ICT R&D and Innovation in the EU - increasing the scale and the impact

speech

Viviane Reding

Member of the European Commission responsible for Information

Society and Media

ICT R&D and Innovation in the EU

- increasing the scale and the impact

Leaders

Brussels, 21 February 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen,

More than a year has passed since I last met with representatives from all ICT

ETPs. I remember the positive atmosphere at the end of 2006 in Helsinki and I have

seen significant progress on a number of fronts during 2007. It is therefore a great

pleasure for me to meet you again at this special meeting that I have called to reflect

with you on future ICT research and innovation policies across Europe.

In fact, and as you probably know, 2008 will be an important year for us all. It will be

a year when the Commission together with you, the stakeholders and the Member

States will be setting priorities and launching actions in ICT research and innovation

that will have a major impact on Europe's societal and industrial position in the next

decade.

This is happening at a time when we see important transformations emerging in this

field that Europe should shape and lead. Europe should be in a leading position, for

example, to develop the Future Internet that will replace gradually our current

network and service infrastructures. Europe should be also leading in addressing

the sustainability challenge with ICT and we should be at the forefront of developing

the next generation ICT components and their applications.

We need your help to update and refine our research and innovation policies in ICT.

These policies should create the right conditions in Europe for the digital economy to

flourish. They should enable Europe to master and shape ICT, to deliver innovative

products and services, and to take them up and make the best use of them.

To make this happen we have at our disposal a range of policy instruments, notably

research and innovation financing, regulatory instruments, and coordination and

partnerships with stakeholders.

We use these:

• first: to reinforce private and public investments in ICT R&D and innovation;

• second: to pool resources and coordinate better our efforts in order to ensure

quality and excellence;

• and third: to stimulate the uptake and best use of ICT to improve impact.

1. Increasing investment in ICT research and development

Let me first start with the policy actions to reinforce private & public investments in

ICT research and innovation.

During the past four years, the European Technology Platforms have been the

cornerstone of our efforts to make research funding key to Europe's industrial and

technological leadership. Your strategic agendas have been vital in setting out what

needs to be done.

Following Helsinki, the FP7 ICT theme was decided, allocating more than 1.7 billion

€ to research.

• We have already launched five Calls for Proposals under the FP7 ICT and one

call in the FP7 eInfrastructures to reach a total of more than 2 billion €. More

than 300 new projects are underway and another 150 under negotiation.

• In 2007 we also launched the first Call under the CIP programme, 22 projects

are being funded in the areas of eGovernment, eInclusion and eHealth.

• The EU has also provided financial support to Information Society projects

through the cohesion policy programmes and agricultural funds. Over the

past seven years Europe's regions have invested 1 B€ per year on a range of

actions including broadband networks and e-government solutions.

During 2007, we also launched Joint Technology Initiatives and Joint National

Programmes. These ground breaking public-private partnerships will allow aligning

of national budgets along common pan-European objectives.

• The ENIAC and ARTEMIS Joint Technology initiatives will launch their first

calls for proposals before the Summer.

• The Joint National Programme on ICT for independent living (AAL) is now

making its way through the final phases of the co-decision and should be

approved in March.

We have also been exploring the other important factors to boost investment in ICT

research and innovation in the EU. For example, in December 2007, we issued a

Communication on Pre-commercial Public Procurement to draw attention to the

huge opportunity of procuring R&D services by the public sector. Such

procurements not only enable public authorities to innovate faster in the provision of

public services but also create wide opportunities for European companies to take

international leadership in new markets.

Procurement of R&D services is widely used in the US and China and represents

almost half of the total gap in R&D spending between Europe and the US.

2. Pooling of resources and better coordination

We also need to pool our resources and coordinate better our efforts in research.

To achieve this, we have put several mechanisms in place:

• The Forum of National ICT Research Directors has met twice a year since

2003 to debate common issues such as challenges for Europe from the

globalisation of ICT R&D, coordination for a European Research Area in ICT,

and possibilities for joint programming.

• The European Technology Platforms help to increase the impact of

development of European, national and regional research fundings and policies.

• The Joint Technology Initiatives and the Joint National Programmes create

a critical mass around strategic research.

3. Stimulating ICT uptake

Our third line of action is to stimulate innovation and competitiveness through wider

uptake of ICT.

Regulation and soft law in the form of Commission Communications, guidelines,

benchmarking exercises and exchange of best practices should all be procompetition

and innovation.

For example, the Lead Markets Initiative aims to create the framework for

speeding up high-potential markets, such as e-Health. For each candidate, we have

identified the obstacles to market development and the policy means to address

them.

Another example; the Commission's proposals to reform the regulatory framework

for e-communications to continue to promote competition, help businesses invest in

innovation and support consumers taking up new products and services.

What's next?

The lines of actions that I have just mentioned are all on going. So, what are the

next steps?

EU-level programmes

During 2008 the preparations for the next Work Programmes under FP7 and the CIP

will accelerate with the target of issuing the next round of calls for proposals at the

ICT 2008 conference in Lyon in November.

• The next FP7 Work Programme will define the priorities for the calls for

proposals to be launched in 2009 and 2010.

• The JTIs and the AAL initiative are currently defining their first Work

Programmes and expect to issue their first Calls for Proposals by April.

• The 2008 Work Programme for the CIP should be out by early April. Work on the

2009 CIP Work Programme has started including for the first time activities in

the eContent actions.

We expect the ETPs to contribute by updating their Strategic Research Agendas as

inputs to these Work Programmes.

Member States programmes

However, the budget for the EU-level R&D is only a small proportion of total

government R&D spending. The aim must be to leverage other public programmes

and spending in respect of your strategic research agendas.

We need to work together to encourage the Member States to match the significant

increases to ICT under FP7 and in the CIP programmes so that EU-level actions

continue to build on and add value to national initiatives and projects.

The Forum of National ICT Directors will help to define common research

agendas and to align specialisations across Europe.

Also here the ETPs have a role to play. Your Strategic Research Agendas have

started to influence national and regional policies and priority-setting. I would urge

you to reach out actively to these policy makers.

Demand-side measures

Regarding demand-side actions, like the Lead market initiative or public

procurement measures, it is important to define the barriers that stop the take-up of

research. We should try to address the fragmentation of markets, needs for new

standards or interoperability agreements.

• On eHealth market, for example, R&D into new personal communication

systems for health monitoring, diagnosis and treatment is complemented by

standardisation and certification measures to tackle interoperability barriers, as

well as wider harmonisation and better guidance to obtain more legal certainty

when rolling out new solutions. It is such concerted action through a wellcoordinated

policy mix that will speed up the eHealth market development.

• On Pre-commercial Public Procurement, on the basis of a debate with the

Member States and the stakeholders, we will propose a set of actions in areas of

public interest, such as energy efficiency, environmental protection, health

services or security. These areas will raise awareness of the approach and

facilitate the exchange of experience between stakeholders.

In the larger perspective

Our strategy of increasing the scale and the impact of ICT R&D and innovation

investments is not only undertaken because ICT is beautiful and fun. It is because

ICT drives growth and innovation. ICT is essential for developing new products and

services for global markets, for modernising our public services, and for providing

new services to our citizens. Nearly all of technological innovation depends on ICT.

ICT policy for Europe is therefore essential of the EU policies for competitiveness,

growth and sustainable development.

We need to push further on ICT research to speed up the Lisbon process. This

requires focussing of public spending across Europe, not only at Community level,

on those actions that have clear leverage effects in particular on private

investments.

To support our analysis and argumentation in this direction we have asked a group

of high-level external experts, chaired by Mr. Aho, to undertake an independent

evaluation of the ICT programme.

• Its role is mportant not only in the EU research policy context but also in the

context of the i2010 information society and ICT policy strategy

• In addition, it will constitute an important information source for the renewed

Lisbon strategy and the EU budget review that will determine where to focus

future EU spending beyond 2013.

Thank you.