1

25 Years of Digital Europe - The EU's role in high-tech development –

BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR JOURNALISTS AND PROGRAMME MAKERS

25 years ago high-tech scientists had ambitious dreams. They were trying to make computers talk to each other and connect them into networks. They wanted better quality digital images and sounds. They wanted to transfer data at high speed. Today, we take these things for granted. Digital technologies have brought profound changes in the way we work, learn, communicate, spend our leisure time or receive medical treatment. In the late 1970s, when the idea of a pan-European information technology research programme emerged, there was no World Wide Web, no broadband, no DVDs, no digital TV and only prototype mobile phones existed. Now, we can hardly imagine our lives without them. Scientists today still have ambitious dreams. They now work on creating sensing robots, brain-like computers and technologies that read the mind. The European Union plays a vital role to steer, encourage and help this research into future technologies that will re-shape our lives in just a few decades. The European research funding programme for information and communication technologies (or ICTs) started 25 years ago.1 At the time, America and Japan were speeding up information technology development and Europe's previously leading position in technology started to decline very rapidly. Over the past 25 years, €20 billion has been spent on ICT research from the Community budget. EU Member States and industry added substantially more. Was this enough? Is Europe catching up with its competitors? The 25th anniversary of the launch of the European ICT research funding programme provides an opportunity to reflect on these questions. Disclaimer: This paper is based on documents, books and brochures published over the past 25 years by the European Commission and by independent authors and on interviews conducted with eyewitnesses of the start of the EU's ICT funding programme. Nothing in this paper should be reflected or quoted as the official view or opinion of the European Commission. The sole purpose of this background paper is to aid journalists who want to conduct further research into the subject.

1 The Council approved the first programme on 28 February 1984.

2

Contents

1. The beginning: a Commissioner and the twelve 'IT sisters'

2. ESPRIT, RACE, ACTS, IST: what's behind the letters?

3. High-tech stories: life changing technologies

4. Into the future: mind-readers, sensing machines, quantum computing 5. The ICT race goes on

3

1. THE BEGINNING: A COMMISSIONER AND THE TWELVE "IT SISTERS" In 1977, a new Commissioner entered the European Commission and he soon became seriously concerned about the health of Europe’s information technology industry. Mr. Etienne Davignon who was in charge of internal market and industrial affairs lent his encouragement to a small group of officials who were studying Europe's needs in information technologies (or IT, which includes semiconductors, networks, computers and their applications). "The problem was not any lack of scientific and technological skills, but the partitioning of the market into distinct national entities, so that potential was also fragmented. European industry could not achieve a 'critical mass' and benefit from the same economies of scale as its direct competitors (i.e. the US and Japan – the Editor)", a Commission file concluded.

Mr. Davignon (pictured) and his associates were convinced that Europe's continued economic growth depended on its strength in IT, and that Europe's IT industries were falling dangerously behind their American and Japanese rivals. "The train (for computer technology) had left already. For us, it was clear that we could not catch it. Only the communication (technology) remained", Mr. Davignon recalls today. In 1975, Europe still had a trade surplus in IT products. Five years later, the IT trade deficit reached 5 billion USD. The global market share of the European IT industry shrunk to 10% and European companies commanded less than 40% of their indigenous markets.

In late 1981, Mr. Davignon invited the directors of the twelve largest European IT companies (the "12 sisters" as they were often referred to in the Commission) to a roundtable discussion on the future of the industry in Europe. Mr Davignon's attempt to bring these companies together was not the first one. In the early 1970s, several top businesses in the sector (notably Bull, Philips and Siemens) joined forces to create a network called "UNIDATA" but the attempt for co-operation failed shortly due to competition in personal visions and lack of mutual trust. "Gentlemen, If you want Europe's information industry to have a chance to survive, you must make joint efforts and put your pre-competitive projects in common. If you do this, the Commission will fund up to 50% of the costs of these research projects in the areas which you consider strategic", Mr Davignon told the '12 sisters'. The meeting of the directors was followed by technical discussions among the companies which included Siemens, AEG and Nixdorf from Germany, GEC, ICL and Plessey from the United Kingdom, Olivetti and Stet from Italy, Philips from the Netherlands, Thomson, Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE) and Bull from France. A few months later, the twelve were able to present a work plan for a collaborative research and development programme, specifying the technologies and objectives to be pursued. In the same year, the European Commission created the "Information Technology and Telecommunications Task Force", a small temporary team of a dozen staff with Mr. Roland Hüber in charge. (The Task Force was later expanded to 70 people to run the pilot phase of ESPRIT under the directorship of Mr. Michel Carpentier).

4

In 1983, the pilot phase of the first pan-European IT research programme was launched, attracting over two hundred proposals (only 38 could be funded). But then the Member States had to be persuaded to approve the actual 4-year programme which proved to be difficult. Two big Member States, Great Britain and Germany in particular did not like the idea and perceived it as a threat to their own national research programmes. They did not want to give up neither money nor power to set European priorities in IT research. France was also hesitant. Mr. Davignon realised that, in order to convince the Member States, he had to get the scientific community and industry into one boat and steer them onto his side. While the pilot phase was already ongoing, the Commission presented its proposal to the Council for the full-fledged funding programme in June 1983. Its first sentence was a factual statement: "Eight out of 10 personal computers sold in Europe are imported from the USA; nine out of 10 videotape recorders sold in Europe come from Japan." Some people felt that it would be easier to persuade the Member States if the proposal was presented as an initiative of the largest IT companies "It looked more convincing for the Member States if the initiative came from the industry, rather than from the Commission. So we put it this way", recalls Roland Hüber who was one of the key architects of the proposal.

Facsimile of the Commission Communication in 1983

Great Britain was convinced quickly, so Germany was left isolated in its opposition for about a year. France was only going to agree if the budget of ESPRIT was reduced to 1/3 of the original Commission proposal. Mr. Davignon, at this stage, used a political strategy. He threatened to withdrew the proposal altogether, leaving the Member States in a state of shock. His threat delivered the desired effect. On 28 February 1984, the Council of Ministers approved Phase I of the ESPRIT programme with the originally proposed budget of 1.5 billion EUR over a four-year period; half of that amount coming from the EC and half from project participants. The Task Force became the new Directorate-General XIII in February 1986 with Michel Carpentier as its first Director-General. (DG XIII actually existed before in Luxembourg but with a different remit.) In 1999, it was renamed DG Information Society2, and in 2005, DG Information Society and Media after audiovisual and media policy was added to its remit.

2 The term "information society" in the European policy context emerged at the beginning of the 1990s. The first comprehensive action plan to develop a European information society was presented in an Action Plan in 1994 which was based on the recommendations of the Bangemann report.

5

Since 1984, the European Union has spent nearly 20 billion euro in support of thousands of ICT research projects in many fields from multimedia to mobile telecommunications, from transport to medical applications, from rural and agricultural IT systems to artificial intelligence. 2. ESPRIT, RACE, ACTS, IST: WHAT'S BEHIND THE LETTERS? Over the first 15 years of the European ICT research funding programme, specific funding schemes were implemented to support different areas of ICT research. These programmes were: ESPRIT– European Strategic Programme for Research and Development in Information Technologies (4 phases, spanning over the period from 1984 to 1998) RACE – Research and Development in Advanced Communications Technologies – (RACE1 1988-1992; RACE2 1991-1994) ACTS - Advanced Communications Technologies and Services programme - (1994-1998) TELEMATICS Applications Programme (1991-1998), preceded by DRIVE, AIM and DELTA between 1988-1991 In 1998, all research activities were merged into the Information Society Technology (IST) programme (and later renamed as the Information and Communication Technology or "ICT theme") within the overall research funding programmes (so called Framework Programmes) of the European Union.

1. ESPRIT – later rebranded and lifted to a more strategic level as eEurope and then i2010 to encourage the commercialisation of research results and technology take-up in society – started in 1984 and ran in four phases until 1998. It was set up as a collaborative research programme involving European IT companies, large and small, and academic institutions. The original objective of ESPRIT was "to provide European IT industry with the technology base it will need to become and stay competitive world-wide within the next 10 years". But more importantly, it promoted collaboration

among different companies across Europe and strengthened the link between industry and academia. The research funding programme did not only provide funding, but measures were designed to increase dialogue between users and developers, disseminate results more widely and boost technology adoption in the market (mainly in the form of workshops and conferences). The work at European level contributed to international technology standardisation and, in certain cases like mobile telecommunication, facilitated technology deployment across the common market through harmonisation and regulation. At the start, the sponsored research areas included microelectronics (to build better microchips and physical structures for information systems), software creation, computerised manufacturing and office systems (e.g. technologies for the paperless office).3 3 More particularly: - microelectronics (better microchips, embedded systems; markets are wide ranging from aviation to automobiles, from toys to telephones and from weapons to washing machines) - software technology (computer language and international standardisation) - advanced information processing (computer architectures, image and speech processing). ESPRIT enabled a successful transition of information systems from research labs into the industrial environment. - office systems: in terms of developing applications, the results were disappointing in the early years of ESPRIT. However, useful work has been done in the area of high-speed optical fibre local area networks, developing automated letter sorting

6

Later these areas expanded to include multimedia, virtual reality, high performance computing, electronic commerce and systems and services for the citizens. 2. RACE emerged after the first years of ESPRIT as a separate funding scheme. Mr. Davignon became quickly aware that managing the ambitions of both private and public sector enterprises through the same programme was not feasible. Coming up for a long-term vision was much easier for the then state-owned telecom companies than for the privately owned IT enterprises. ESPRIT was split, and the RACE programme was set up separately to focus on telecommunications.

A "definition phase" of the RACE programme was actually launched in 1985. The Decision on the first phase of the 10-year long RACE programme was adopted by the Council in December 1987. The objective of RACE was to "promote the competitiveness of the Community's telecommunication industry, operators and service

providers in order to make available to final users, at minimum cost and with minimum delay, the services which will sustain the competitiveness of the European economy and contribute to maintaining and creating employment in the Community". In practical terms, RACE aimed to do the pioneering work in broadband and mobile telecommunications and in digital television. One of the main objectives was to develop Integrated Broadband Communications (involving a number of technologies and standards to make data transfer faster across networks) which was achieved by 1995. After the launch of RACE for telecommunications, ESPRIT focused on investing public money for information technology research to get stronger on a global scale. The invention of the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) for high-speed switching (used in broadband) of digital communication has given European industry a lead in international competition; the research on network management has given Europe international recognition; the work on digital video and TV has resulted in international standards for coding multi-gigabit signal distribution systems and specifications for digital video recording. The programme contributed 596 draft technical specifications to European and international standardisation bodies and over 1700 scientific and technical papers have been published in the open literature. 3. ACTS4 (the successor of RACE) put the emphasis on integrating broadband and mobile communication technologies into services and conducting network trials involving users. It also broadened some activities and provided measures to stimulate electronic commerce and services (eBusiness), the digitalisation of cultural heritage stored in museums and libraries, new working practices (eWork) and to link the information society to sustainable development goals. ACTS made

systems and in the field of handwriting recognition and in standardisation of office documents for interchange between machines. - computer integrated manufacturing: it includes computer aided design and engineering, flexible assembly systems, robotics, testing and quality control. In many areas, Europe has achieved technological leadership. 4 ACTS projects worked in six main areas of business' applications: 1. Interactive digital multimedia services 2. Photonic techniques 3. High Speed Networking 4. Mobility and personal communication networks 5. Intelligence in networks and service engineering 6. Quality, security and safety of communication services and systems

7

major contributions to the standardisation agreements on GSM mobile phone technology as well as the development of and the transition to 3G Mobile technology; to world video coding standards (MPEG2 and MPEG4) and to digital television standards (DVB). Europe led the way for the MPEG world standard for video coding and developed coherence in European digital video broadcasting arrangements. Significant contribution was made to the development of Interactive Video Services through the Digital Audio Visual Council (DAVIC) and the Open Platform Initiative for Multi-media Access (OPTIMA).

In photonics (the area that uses light for communication technologies, including optical networks and laser technology), European researchers advanced the so called multi-wavelength transmission method to increase the capacity of Internet backbone networks. Europe established leadership in all-optical networking, eliminating the need for expensive and slow electronic switching and information processing. ACTS achieved a breakthrough in new technologies for very high capacity communications over long distances.

The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology (which enables high-speed networking and in which Europe is a world leader) was integrated into optical fibre systems and with internet protocols. European research got also to the forefront in key aspects of Next Generation Internet capabilities. In mobile communications, ACTS established European leadership in 3G mobile technologies (the so called UMTS standard) and protocols for multi-media mobile services; achieved European consensus on evolution strategies from GSM to UMTS, on platforms for electronic commerce and mobile Internet access; Europe became a world leader in smart antennas, in software radio and in satellite based switching of signals. ACTS funded researchers published over 4000 scientific papers; over 1200 contributions were made to standardisation and over 140 new patents have been registered. 4. TELEMATICS (applications to combine telecommunication and informatics) research started in 1988 with three specific programmes: DRIVE – Telematics Applications for Transport DELTA – Telematics Applications for Education and Training AIM - Telematics Applications for Medicine From 1991, these were combined into the Telematics Applications Programme with research fields extended into applications for rural areas, environment, language engineering and applications for the disabled and elderly people. The Telematics Applications Programme ran until 1998.

5. Since the start of the 5th Framework Programme in 1998, ICT research has been one of the main themes of the overall funding programme with a defined budget and application process. Calls for research proposals are issued periodically and the work programme is revised regularly in order to adjust the funding priorities to the emerging challenges. In the late 1990s, the focus of the European ICT funding scheme shifted to an "ambient intelligent landscape" through three key

settings: intelligent living, new organisations and markets and the digital society. Micro-scale research moved to nano-scale and the keywords changed into "user-focus", "ubiquity" and "embedded systems".

8

In the present work programme under FP7, the challenges of ICT research are set out in seven key areas:

1. Pervasive and trustworthy networks and service infrastructures; 2. Cognitive systems, interaction and robotics; 3. Components, systems and engineering; 4. Digital libraries and content; 5. Personalised healthcare; 6. Mobility, environmental sustainability and energy efficiency; 7. Independent living, inclusion and governance.

Apart from these areas, research projects are looking into future and emerging technologies (FET), such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

Table 1. Overview of ICT research funding programmes of the EU

Years Framework Programme

ICT Funding Programme EC funding for ICT research (million)

1984-1987 1st Framework Programme

ESPRIT I (1984-1987) €714 million* €750**

1987-1991 2nd Framework Programme

ESPRIT II (1987-1989) €1454 million* (€1.6bn available) RACE I (1988-1992) €550 million From 1988: DRIVE – Telematics Applications for Transport, 30 months, €60 million DELTA – Telematics Applications for Education and Training, 2 years, €20 million AIM: Telematics Applications for Medicine, 2 years, €20 million

€2275**

1990-1994 3rd Framework Programme

RACE II (1991-1994) RACE spending under FP3 €489 million* ESPRIT III (1990-1994) €1491 million* Telematics €380 million* (incorporating the extension of DRIVE, DELTA and AIMS)

€2360*

1994-1998 4th Framework Programme

ACTS (1994-1998) €671 million* Telematics (1994-1998) €898 million* ESPRIT IV €2057 million*

€3626*

1998-2002 5th Framework Programme

IST Programme €3600**

2002-2006 6th Framework Programme

IST Programme €4000**

2007-2013 7th Framework programme

ICT Programme €9110**

*Actual amount spent by the EU on ICT research funding. ** Amounts earmarked in the budget. NB: European funding amounts to half of the budget of European research projects. The other half has to be provided by the companies and institutions that undertake the research projects.

9

Evaluating these programmes, industry, academia and policy makers generally agree that • European funding programmes have brought added value to what can be provided and

achieved at national level in ICT research; • Europe's technological base has significantly improved in techniques, facilities and – most

importantly – in human resources as a direct result of European funding; • Good work has been done on international standards; • Transnational links between industry and universities have been established and strengthened; • European funding enables the coverage of a wider range of research topics as it enables the

quick sharing of research results among project partners; • European funding improves the awareness of the need to look outside national boundaries and

use the diverse opportunities present within Europe in both research cooperation and market deployment.

• European companies have moved from followers to leaders in the evolution of standards in a range of technologies including manufacturing automation, computer aided design, operating systems, document architecture, software tools, communications and data compression.

In 1989, the ICT sector represented 4.4% of European gross domestic product. Today, it represents 5.3% compared to 6.5% in the US. Europe's trade deficit in electronics was 21.9 billion USD in 1987. Nowadays, ICT goods account for a substantial share of total trade between the EU and its economic partners. ICT goods represent 10.2% of all extra-EU exports of goods and 14.4% of all imports. In particular, telecoms equipment and electronic components are the main sources of exports and computers the main source of imports. However, the overall trade performance of the EU in ICT goods is unsatisfactory. In 2006, it reported a €77.5 billion trade deficit, including €48.3 billion in computers, €20.9 billion in audio and video equipment and €14 billion in electronic components. The limited EU competitiveness in the ICT sector is linked to its lower capacity to innovate compared with other areas of the world. So, there is scope for improvement.

10

3. HIGH-TECH STORIES: LIFE CHANGING TECHNOLOGIES HIGH-SPEED NETWORKS The story of broadband The development of broadband technologies and networks was a result of several research projects, funded under the RACE and ACTS programmes. The mass deployment of broadband was enabled by the so called DSL (digital subscriber line). DSL technologies provide some 65 percent of the world's broadband connections, with more than 240 million lines deployed worldwide. One of the main reasons for the success of DSL was the fact that it enables high-speed data transfer over the existing copper telecommunications infrastructures, i.e. over normal telephone lines. Early research into DSL goes back to the 70s, but the defining moment was a "DSL Olympics" in 1993. The competing transmission methods of DSL were tested during the "games", and ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), based on DMT, a multi-career technology emerged as the winner. The idea of ADSL was conceived by Joe Leichleder, a researcher at Bellcore (now Telecordia Technologies) in 1987. He was originally developing this technology to transmit videos over phone lines. A small team of European researchers (funded by the EU) wanted to take further this idea of using the phone line for digital data transfer, and discovered that the technology is perfect for high-speed data communication like surfing the web. The French company Alcatel (now Alcatel-Lucent) patented ADSL and France Telecom tested the service in the main French cities between 1996 and 1999. ADSL is now used by more than 80 million subscribers in Europe for broadband internet access. DSL, quite literally, changed the world, enabling the mass distribution of broadband. While fiber optics will be the ultimate broadband technology, DSL will still have a role to play for many years to come. Optical fibers – ultrafast communication Optical fibers provide the infrastructure for high-speed networking and the research area that develops these technologies is called photonics. Photonics deals with everything that concerns light, including optical networks and laser technologies.

Europe has now assumed global leadership in "all optical" networking, eliminating the need for expensive and slow electronic switching and information processing. Multi-wavelength transmission technology for optical fibres was further developed to achieve high-capacity for Internet backbone networks. The basic concept of "fiber to the home" (to connect end-users directly to the high-speed fiber optic network, without switching the signal to copper wires that generally slow down communication) was developed under the RACE and ACTS programme.

In photonics, the achievements include: - ultrahigh capacity fiber optic networks that provide cost effective bandwidth for services such as interactive multimedia services and Internet-type communications. - new architectures for access networks (for users) and core networks (for the backbone) - New network components such as switches, optical amplifiers and optical regenerators. Research is still continuing to develop ever-faster networks.

11

The case of high-speed network technology with two Brussels thieves By the mid 1990s, it had become clear that existing optical data cables would not have sufficient transfer capacity to cater for the growth of the Internet and private business data networks. Many of these cables were lying under the oceans or under ground, crossing large distances. It would have been very expensive to lay down more cables (not to mention the environmental issues). So there came the Wave Division Multiplex technology which allowed sending more data over the same cable by encoding the data on different sets of wavelengths. Without it, the Internet could not have developed the way we know it today. The Multi-Wavelength Transport Network (MWTN) project, led by British Telecom (BT) was the world leader in optical networking and it set the direction for optical transport networks into the 21st century. The project enhanced the capabilities to connect optical cables into networks using optical multiplexers (devices to encode the signals), optical switches and amplifiers. BT, Ericsson and Pirelli collaborated to propose the MWTN project for funding to the European Commission. But the proposal almost never made it to the European Commission offices in Brussels. Goff Hill of BT was the co-ordinator of the proposal. His secretary, Carol Howard was given the task to fly out to Brussels with the final proposal. At the time, all submissions were on paper. And the pack was quite heavy. On the way over, Carol sat next to a young lady. They were both going to Brussels centre, so after arrival, they went together to check the train times and they put down her heavy bags. When Carol looked down, both bags were gone. Two thieves were sprinting along the platform with the two bags, but they hadn't counted on Carol who was very fit, very plucky and wearing her trainers. Nor had the thieves counted on the weight of the proposal. Two security guards also arrived to the rescue and both thieves were caught. Carol's next priority was to deliver the papers to the European Commission to make the deadline and hoping to do some sightseeing afterwards. But she was asked to return to the airport to make a statement. So sadly, her expected "day out in Brussels" was spent filling in forms. The MWTN project went on to contribute to international standardisation of high-speed optical network infrastructures. (This information has been provided by Goff Hill).

GÉANT – the "supercomputer" Combining the power of many computers was one of the most high profile projects of EU ICT funding programmes that led to the development of GÉANT, the global computer network. In the 1990s it started with the EUROPORT project with the participation of more than 100 organisations including big corporations, small and medium size enterprises, academic institutions and centres of technical excellence. It has become known as high performance computing and it is used today to model almost anything from car crashes to cancer tumour behaviour.

Before GÉANT, the research and education networking landscape across Europe was characterised by a multitude of bilateral – highly inefficient – arrangements. With GÉANT, a common high-tech platform was introduced serving all European countries. This unified and joint approach allowed Europe to gain world leadership in collaborative science and education. GÉANT 2 is now operational across the globe, with the launch of GÉANT 3 planned in 2009.

12

Computers that talk to each other One of the most significant early achievements of the Esprit project was the Orbix product which had a major impact on software markets since its launch in 1993. This product has its origins in early Esprit projects that aimed at enabling independently developed, heterogeneous computer systems to interconnect and talk to each other. There was a pressing need for this as globalisation progressed and large enterprises were in need of integrating different business areas across the globe. Orbix has sold in volumes in sectors such as finance, telecommunications, manufacturing and engineering, defence, pharmaceuticals and research, and clients included companies like Motorola, Boeing, IBM and Lockheed. MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

European research played a major role of adopting GSM as a Europe-wide standard for mobile telephony and to develop and to enable the transition to 3G mobiles that are capable to receive multi-media services. Next in the pipeline are 4G mobiles that enable high-speed mobile communication connections with a data transfer speed of up to 100Mbps. The story of GSM At the beginning of the 1980s, analogue mobile telephony started to emerge in many European countries. These systems were expensive and not compatible with each other. In 1982, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) appointed an expert group (Groupe Spècial Mobile) to develop a pan-European mobile telecommunication system. To continue this work, the European

Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) was created in 1988. The definition of the GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) technical specification (more than 6000 pages) was an open process in which American companies also participated. The research was supported by the EU's RACE and ACTS programmes which funded tests and the scientific verification of the work. The EU also played an essential role to persuade Member States (who owned the national telecommunication companies) to adopt the standard. These were the strategic decisions that were taken at the birth of GSM. At the same time when the technical standard of GSM was developed by ETSI with EU R&D funding and support, the EU Commission with its jurisdiction opened the mobile market for competition in each member states. There was no pressure from the market itself to create a single standard which would have worked all over the European Union. There was no requirement from the telecom operators which enjoyed the monopoly at home to have a Europe-wide competitive market for mobile telephony. Considering the needs of the internal market and benefits to consumers, the Commission took the lead to harmonise mobile telephony in Europe. In early 1986, the time schedule for introduction of the GSM networks in Europe was agreed as well as the principle of having at least two competing GSM operators for each state. GSM was rolled out by European telecom operators simultaneously in 1991. GSM phones became popular very quickly – and not just in Europe. Today, they are used by over three billion people worldwide and the number of users is expected to grow to five billion by 2015.

13

"The success in Europe in this story was that the European telecom operators did find a compromise for a common standard. But Motorola, a big US company which was also involved in the research project was quicker than the Europeans. Motorola bypassed Europe and asked for all international patent rights on the GSM standard. This is why GSM is not an entirely European success story. We were not careful enough", says Roland Hüber. Europe invents 3G A similar case has been the emergence of the 3rd Generation Mobile technology (the UMTS standard) that enables the delivery of multimedia services to mobile phones. The UMTS concept was invented by the RACE Mobile Project in 1989 and UMTS technologies and protocols for multi-media mobile services were developed under the RACE II and ACTS programmes. European companies like Vodafone and Nokia hold some of the most important patents in the industry, thus being world leaders in telecom services and products. Under the European umbrella, a evolutionary UMTS architecture has been developed, specifying a unified open interface between access and core networks, enabling a smooth transition from second generation to third generation radio access technologies. These concepts have been standardised in ITU-T. Among other achievements,

• Planning tools for UMTS were developed and validated; • Smart antennas for UMTS were developed; • High temperature super-conducting components were developed which enable improved

designs of modules for mobile systems; • Intelligent multi-mode terminals were developed, able to interface to second generation

standards and to UMTS, being capable to support multimedia services to mobile users; • Integration of satellites into mobile communications (specifically UMTS) made significant

progress; • Wireless LANs access at very high speeds was specified, implemented and validated; • Experiments with multimedia applications, mobile electronic commerce with particular

attention to security aspects in mobile communications, were conducted successfully. Towards 4G mobiles Europe’s sights are now set ‘beyond 3G’, also called 4G, to meet future demand for multimedia mobile content. With a strong consortium of major players in the mobile and wireless communication industry including manufacturers, network operators, R&D centres and academic institutions, the WINNER project has established the technological basis for 4th Generation Mobile in Europe, ahead of standardisation. The project has developed a single ubiquitous radio access system adaptable to a comprehensive range of mobile communication scenarios from short range to wide area. Over 2005 and 2006, the project submitted over 100 contributions to standardisation bodies such as CEPT, ITU-R, 3GPP and the Wimax Forum. Under the 'Wireless World Initiative', the programme has federated 4G research and consolidated results, in view of their further standardisation. This work has provided European industry with significant opportunities to further exploit the mobile broadband market, to support network convergence and prepare for the future Internet. DIGITAL TV, MULTIMEDIA AND BEYOND The birth of digital television

14

Digital radio (DAB) and digital television (DVB) were both developed by EU funded research projects. They were part of RACE and ACTS. The issue of digitalising media came up as the European Commission realised that analogue broadcasting was extremely wasteful. Analogue broadcasting of television channels took up a lot of space in the radio spectrum which is a valuable but finite natural resource. The European engineering community was supported by the EU to come up with the MPEG standard used for the encoding of digital television, radio transmissions (MPEG2) and multimedia applications (MPEG4). MPEG has now become a worldwide standard. Although digital television was born in 1991, it took some years to conclude an agreement between the broadcasting and digital encoding communities about standardisation of DVB which happened only in 1996-1997. The latest standard that has been commercialised is the DVB-H (for Handsets) that enables mobile TV broadcasts.

The work that has been done in the field of broadcasting and distribution of audiovisual rich media services and digital home entertainment has been supported through a long succession of European projects starting in FP4, and continuing in FP5 and FP6. Several projects also provided critical input for the potential implementation of standards: they contributed to scenarios developments, proved the feasibility of the technology, and developed significant interoperability tests. Stakeholders interviewed stressed the point that one of the key impacts of the research was the strong European position in international standardisation.

Several projects contributed to different parts of the MPEG4 standard, such as the FP6 MEDIANET project, the FP5 SONG project, the MOSES project, and the ENTHRONE project that contributed to the definition of the standards MPEG21 and DMP. DVB-H was developed by the INSTINCT project. PROXiTV project took one of the first steps in the development of IPTV (television over Internet protocol). It contributed to the launch of IPTV services by Telekom Austria in March 2006. The MAESTRO project conducted the first test worldwide using DVB-SH (Satellite Services to Handheld) Standard and 3G Infrastructure (10th July, 2007). Working towards the convergence of satellite and terrestrial networks, the MAESTRO project specified, implemented and validated the features of the Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcast (SDMB) system architecture. The project laid the ground for the first worldwide test broadcast of mobile TV using the DVB-SH standard. It is bringing high-quality mobile TV channels to a wide audience and in various usage conditions such as inside and outside buildings, as well as while moving onboard a vehicle. This technology has the potential to provide mobile TV without borders. HDTV was an entirely European project, and the next "big thing" in television, Ultra HDTV is currently under development by EU funded projects. Other achievements in multimedia include:

• Virtual reality including 3D technologies and 3D image acquisition techniques • Telepresence: enhanced communication capabilities based on non-verbal aspects such as

facial movements, 3D models of human faces, improved synchronisation of audio/video information etc. This opens up possibilities in the medical surgeries, performing arts, entertainment, to name but a few. MPEG4 compliant modules have been developed.

• MHEG5 has become a de-facto standard for set-top boxes offering multi-platform delivery mechanisms for interactive multi-media services. This is being extended to include Internet access via TV set.

15

• Security and IPR protection has been addressed to enable electronic trade of multimedia information and content by developing watermarking, conditional access features, secure transfer methods, secure negotiation and contracts and secure payment systems.

• An open architecture for electronic brokerage services supporting multimedia has been developed, and an (interim) standard has been published, allowing the introduction of electronic commerce type services supported by multimedia applications.

• Strategies and techniques have been developed and ways have been shown how cable TV type networks can evolve towards supporting interactive multimedia services.

• Further developments have led to improvements in the use of video telephony. • Many applications with multimedia features have been run in real environments to validate

the technologies and the human acceptance of them (virtual museums, medicine and health care, tele-education, tele-surveillance, people with special needs etc).

• Great emphasis has been laid in all activities to impact and support open international standardisation.

Content to enjoy Multimedia in itself is worthless for users unless it is filled with valuable content that can be enjoyed by many. EU funded research also develops applications that enable content development for multimedia, delivered over broadband. Apart from digital imaging and video production, the EU has funded several projects that aimed at enabling the creation of digital content. The NM2 project developed new forms of storytelling and interaction that are uniquely suited to the characteristics of digital distribution via broadband. It developed experimental programmes such as Gods in the Sky Choice (an interactive documentary about the science and mythology of ancient cultures in which viewers could select 'Sit-back Entertainment', 'Education' or 'Information' mode, choosing topic, depth and length), or Gormenghast Explore (an experimental, spatially organised, interactive dramatisation of BBC TV's adaptation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novel. Visitors could explore the 2D environment of the castle to gain access to the stories of different characters, each freshly reconfigured at every visit.) Project website: http://www.ist-nm2.org/index.html The TA2 project is a follow-up to NM2 that is looking at group-to-group communication tools that would help, for instance, families to keep in touch over long distances. Project website: http://www.ta2-project.eu/ Piero, a tool for Virtual Reality representations during football matches is the result of the research implemented by BBC Research & Development during the ORIGAMI project, in terms of multi-camera object modelling and tracking, combined with results from other research projects. Since September 2004, BBC Sport uses “Piero”, and the system was sold to a number of other broadcasters by RedBee Media (formerly part of BBC research). Recently, it was adopted by Sky Italy. Piero won the IBC Innovation Award for Innovative Application of Technology in Content Creation, as well as the Cable and Satellite Product of the Year Award for Best Outside Broadcast Technology or Service. http://broadcastengineering.com/automation/piero-technology-phone-20060414/

The ART.LIVE project developed interactive narrative systems where users can interact with narrative machines. After the project, in 2001, the project leader founded the company Alterface, a spin-off company based at the Université catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium). The key product of the company, Salto, may be considered as a continuation of the project, even though the company develops products for entertainment rather than for the arts sector. The company Alterface saw a strong growth and employs now between 20 to 30 people. The company just reached the economic break-even point and expects significant profits this year. It now sells in Korea, China and is beginning to address the US market.

16

Saving our cultural heritage Cultural heritage has to be stored and made accessible digitally, otherwise its fails its educational purpose or might be lost entirely to future generations. Digitalisation enables access to cultural heritage that can not be put on display in museums due to space constraints. Digitalisation can provide reconstructive capabilities to archaeological museums: meaningless blocks of stones can be virtually incorporated into buildings they once belonged to for a better understanding of their value. EU funded research has been inventing techniques to digitalise, store and retrieve content in libraries and museums. The culmination of these projects will be the launch of the Europeana, the European digital library in November 2008. Website: http://www.europeana.eu/ The Semantic Web In the Knowledge and Content technologies domain, the EU strongly supported projects that, until the present day, lay the basis for semantic technologies. Europe gave a major contribution to OWL, the Web Ontology Language which is one of the most important standards for the Semantic Web. CHANGING THE WAY WE TRAVEL Intelligent cars can sense, protect and communicate The EU's intelligent car initiative supports research into technologies for smarter, greener and safer vehicles and also promotes the adoption of commercially available technologies. Advanced information and communication technologies can now be incorporated into onboard "intelligent vehicle systems", offering new solutions to today’s transport problems. These high-tech systems have great potential to:

• help drivers prevent or avoid traffic accidents; • mitigate the consequences of accidents that do occur; • provide drivers with real time information about traffic on road

networks, thereby avoiding congestion; • find the most efficient routes for any journey; • optimise engine performance, thus improving overall energy

efficiency.

“Intelligent Car” refers to a wide range of ICT-based stand-alone or co-operative systems. Some are already in use (ABS, ESC), others are still under development or being introduced into the market:

• Anti Lock Breaking System (ABS) • Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) • Adaptive Headlights • Lane Change Assistant / Blind Spot Detection • Driver Drowsiness Monitoring and Warning • Dynamic Traffic Management • eCall – the car can send a signal to emergency services in case of an accident automatically,

along with information on the location of the car. It is one of the best known innovations supported by European funding. The eCall technology, costing about €200, should become available and affordable for a large number of car owners by 2010. Negotiations are under way with global car manufacturers to make the technology optionally available in all new cars by 2010. The eCall platform is being developed for additional communication services.

• Electronic Brake Assist System

17

• Electronic Stability Control (ESC) – see www.chooseesc.eu • Extended Environment Information • Gear Shift Indicator • Intersection Assistant (not yet commercially available) • Lane Departure Warning • Local Danger Warning • Night Vision: the EDEL project developed this technology which soon became a market product

after development. Bosch was one of the first companies to equip their cars with it (e.g. Mercedes Saloon). While at the beginning the technology was installed in upmarket cars only, the product has now become more widely available for medium up-market cars as well.

• Obstacle and Collision Warning • Pedestrian/ Vulnerable Road User Protection (not yet commercially available) • Speed Alert • Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) • Wireless Local Danger Warning (not yet commercially available) • Preventive safety applications. The PReVENT project is developing technologies that help

drivers to avoid or mitigate accidents by using in-vehicle systems that sense the nature and significance of the danger, while taking the driver's physical and mental state into account. Depending on the significance and timing of the danger, the system will alert the driver as early as possible, and if they do not react, actively assist and ultimately interevene. For more information, see www.prevent-ip.org.

ICT research in transport started with the DRIVE funding scheme in 1988 and the development of information and communication technologies for transport has remained an EU priority ever since. "The US was shocked by some of our research in the DRIVE programme. We were more advanced than Japan or the US in information technology in cars and transport system", says Roland Hüber. In 2002, the eSafety initiative has been launched. See http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/esafety/before/2002/index_en.htm For the latest research project on the iCar initiative, see http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/esafety/research_activ/research_activ_fp7/index_en.htm The WirelessCabin: passenger communication on board of aircrafts "Please switch off your mobile phones and any other electronic devices using radio waves for the entire duration of the flight as it endangers flight safety". The announcement can be heard on many flights, but it might not be needed for much longer. The technology to use wireless devices, such as mobile phones

or wireless internet access while travelling in the air is already available and is being tested by airlines such as Lufthansa, British Airways, BMI, TAP Portugal and Quantas. The WirelessCabin is making profound impact on the aviation industry. At the start of the project, funded by the European Union's IST Programme, mobile telephony was considered as a threat to aviation safety. Today, the industry believes that mobile phones can be used in aircrafts soon.

The project came up with an innovative technical concept. They integrated the on-board communication system with satellite technology and conducted research into interference with the aviation system and

18

with ground networks. The technology has also been explained in public demonstrations such as the Berlin Air Show in 2004. Project website: http://wirelesscabin.triagnosys.com/ Airport safety: a small device to protect big planes The pilots of taxiing planes might not necessarily see obstacles on the ground at airports. Moving vehicles, other aircraft or buildings might all pose dangers to the taxiing plane. The ISMAEL project developed a small sensor that detects with high precision obstacles that might impede taxiing planes. The device costs €5 per piece and it analyses the change in magnetic field around the taxiing plane. The device is so precise that it can tell the difference between an Airbus and a Boeing and it can also identify secondary, hidden objects that would have previously required expensive technology. While the technology is welcome by small and medium size airports, it has not been seen as a priority for big airports. At large airports, thousands of small ISMAEL devices would have to be deployed to cover their large area and the investment into a more expensive and larger-scale detection technology is a more cost-effective solution at large airports. Project website: http://www.ismael-project.net/ European biometrics research is also making travel safer. A relationship cemented in the S-TRAVEL biometric kiosk project translated years later into the creation of a biometrics centre of excellence within SITA, a leading travel IT solutions provider that acquired fellow S-TRAVEL partner BioWise because of its expertise in the fast-growing European biometric systems market. FROM BICEPS TO eHEALTH ICT offers powerful capabilities to improve illness prevention and safety of care, to facilitate active participation of patients and enable personalisation of care. It opens new opportunities in health and

disease management. Advanced medical imaging (digital X-ray), electronic devices for ambient assisted living, improved medical record storage and heath care information systems for citizens, 3D ultrasound diagnostics and a heart monitoring device during cardiac surgery all emerged from EU funded research. What is known as "eHealth" today comes from a 1985 "planning exercise" called BICEPS (Bio-Informatics Collaborative European Programmes and Strategy). BICEPS became AIM (Advanced Informatics in Medicine) in 1988

the then DG XIII put forward its proposals to the Council for a 24-month exploratory phase on IT applications in healthcare with a budget of 20 million EUR. AIM was then extended until 1994. In addition to the eHealth projects, some 100 other eHealth-related projects were carried out in other EC programmes, such as e-Ten, e-Content, EUMEDIS, and @LIS. Health related ICT research is now carried out within the overall ICT programme. "Launching AIM was not an easy job", recalls Gérald Santucci of DG Information Society and Media who was in charge of the AIM scheme. "There was initially scepticism and opposition in the EU to having 'machines' interfere with the personal relationship between doctors and patients. Some sceptics even feared for people's lives saying that machines in medicine would increase the number of deaths." Against this scepticism, the Parliament supported the emergence of AIM and later the creation of the Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection.

19

Further information can be found on ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/ist/docs/directorate_c/ehealth/ehealth_activities_2004.pdf Example projects: - Healthy Aims: A consortium of 27 universities, research centres, hospitals, IT companies and manufacturers in the HealthyAims project created in record time advanced medical implants and diagnostic systems for conditions such as stroke, blindness, deafness, incontinence and glaucoma. The tiny electronic implants they developed needed to be able to send data wirelessly to portable receivers. So one of the six SME partners, Zarlink Semiconductor Ltd, came up with the MICS communications standard for medical implants which is heading for global market success. This is a textbook example of how collaborative research in a field – in this case micro-technologies – leads to new instruments for better health and quality of life. - My Heart: The MyHeart project contributed to the fight against cardio-vascular diseases by developing ICT-enabled solutions for prevention and early diagnosis. These solutions allow ubiquitous access to medical expertise in the form of continuous monitoring, diagnosis, therapy, automatic feedback and professional interaction. The project developed four product concepts and integrated industrial prototypes that are currently being tested in six European clinics. Exploitation is under way with the creation of two start-up companies. The first company, “Wearable Information Technologies” (WearTech) in Valencia will commercially exploit some of the textile technologies and garments that have been developed in the project. The second company is a spin-off from the MyHeart partner CEA-LETI Grenoble and will offer solutions for motion sensing. Philips, the consortium leader is also poised to exploit the technology in its healthcare product lines. Work in the Wealthy and MyHeart projects was critical to the development of a range of market-ready ‘smart clothes’ with built-in sensors monitoring the wearers’ health and vital signs. ELECTRONIC SERVICES WE CAN TRUST European research has delivered major contributions to how services are delivered electronically. Some key achievements included the following:

• The Open Distributed Telecommunications Architecture (ODTA) has been developed so that services can be deployed over heterogeneous infrastructures (ISDN, ATM, TCP/IP etc.)

• Various aspects of security have been given high priority. Specifically solutions for authentication have been developed for 3G mobile phones.

• Enterprise and business models as well as architectures have been developed for electronic commerce and brokerage. Special attention has been given to security and electronic payment.

• An open framework for electronic payment systems for use over the Internet has been developed.

• Fraud detection systems for use for communication and application services have been developed.

• Functionalities and interfaces have been defined to allow competition in network operation and service provision, but at the same time, ensuring that consumers can access these services easily.

• Standards have been developed for public key infrastructures (PKI), for biometric identification, for ensuring information privacy and for smartcards.

20

Although it took some time to get standards to this sector, 10% of total retail in Europe is now being done over the Internet. This allows for greater choice, lower prices and is a stimulus for the Single Market. Speech recognition Speech recognition is a key feature of electronic business management, allowing automation of managing customers and enabling access to a huge variety of services.

The development speech recognition was one of the early objectives in EU-funded ICT research. Participating projects created applications for speech recognition in noisy environments, text-to-speech and speech-to-text conversion technologies that are now used for reading out websites or dictating texts. Speech recognition systems were developed for intercity train timetables, flight enquiries and reservations and hotel reservations.

Multi-lingual speech recognition and communication systems were also created and European standards emerged out of this work. Linguanet, for example, was a Multilanguage Protocol Application allowing Police and other Law Enforcement bodies to communicate with each other in real time and on multiple languages. www.prolingua.co.uk/brochure/partners.html; www.prolingua.co.uk/talking.pdf SMALL THINGS GO BIG Smaller, cheaper and more powerful micro and nano-electronics and microsystems drive high-tech economies. Europe’s industry has built market strengths in the electronic components that steer innovation in essential sectors of the economy like automotive, industrial automation, telecommunications, energy and avionics. In these domains the European industry is currently leading the world electronics market segments with shares of 30-35%. Community funded research played an instrumental role in reinforcing Europe's excellence centres in this field and in improving their attractiveness not only to skills but also to investments by European and international companies. These centres together with the top European microchip-makers such as STMicroelectronics, Infineon and NXP as well as leading international companies installed in Europe were behind the success of European projects, such as Pullnano/NanoCMOS and their predecessors that have pushed the boundaries of chip miniaturisation. The role of SMEs in innovation is undisputable. Nurturing innovative, high-tech SMEs is thus a vital goal of EU programmes. ARM Ltd holds key intellectual property rights for processors used by all chipmakers and found in most mobile handsets. This dynamic firm benefited and contributed to the success of the EU-funded Open Microprocessor Initiative (OMI). Meanwhile, EU-supported research in ICT has played a key role in the start up and development of the SME TTTech on Time-Triggered Architecture. It now employs over 130 people and is the leading supplier of time-triggered systems enabling developers of automotive, aerospace and industrial control equipment to deliver reliable embedded systems faster and more efficiently. SOME OTHER HIGHLIGHTS Research in the Environment domain contributed to better standards and improved interoperability for systems that are used in emergency management. This enables emergency services to cooperate across borders. The research also provided a critical support to the development of European standards in operations, procedures and protocols for the use of the European Civil Protection authorities.

21

Other benefits included the development of the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security – GMES system and for the setting-up of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe – INSPIRE. The development of the production of flat panel displays was helped by the EU. This was an essential step to ensure that the European display manufacturing industry remains competitive worldwide. These displays found their way into TV sets, computer monitors, and are now used in many mobile devices, including phones, portable DVD players and other portable multimedia products. The work is continuing into 3D display technologies. The EU has funded a number of research projects to develop applications for teleworking (a work arrangement in which employees enjoy flexibility in working location and hours) that has now become a policy of promoting new working practices within the EU. Social partners reached an agreement in 2003 to introduce these practices in the labour market and, by now, more than 10% of Europeans have signed up to this system. Life for diabetics will improve thanks to an automated insulin delivery system developed in the CLINICIP project. In or out of school, European projects like ELEKTRA and eCIRCUS have developed ‘serious games’ to make education fun for young people and mature students who are less familiar with ICT and the benefits of e-learning. 4. INTO THE FUTURE: MIND-READERS, SENSING MACHINES, QUANTUM COMPUTING The newest trend in ICT research is pursued under the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programme. Inspirations and solutions often come from disciplines outside the ICT sector: from biology, neuroscience, social and cognitive sciences, quantum physics and human physiology. The following examples illustrate the Commission's approach in addressing the future.

More than 300,000 European citizens, and over 2.5 million people around the world, suffer from a spinal cord injury or other cause of paralysis which effectively renders them wheelchair-bound. The MAIA project explores the possibility of controlling a wheelchair by mind-reading. Here's how it works - MAIA's technology interprets brain signals to detect the intention of its wearer to perform a motor action – e.g. using a robot arm to reach for a magazine – and transmits this intention to a robot which implements the task. The project is providing some hope for the disabled, offering them a potential future of vastly improved mobility. The HAPTEX project is looking into the future of online shopping for fashion items and textiles. It proposes a completely new interface which

allows users to feel virtual textiles with an impressive sense of realism. Wearing a specially designed glove, the user can navigate through an online shopping experience, choosing garment types, styles, colours and sizes, or navigate through a virtual world or gaming environment with a much stronger sense of being there. Computer-based assistants, for example for vehicle driving, would benefit if they could account for the emotions of users (e.g. annoyance, tiredness), their cognitive engagements (e.g. mental workload), and

22

other physical conditions (e.g. temperature, movement). Building such aspects into a computer is the essence of the REFLECT project which aims at optimising user comfort, safety and performance. The IT sector can learn a lot from other disciplines and sciences, but it also has a lot to learn from nature around us. Many animal species, for example, join forces to increase their chances in foraging, defence, or generally surviving in their environment. Although individual members of such groups may be weak, collectively they can be strong with highly extended capabilities. Such "swarm intelligence" which exists in nature is the inspiration for the development of new mini-robot organisms in the SYMBRION project. Such organisms comprise up to 300-500 collaborating robots which can dock with each other and in cooperative manner share energy and computational resources within a single artificial-life-form. The flexibility and adaptability of such multi-robot systems can be very useful in bringing low-cost solutions to a variety of applications (e.g. repairing indoor environments like ventilation or energy shafts in houses). Such systems can also play a crucial role in hazardous situations, which are not safe for humans to enter. The new keyword: QUANTUM INFORMATION Quantum information processing and communication (QIPC) is a revolution uniting quantum physics and computer science, with applications ranging from more powerful computers to unbreakable cryptography. Europe is a world leader in this field, thanks to a decade of research and over €100 million invested in different projects. As an example, using quantum physics to encrypt data, the SECOQC project developed an unbreakable network to send data over fibre-optic cable. Robots of the future The Program also took up emerging trends at a very early stage and boosted their development towards full-fledge R&D domains with significant industrial involvement. This is in particular the case for nanoelectronics and microsystems and for cognitive systems applied in particular in robotics. As the historic trend of downscaling silicon devices will come to an end in about 10-15 years, a major challenge is to find alternatives for information processing and storage beyond the limits of existing CMOS technology. The Program has supported research in nanoelectronics from its very beginning. This laid the ground for industrial research and development programmes on non-CMOS technologies for a range of applications. The GRAND project is now looking ‘beyond CMOS’ by harnessing European know-how in carbon-based nano-structures to better process and store data.

The Programm has gone ‘beyond robotics’, as we understand it today, towards truly cognitive systems that serve humans. Groundbreaking work in human-robot interaction by researchers in COGNIRON and EURON show robots can really learn new skills. What was once maverick science is now entering the mainstream. The timing is perfect, as experts predict robots could become more ubiquitous than home PCs by 2025.

5. THE ICT RACE GOES ON 25 years on, ICT research now has a budget of over 9 billion euro for the period 2007-2013. At the beginning, 2 million EUR was allocated to fund about 18 projects. Today, that amount is usually granted to one project only. The number of EU-funded projects increased from 125 between 1987 and 1991 to roughly 1200 between 1998 and 2002. The benefits of European research are not restricted to invention and patenting of new technologies, but also include international standardisation which is a highly complex and laborious process. European

23

research projects gave hundreds of "high-impact" submission for international standardisation processes in the areas of telecommunication. The added value of European research, presided over by the European Commission lies in the fact that EU-funded projects promote collaboration right across industry, researchers, academia and policy making and across borders. "It is some times difficult to draw the line where the Commission involvement is directly behind a research result. Often, it was indirect action and indirect consequences", says Roland Hüber. "We made people to talk to each other. We ensured everything was compatible within Europe. Even the style of management changed, partly thanks to us." European research has always been characterised by a "bottom-up" approach and involved both industry and academia. Objectives were based on industry needs and the focus was user oriented. In Japan, research projects are run in a more centralised manner, while in the U.S., ICT research has been driven by the needs of the defence industry. The US and Japan are still ahead of Europe in ICT research. As the Aho-report in 2008 pointed out "the Top 50 global companies in the ICT-sector are predominantly American or Japanese, and among 12 companies that are deemed most efficient, only 2 are from the EU". The availability of early stage venture capital in Europe is about half of that in the US. "US enterprises often choose Europe as a location for R&D, which is a sign of Europe’s attractiveness for scientific research. However, the question remains why US, and not European, firms commercialise these research results, a topic already recognised by the European Commission in 1995 as the ‘European paradox’, concluded the Aho-panel. "When the Commission started to speed up ICT research, Europe got a lot more respect in international negotiations. If it had not been for our ICT initiative in the early 1980s, Europe would be an IT and telecommunication wasteland now", Roland Hüber concludes. Over the past 25 years, Europe has built a stronger technological base and came up with technologies that impacted on millions of lives. In many areas, such as photonics, integrated and embedded systems, Europe has become a world leader. European ICT scientists have won more international awards over the past 10 years than ever before. These include the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics (Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg) and the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics (Theodor W. Hänsch) as well as a number of Turing Awards that is considered to be the Nobel Prize of the computing world. But as the ICT race goes on, the challenge stays the same: how can the European Union stay in the game if not ahead of it.