I. The Open FET Domain
II. Proactive Initiatives
1. Quantum Computing and Communications (QCC)
2. Personal Bio-information Systems
3. Microelectronics Advanced Research Initiative (MEL ARI)
The activity on future and emerging technologies (FET) covers research that is of a longer-term nature or involves particularly high risks - compensated by the promise of major advances and the potential for industrial and societal impact. Such research is typically transdisciplinary in nature or addresses emerging disciplines. It reinforces the link and flow of ideas, initiatives and people between academia and industry in the EU.
To ensure a seamless coverage of the information society technologies the door will be kept open to any new idea with a potential industrial or societal impact, in a bottom-up fashion. This openness will be reinforced in specific areas with focused co-ordinated pro-active initiatives of a strategic nature. Activities in FET are correspondingly grouped into two domains: the open domain and the pro-active initiatives.
RTD Objective(s):
Ensure openness to new ideas with a high potential industrial or social impact, in a bottom-up fashion, maintaining a seamless coverage of all information society technologies.
The topics to be addressed are not prescribed: the calls shall be open to all innovative research that may generate a science and technology base supporting information society components, systems, or services.
Main type of action: RTD projects.
It is the essence of the FET projects to have a high element of risk, compensated by a high - long term - potential for societal and industrial impact. It is expected that the open FET proposals will fall into two categories: In the first category the element of risk associated with the project could be reduced through the assessment or evaluation of a set of parameters. In this case the project may include an evaluation phase, normally of 1 year maximum duration and funded with a fixed contribution contract. Evaluation phases may be proposed as part of a larger project or on a stand-alone basis. It is expected that only a fraction of evaluation phases will be successful and will continue as full-scale projects. The second category of projects will be these projects where no such evaluation phase can be envisaged.
Specific evaluation criteria:
Evaluation phase objectives should be measurable and appropriate for assessing feasibility aspects and/or evaluating risks in subsequent work.
The continuation of projects preceded by an evaluation phase is conditional on a successful outcome of the latter.
Expected call dates:
Periodic calls throughout the duration of the framework programme.
Annotations:
Why does this work need to be undertaken at the European level:
Relative Priority:
High
Expected share of the year’s budget: 40-60%; final allocation will also depend on the relative quality of proposals.
How might progress/impact of the action line’s objectives be monitored: To be determined at a later stage
Will it be necessary to make further specifications or restrictions at the time of the call: No. Parts of the action line will need revision (e.g. the evaluation criteria) depending on what will be retained in the action line itself and what will go to the "chapeau".
The objective of the action lines that follow is to ensure an early lead in key emerging technology areas through coordinated research initiatives that endeavour visionary and challenging long-term goals. The definition of proactive initiatives is based on their potential for long-term industrial and societal impact, their timeliness - including the exploitation of opportunities offered by recent scientific advances, and on whether their objectives can be effectively tackled on a European level.
Each initiative consists of a set of autonomous but closely interacting and appropriately networked projects, which coordinate their research for advancing towards their strategic objectives. The networked nature of the initiatives can be reinforced with some central research facilities when these provide economies of scale to the participants of multiple projects.
The choice of proactive initiatives is made at appropriate times throughout the duration of the IST Programme through consultations with the research community. The planning will allow for flexibility, in order to be able to react rapidly if windows of opportunity present themselves unexpectedly through scientific advances. Advance knowledge of research challenges and trends is obtained through a combination of strategic workshops and technology-watch activities.
In all proactive initiatives the exploitation of innovative mid-term results will be strongly encouraged, notably through the bottom-up creation of university spin-off companies or timely partnerships with industry.
In the first year (1999), the following proactive initiatives will be launched:
[Only about 3 initiatives will be launched as part of the 1999 WP. It is expected that the ones selected will be amongst those listed below without precluding the possibility of alternative topics that might emerge in the meantime. Moreover, the listing of an initiative below does not imply that if it is not finally selected for 1999 it will be necessarily selected in subsequent years; decisions in each year will be made through a global reappraisal of opportunities.
The evaluation criteria for proposals submitted under a proactive initiative take into account not only the merits of proposals as individual entities, but also the inter-relations between different proposals and their contribution to the objectives of the initiative as a whole. Specific criteria are given within the action lines but could be brought at this "chapeau" level at a later stage
Two more candidate initiatives will be added to the list below in the next couple of weeks: one in the area of "Global Intelligent Computing" and one on Intelligent Information Interfaces.]
RTD objective(s):
The aim is to develop novel systems and techniques for information processing, transmission and security by exploiting the extraordinary properties of quantum mechanical operations, such as superposition, entanglement and uncertainty. Research in this proactive initiative will attempt to encode data in the quantum states of matter or light and to manipulate them with unprecedented speed, efficiency and accuracy.
Practical applications could include novel information processing elements operating at the atomic scale, which themselves could result in the development of new types of computers, as well as metrology and fully secure information transmission.
Work will consist of a balance of experimental and theoretical research, and will bring together transdisciplinary expertise in physics, computer science, technology, and in potential applications. Research should address topics such as:
[Specific measurable objectives and scope to be refined at the workshop scheduled in September]
Main type of action:
RTD projects along with additional coordinated activities, possibly including a network and/or central research facilities
Specific evaluation criteria:
Projects will be selected so that they form an as much as possible integrated and coherent whole, addressing all the work necessary for advancing towards the overall objectives. Adjustments may be recommended to individual selected projects in order to improve their cohesion and the overall coverage of the area.
Expected call date:
To be defined in September 1998
Annotations:
What are the expected economic and societal benefits of the proposed work?
QCC has a potentially enormous strategic importance because it could revolutionise the way we handle and transfer information, because of its implications to data encryption (the only cryptographic system known to be safe against eavesdropping by physical law), and because quantum computers would be able to factor prime numbers in seconds, making current encryption systems obsolete.
Why does this work need to be undertaken at the European level:
QCC is a novel field and expertise in this area is still very scarce. By pulling these resources together at the European level, a proactive initiative like this one would generate critical mass that could not otherwise be achieved and, in the process, would significantly enhance the chances of important advances in the field. It will also be important to streamline the existing activities and provide a joint course of action towards common long-term goals.
Relative Priority:
Medium to high; to be determined after the workshop to be held in September
Expected share of the year’s budget: ...%; to be determined at a later stage
How might progress/impact of the action line’s objectives be monitored: The objectives will be formulated in a monitorable way, with short-, medium-, and long-term targets.
Will it be necessary to make further specifications or restrictions at the time of the call: Possibly, through a specific infopack.
RTD Objectives:
The aim is to conceive and develop novel integrated systems that extend the capabilities of the human body, or provide it with new functionalities. The systems should be portable or implantable, communicating with their owner through "direct" interfaces to his body that do not always use one of the five senses. Such interfaces could be implemented, for example, through the measurement of physiological, chemical, and electrical parameters, electromagnetic fields, or be made directly to the nervous system.
Future applications would include health monitoring and maintenance systems, systems that provide their owner with early warning of pathological situations, as well as prostheses for the rehabilitation of handicapped or impaired persons. Long term applications could also address the extension of human capabilities through systems that provide "super-human" vision, hearing, memory, movement, object manipulation, or human-to-human communication capabilities. The systems should have a high level of autonomy, with user supervision implemented where necessary or desirable.
This proactive initiative will be implemented in two stages: The first stage is a definition phase, involving a call for proposals that define bio-information system concepts and carry out preliminary work needed for:
At a second stage, a call for proposals will be issued that will focus on the most promising and visionary system concepts developed and selected at the first stage. The realisation of these bio-information system concepts will therefore become the long-term goal of the proactive initiative. The projects selected will form an integrated and coherent whole: each project should contribute in advancing towards the long-term goals in its own way, addressing certain parts of the roadmap(s) developed at the first stage. Overall, the projects are not expected to achieve the long-term goals in their lifetime, but to show significant and measurable progress towards them.
Work at the second stage will consist of a balance of experimental and theoretical research and is expected to combine work in: signal processing; artificial intelligence; sensors, microsystems, microrobotics and microelectronics; cellular and molecular biology; (computational) neuroscience; cognitive science; rehabilitation engineering; and other areas. Synergies with other Community programmes will be sought where necessary.
Main Type of Action:
RTD projects launched as a result of the first call for proposals should have a duration of 6 months and will be funded with fixed contribution contracts not exceeding 100 Kecu in Commission funding. Projects launched in the second stage of the initiative will be standard shared-cost RTD projects. Additional co-ordination activities such as networks will be envisaged.
Specific Evaluation Criteria (for first stage):
Expected call dates: To be defined later in 1998.
Annotations:
What are the expected economic and societal benefits of the proposed work?
Why does this work need to be undertaken at the European level?
Relative Priority:
Expected share of the year’s budget: about ...% (and possibly an additional ...% of the year 2000 budget, depending on the outcome of the first phase)
How might progress/impact of the action line’s objectives be monitored: It is too early to say; this will defined after a few long-term application/system concepts have been defined.
Will it be necessary to make further specifications or restrictions at the time of the call: Possibly, through a specific infopack.
(to be revised depending on whether this area – or part of it - will be finally addressed in KA4)
RTD objective(s):
As minimum feature sizes in microelectronic circuits will reduce below 0.10 microns and switching currents will contain less than 1,000 electrons, there is increasing evidence that further progress into the nanometric regime on the basis of conventional scaling will be hindered. This will be a consequence of the non-deterministic behaviour of small currents, and of hard technological bottlenecks in terms of signal delays and cross-talk in electrical lines, and power dissipation. These obstacles, in combination with ever-rising investment costs for "shrink" technology and recent scientific progress in the areas of nano-, quantum, photonic, and bio-inspired devices, provide motivation for alternative approaches that exploit physical behaviour at the nanoscale instead of trying to avoid it.
This proactive initiative therefore focuses on research activities that have the potential to revolutionise information processing and storage circuits in terms of performance, power consumption, and manufacturability. Within 4 years, the initiative aims at delivering scaleable circuit prototypes having a performance, in terms of power consumption or operation speed, that cannot be matched by the foreseen extensions of conventional technology.
Work will consist of a balance of experimental and theoretical research, and will bring together transdisciplinary expertise in physics, chemistry, material and electronic engineering, computer science, and circuit design. Research should address topics such as:
[to be revised after the MEL ARI July workshop]
Main type of action:
RTD projects along with additional coordinated activities, possibly including a network and/or central research facilities. International cooperation will be pursued where it is expected to add value or bring complementary scarce expertise that is needed in MEL ARI activities.
Specific evaluation criteria:
Projects will be selected so that they form an as much as possible integrated and coherent whole, addressing all the work necessary for advancing towards the overall objectives. Adjustments may be recommended to individual selected projects in order to improve their cohesion and the overall coverage of the area. The initiative will build upon the work and achievements accomplished within the MEL ARI proactive initiative under Esprit-LTR (4th Framework Programme).
Expected call date:
March 1998
Annotations:
What are the expected economic and societal benefits of the proposed work?
Why does this work need to be undertaken at the European level:
Relative Priority:
Expected share of the year’s budget: ...%; to be determined at a later stage
How might progress/impact of the action line’s objectives be monitored: The objectives of this proactive initiative will be consistent with a roadmap for post-CMOS microelectronics (nano[opto]electronics) which is in preparation and will be discussed with the research community in a workshop in July. The roadmap discusses alternative future technologies and formulates short-, medium-, and long-term targets. These will allow effective monitoring of progress within this action line.
Will it be necessary to make further specifications or restrictions at the time of the call: Yes, through a specific infopack, because potential proposers must be made aware of Community activities already underway in this area.
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