application focus and encompasses all industrial sectors. It covers research and development to enhance the manufacturing and technology base, design tools, methods and test, packaging, assembly and integration, and includes applications experiments. It also covers the assessment of advanced prototype equipment. Emphasis will be placed on facilitating broader application, including the provision of access to prototyping and small-volume manufacture, design and customer support services, research and development support networks and first-user actions.

IV.8 Microelectronics

This work takes a systems driven approach to materials, equipment, processes, design and test methodologies and tools which enable the development of electronic components", and their "application". Take-up actions, in particular assessments, first-user actions and best-practice initiatives form a central part of the work.

IV.8.1 Microelectronics and opto-electronics design

Objective: To develop advanced circuit and system and circuit design and test methodologies and support tools, with a particular focus on low-power, mixed-signal and RF circuits, and hardware/software co-design. The work will be organised in thematic clusters with emphasis on re-usable embeddable sofware and hardware functional blocks. The scope includes complementary actions providing best-practice initiatives for systems and circuit design and access to advanced technologies for prototyping and small-volume manufacture, access to CAD tools for learning and first-users, and access to advanced CAD tool support infrastructures for researchers.

IV.8.2. Application competencies

Objective: To develop and demonstrate the use of micro-electronics and opto-electronics technologies for application-specific requirements, with an emphasis on the themes of portability, endurance and real-time systems. Work covers hardware and software aspects of components, and improvement and adaptation of advanced technologies. It should be jointly addressed by technologies users and suppliers. The scope includes a first-user action for stimulating industrial enterprises to incorporate micro-electronic or opto-electronic technologies into their products.

IV.8.3 Processes, equipment and materials

Objective: To develop compatible CMOS process modules, equipment and materials, including optical lithography down to 0.1 micron and below, interconnect schemes for 0.15 micron and below, and related advanced process options. The scope includes research on semiconductor technologies making use of materials, such as SiGe and SiC and alternative approaches to bulk silicon such as SOI, and an action on the assessment of advanced prototype equipment for the manufacture of semiconductor components.

IV.8.4 Advanced opto-electronics and microelectronics

Objective: To develop advanced opto-electronic and photonic devices and modules, solid-state light sources, detectors and associated materials for high speed routing and processing, storage and interconnection. It includes low-cost opto-electronic and micro-optic components and integration with microelectronic devices. To undertake advanced semiconductor research aimed at determining the industrial feasibility and impact of novel devices, processes and materials, including non-optical lithography, that could impact markets within a 5 to 10 year period.The scope includes complementary actions providing access to advanced microelectronics technologies for researchers.

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