Welcome, Guest | Login

PiCToR newsletter February 16th 2009

16-02-2009
print

Currently nobody flagged this as relevant..

In this Newsletter

PiCToR: integrate & realize your ICT R&D in EU projects

PiCToRis an industrial Research Cluster for ICT innovation and has three main objectives:

  • PiCToR inspires you with European ICT R&D. PiCToR brings the massive amounts of emerging ideas in European ICT research to your company. It does this in an efficient and comprehensive manner so you do not get lost in the jungle of European R&D platforms (ARTEMIS, ITEA, FP7…)
  • PiCToR helps companies to participate in European projects. PiCToR assists in integrating your ICT research in a European consortium and project. PiCToR guides you to the most adequate platform to get your project funded.
  • PiCToR puts your ICT themes on the EU Agenda. PiCToR identifies the collective ICT research themes relevant for the industry. It actively presents these themes on brokerage events to include these themes in European research projects.

This newsletter serves the communication of PiCToR to its target companies.

More info on PiCToR can be found on www.pictor-office.org.
Contact: jan.kempenaers@sirris.be.

PiCToR spots 30 European research themes

PiCToR advisors attended several European brokerage and networking events in the beginning of 2009. They gathered and processed about 300 different ideas resulting in the identification of about 30 core research themes with a strong European focus. These themes can be classified in three main streams: Engineering of Products, Smart Products and Intelligent Information Management. Figure 1 gives an overview of these main streams.

European research themes

Figure 1: European research themes

Details on these themes can be found on the PiCToR Community.

In this newsletter PiCToR highlights two themes in which a European project is being set up, and in which you can possibly participate. A workshop has been planned for each of these themes.

Software testing and ROI: workshop on Thursday March 12th

Testing is often considered a “necessary evil”. In an ideal world, testing would not be needed. Unfortunately, testing efforts are needed to guarantee certain quality and safety levels. Testing usually requires big and continuous investments for which the return (ROI) is not always clear. Under-doing testing may result in quality and safety problems. Over-doing your test effort may result in long release cycles and high cost with no immediate impact on the quality of the final product. To make things worse, software product development is a highly dynamic environment, which forces you to constantly keep an eye on the efficiency and effectiveness of your testing strategy.

PiCToR organizes a half day workshop about this topic on Thursday March 12th, from 16h-19h at Sirris Brussels. The goal of this highly interactive workshop will be to gather and discuss your concrete testing challenges. To bootstrap, an overview of the state of the art in software testing will be presented including promising new testing methods, like search based testing and test driven development

» More information and registration.

The Art of Crafting Smart ICT Products and Services: workshop on Tuesday March 17th

Smart ICT products will shape the future of product development. These are products that are bundled with knowledge that delivers extra value. This knowledge can be about the product itself, the user, other products and the operating environment. For example, ‘smartness’ can be introduced by using sensors to support interaction with products and the environment. In the medical sector this enables remote monitoring of elderly people to improve their quality of life and allow them to live longer in the comfort of their home. Many other examples in different sectors exist such as: intelligent data mining, new ways of interacting with products, etc...

Smart products are not just gadgets. The introduction of smartness can be a strategy to differentiate a product from competing products in the market. Apart from understanding the potential opportunities there are also several engineering challenges that need to be addressed when introducing smartness in your product.

PiCToR organizes a half day workshop about this topic on Tuesday March 17th from 16h-19h at Sirris Brussels. The goal of this interactive workshop is to explore what smartness can mean for your product, and to identify the most relevant research obstacles encountered while introducing smartness in your product. The workshop will be bootstrapped with an introduction to smart products that illustrates the potential value of smartness across different sectors.

» More information and registration.

The PiCToR community: prioritize your research themes

On February 16th, PiCToR launched the PiCToR Community. This free of charge iniallows companies to discuss topics in the field of ICT R&D.

Your participation in this community is very much appreciated, because it helps PiCToR to select topics for elaboration in new research projects.

How to participate in the community?

To join this community, enter your name, organization and a valid email address on the registration page. Upon completion you will receive a confirmation message with a login link. Follow this link to set your password.

Through the PiCToR community you can:

  • View European relevant research themes.
  • Mark a theme as relevant for you. By doing so you voice your interest. Themes that are highly relevant will be more likely to evolve into projects.
  • Comment on a theme: this will help PiCToR to make a theme more clear and identify exactly what the industrial needs in Belgium are  for the theme.
  • Participate in a forum: discuss on any theme about ICT Research. By this means, you can also suggest new research themes.

» Join the PiCToR Community at www.pictor-office.org

Upcoming EU project calls

PiCToR closely monitors a set of European programs that are relevant for Belgian ICT industry.

FP7 ICT Programme

The European Commission organised in January an FP7 ICT Proposers’ Day in Budapest. The event mobilised over 1.500 key research actors and firms from all over Europe. The goal of the ICT Proposers’ Day was to present and discuss potential project ideas, network and ultimately build quality partnerships for participating in the Information and Communication Technologies Work Programme for 2009-2010 (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/). PiCToR advisors participated very actively in the ICT Proposers’ Day.

Upcoming FP7 ICT calls, one stage submission with fixed deadline calls:

ICT Policy Support Programme

The ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP) aims at stimulating innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and best use of ICT by citizens, governments and businesses. ICT PSP addresses technology and non technology innovation that has moved beyond final research demonstration phase. ICT PSP does not support research activities. The third call for project proposals based on Work Programme 2009, opened on 29 January and will close on 2 June 2009. (http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/ict_psp/participating/calls/call_proposals_09/index_en.htm)

EUREKA Eurostars Programme (http://www.eurostars-eureka.eu/)

The first European funding and support programme to be specifically dedicated to SMEs. Eurostars stimulate SMEs to lead international collaborative research and innovation projects by easing access to support and funding. Any technological area aimed at the development of a new product, process or service is eligible for funding. A Eurostars project must involve at least two participants (legal entities) from two different Eurostars participating countries. In addition, at least 50% of the project’s core activity should be carried out by ‘research-performing’ SMEs. Next submission deadline is 24 September 2009.

ARTEMIS: embedded systems (http://www.artemis.eu/)

The ARTEMIS focus is on industrial platforms for design and implementation of embedded systems responding specific application requirements. The ARTEMIS Brokerage Event 2009 took place in Brussels in January. The next call for project proposals opens on 28 February. Two stage submission procedure is implemented:

  • April 15th 2009: Deadline for Project Outline
  • May 15th 2009: Feedback on Project Outline
  • September 3rd 2009: Deadline for Full Project Proposals

ENIAC: nanoelectronics (http://www.eniac.eu/)

The ENIAC focus is on large application-driven industrial developments in ‘More Moore’and the ‘More than Moore’ domains. The ENIAC Brokerage Event 2009 will take place in Paris on 19 February. The second ENIAC call for project proposals is expected to be launched at the end of February 2009.

ITEA2 (http://www.itea2.org/)

ITEA 2, the follow-up to the successful ITEA programme, is one of the main EUREKA cluster programmes. ITEA 2 stimulates and supports projects that will give European industry a leading edge in the area of Software-intensive Systems and Services (SiS). The ITEA2 Brokerage Event 2009 will take place in Istanbul on 16 & 17 February. The next call for project proposals opens on 16 February. Two stage submission procedure is implemented:

  • April 9th 2009: Deadline for Project Outline
  • June 5th 2009: Announcement of Project Outline evaluation results
  • October 2nd 2009: Deadline for Full Project Proposals

Ambient Assisted Living (http://www.aal-europe.eu/)

Ambient Assisted Living (or AAL) is a new R&D funding programme addressing demographic ageing in EUROPE. The overall objective of the programme is to enhance the quality of life of older people and strengthen the industrial base in Europe through the use of ICT. The second call for project proposals opened on 11 February and will close on 5 May 2009.

Agenda

  • Thursday March 12th: Workshop "Optimizing ROI of Software Testing"

    The goal of this highly interactive workshop will be to gather and discuss your concrete testing challenges. To bootstrap the discussion an overview of the state of the art in software testing will be given including promising new testing methods, like search based testing and test driven development.

    » Read more...

  • Tuesday March 17th: Workshop "The art of Crafting Smart ICT Products and Services"

    The goal of this interactive workshop is to explore what smartness can mean for your product, and to identify the research obstacles you face to introduce smartness in your product. The workshop will be bootstrapped with an introduction to smart products that illustrates the potential value of smartness across different sectors.

    » Read more...

More info on PiCToR can be found on www.pictor-office.org.
Contact: jan.kempenaers@sirris.be.

Want to register a colleague or a friend? You can unsubscribe any time via the link in the emailed PiCToR Newsletter.