Funding ICT’s hidden utilities

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are accorded special importance within the context of the 7th framework programme (FP7). Computer-based technologies have so many different applications and account for such a huge chunk of productivity growth that the EU can ill afford to ignore their future development.

It is a familiar refrain: Europe’s competitiveness in an increasingly fierce global market will depend on its ability to remain at the cutting-edge of ICT research. The efficiency of the technologies used by businesses to store, manipulate, transmit and receive information will ultimately define their position in world rankings.

But, away from the dog-eat-dog world of global markets, ICT applications also have other, more caring uses. Greater inclusion into society of people with less mobility, such as the elderly, also depends on such technologies. So, too, the creation of safer cars, digital libraries and eHealth applications. The future development of online and broadcast media, which has already evolved greatly over the past decade, will also be determined by ICT.

Industry will play an important role in FP7, as has been the case under the current programme (FP6). For Michael Setton, founder of Cyberfab, an ICT company working on applications for industry and healthcare, the experience was largely positive. "[It was a] challenging experience," he says. "Having partners with complementary skills speeded up solution development; at the same time differences in work styles and approaches between different countries can add important benefits to your knowledge."

But, Setton does report some drawbacks. Financial guidelines were, he says, too complex and difficult to understand for non-specialists. Newcomers were also, he says, likely to be excluded from projects as old hands that had participated in previous framework programmes often went on to work with the same partners under FP6.

Martin Buskin, founder of Moveco, a German company specialising in IT, which also participated in FP6, says that small companies were especially disadvantaged under FP6. "Handling the process takes much time and it is a risk in [terms of] time and money because granting of a project does not depend on the idea itself but mostly on the consortium. It is much easier for a company with 300 employees, which is a member of an association than [it is] for smaller companies to get funding from EU programmes," he says. Buskin would like to see more accessible application procedures under FP7.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are accorded special importance within the context of the 7th framework programme (FP7). Computer-based technologies have so many different applications and account for such a huge chunk of productivity growth that the EU can ill afford to ignore their future development.