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ITEA 2 Symposium 2007: Using ICT to deal with major societal challenges

Berlin, 18-19 October 2007

Note: This press release is also available in German.

 

Download: Press Release ITEA 2 Symposium 2007 Berlin- English word-document - 93 kB

  

The annual ITEA 2 (Information Technology for European Advancement) Symposium will take place in Berlin, Germany on 18 & 9 October 2007. The theme of this year’s symposium is using ICT to deal with major societal challenges in areas such as the ageing society, the digital divide, climate change, security and health care. The 2-day event will showcase some of Europe’s most important industry-driven information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives. ITEA 2 focuses on pre-competitive research in embedded and distributed software-intensive systems and services in order to drive innovation in Europe’s key industries – aerospace, automotive, consumer electronics, medical systems and telecom.

There will be a programme scheduled around the symposium theme with a keynote speech by Professor Wolfgang Wahlster of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, DFKI on Grand Challenges for Software-Driven Innovations: Mega trends in ICT. Other speakers are attending from public authorities throughout Europe as well as from industry and market associations involved with ITEA 2. There will be presentations on three prominent ITEA projects: AMEC­ - Ambient intelligence in the home, AGILE - a project for making software development more efficient, and HD4U - High-Definition TV for Europe.

 

The proof

An important part of the Berlin event will be the exhibition showing the practical results of European research on embedded and distributed software-intensive systems and services with participants from 45 ITEA / ITEA 2 projects. Other exhibition booths include Information Society Technologies (IST) projects, European Technology Platforms (ETP), Competitiveness Clusters (Pôles de Compétitivité - PdC) and projects from the German Federal Ministries of Research & Innovation (BMBF) and Science & Technology (BMWi). All these industry-oriented initiatives have far-reaching implications for the future commercial development of software and so make a major impact on the competitiveness of European industry.

 

The ITEA 2 Roadmap is widely recognised as a landmark document in the field of software-intensive systems and services. The report, which is intended for both software researchers and policy makers, maps out the future of software-intensive systems in Europe. A third edition is currently being developed. At the symposium special focus sessions will be held, each focusing on a different aspect of the domains to be addressed by the 3rd edition of the ITEA 2 Technology Roadmap.

 

Automotive area

There will be a special area for European Automotive projects, a field of research that has been a key area in the ITEA programme over the years. For example, the AUTOSAR - AUTomotive Open System Architecture - (which will be presented in the exhibition) is a highly successful spin-off of the ITEA project EAST EEA. This partnership has been extended in the ITEA 2 TIMMO project on mastering in-vehicle timing constraints (which will also be presented in the exhibition).

Other demonstrations will include:

·         A sensory car

·         A prototype fuel-cell powered car

 

Premier European programme

ITEA 2 builds on the success of the ITEA programme in the field of embedded and distributed software-intensive systems and services. Reaction to the first two ITEA 2 Calls for project proposals reflect growing interest in this key area from a wide range of European industries – from road, rail and air transport, through communications and consumer electronics to healthcare and environmental management.

 

Interest in ITEA 2 is growing. A major challenge is to double the number of partners, with a target of 800, 50% of which should be small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Following the first call for projects in 2006, 17 projects are now in the launch phase or are ongoing. The total number of partners in the Full Project Proposal phase of Call 1 is 242, of which 100 are SMEs. Call 2 (opened in January 2007) resulted in 21 Project Outlines, of which 17 were accepted for writing full project proposals. Strikingly, there are more than 97 newcomers in ITEA 2 Call 2 (companies and organisations that had not previously participated in the ITEA / ITEA 2 programme)

 

International collaboration

ITEA 2 works closely with other programmes at the national and at the European level, for example with the other EUREKA cluster MEDEA+ and with EU Framework Programmes in the field of Information Society Technologies (IST).

 

At the European level, European Technology Platform initiatives in the domains of ICT, such as ARTEMIS, NEM, NESSI and eMobility have a common goal of defining and driving a co-ordinated European R&D strategy for software-intensive systems and services.

 

At the national and regional level, ITEA 2 is driven by partners who wish to profile their expertise. ITEA 2 therefore actively helps promote national and regional initiatives in Clusters and Pôles de Compétitivité (PdCs) such as Safetrans, the Dutch Point-One (both of whom will be present at the symposium in Berlin) and the French System@tic, AESE, Images & Réseaux (Media & Networks) and Minalogic.

 

The symposium is sponsored by the three German ITEA Founding Companies: DaimlerChrysler, Robert Bosch and Siemens.

 

For more press information, please contact:

Kay Jeunhomme / Lara Jonkers

PR & Communications

ITEA 2 Office

Tel:  +31 (0)40 247 5590 

Fax: +31 (0)40 247 5595

Email:   kay.jeunhomme@itea2.org

            lara.jonkers@itea2.org 

 

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