More money being earmarked for IT research and deployment: vThe fate of what could be the world's largest program for IT and communications-technology research, with a potential value of more than $4 billion,ÿnow rests with Europe's politicians.
Electronics executives are waiting to see how the final budget for the European Union's Fifth Framework, a four-year plan to fund collaborative R&D from 1999 to 2002, will measure up against the previous four-year framework.
If the European Commission, the administrative arm of the European Union; and the European Parliament get their way, IT research will get about a quarter of a total Fifth Framework budget of 16.3 billion ECU (about $18 billion). The rest of the money is earmarked for energy, environmental, biology, and biochemical research, as well as for so-called direct actions funding Europe's nuclear-research program.
On the other side of the bargaining table, representing the individual national governments, is the Council of Research Ministers. The council seeks a limit of 14 billion ECU (about $15.5 billion), which would mean a drop in funding compared with the previous framework.
Although the two bodies disagree at present, a fast-track conciliation procedure is coming into play that could yield an agreement in the fall. The adoption of more specific plans, such as the plan for IT research, is expected to follow soon after, allowing a first call for research proposals to take place in December or January.
There is nonetheless some concern that any delay in the conciliation procedure could cause a gap in the continuity of Europe's funded research activities in 1999. A January call for proposals would mean projects would be unlikely to start before July or even September 1999, though the European Commission is promising approval procedures will be more streamlined under the Fifth Framework than in the past.
In the electronics arena, officials and company executives are generally optimistic the Fifth Framework will continue the provision of rallying points for European companies in strategic areas of research. But as the European Commission and the European Union's constituent national governments work to flesh out the structure of the plan, companies do have to come to terms with new thinking and new priorities.
Indeed, the Fifth Framework proposal shakes up the established system of European four-year plans, which began in 1984, in that it sweeps away the familiar electronics-related programs of previous frameworks. Gone are Esprit, which funded IT research; ACTS, which focused on telecommunications; and Telematics, which looked at services and infrastructure. They are to be replaced by a single, larger program that officially bears the unwieldy mission title "Creating the User-Friendly Information Society" but that is also known as the Society Technology program (IST).
The European Commission had earmarked a proposed 3.925 billion ECU (about $4.4 billion) for the IST program; the European Parliament amended the figure to 3.75 billion ECU (about $4.2 billion). Regardless of the final figure, IST is likely to be the world's largest collaborative IT-research program. It will be large not only in the size of its funding, but also in the scope of its research, which will span the gamut from semiconductor manufacturing, through design and test, and ultimately to software and content development in a numerous applications. As under the Fourth Framework, funding will usually be given to teams of companies on the basis of 50 percent of allowable expenses.
"There are many reasons for the change," said an official within the U.K. government's Department of Trade Industry. "Convergence of the technologies of computing and communications is one; it doesn't really make sense to keep the Esprit and ACTS programs separate anymore. Second, there was a slight problem of overlap between the programs in Framework Four." For example, the official said, some research into aspects of mobile communications was duplicated in ACTS and Esprit.
"We're behind [in] the integration of the programs," the official acknowledged. "Managing the single largest program in the world looking at IT is going to be a challenge. [With] a program of that size, you expect teething problems."
Another pressure to change has been a longstanding trend away from technology-driven research and toward applications and user-focused research. There's also an impetus to provide a greater level of support for small and midsized companies, in the hope that one of them could grow to become the European equivalent of a Microsoft or an Intel.
The IST program has been divided into four key actions: systems and services for the citizen, new methods of work and e-commerce, multimedia content and tools, and essential technologies and infrastructure. Government and European officials are busy filling in details of the work plan and the administrative structure so the program is ready to roll once the political go-ahead is given. That approval is expected toward the end of this year.
"The focus is much more on the user this time around," confirmed consultant Eric van Pels at EG-Liaison, in The Hague, Netherlands, which advises Dutch companies on participation in research programs. "There's much greater emphasis on software. It's about the information technology that makes things easier for the user -- it's about the Internet and the implications of the Internet, which wasn't around during the planning of the Fourth Framework programs."
But Rosalie Zobel, a unit head within DGIII, the European Commission directorate responsible for industry, was quick to dispel any notion that hardware research will lose out under the new framework, saying she is confident microelectronics research will retain a high profile. She added the breadth of the program accommodates electronics research in all the key actions within IST, particularly in the fourth key action -- essential technologies and infrastructure -- which she expects to be about twice as large as the three other actions.
"It's a refocusing of priorities, but I don't think there will be a reduction in the amounts of money going into microelectronics," Zobel said. She supported the altered structure, saying, "It's important that there is not just a technology push without a view to the exploitation side."
Matt Lee, who oversees European research and collaboration at ARM, in Cambridge, England, also observed the shift in focus to the "user and society." But he said though Framework Five is "very different," he sees "just as much chance to get the sort of things we're interested in funded.
"Anyway it's no good hopping up and down; we're not going to change the thinking. You've got to look at things a different way -- a way that reflects the thinking of the European Commission."
ARM has been a significant participant in a number of Esprit projects that were clustered together under the Open Microprocessor Systems Initiative in Framework Four. "If we want an OMI-2, we should go and ask for it," said Lee.
Jean-Marie Laporte, who has worked within the OMI management office, said, "With the new integration of different programs in Framework Five, it may be that the OMI name should change -- for example, to the Highly Embedded Systems Initiative." He added the OMI management office "is still in existence" and it "could be the link with Framework Five for this kind of initiative, which is necessary in Europe for the telecom, automotive, and consumer-electronics industries, all of which will naturally be using hardware/software codesign." |
