Why ITEA 2
Facing up to new challenges
The rationale for ITEA's launch was a response to the fact that the digital age is imminent and the digital transition is proceeding rapidly. Changes that are far-reaching and global. Software is the key to this revolution. ITEA was the first concerted strategic R&D initiative addressing this challenge, mounted by European industry.
Today, we are facing the second wave in this digital transition – often called the ‘embedded’ or ‘ambient intelligence’ revolution. This is deeply penetrating the very fabric of the physical world and our interaction in and with this world, enabled by ubiquitous communications and intelligence in even the smallest objects – sometimes metaphorically called ‘smart dust/smart things’.
This revolution is marked by ever-increasing software intensity and systems complexity and accompanied by a move from the classical product-oriented world towards a seamless services-oriented one. In other words, it is all about embedded software-intensive systems and services of unprecedented complexity and about digital convergence, ITEA’s core interest from its very beginnings.
In addition to this new set of technological and resulting business challenges, the overall context has also dramatically changed, marked by:
- Ever fiercer global race and competition, driven by technological advances but also by the rise of developing new powers, most notably China and India, with far reaching implications on global work-share (off-shoring), competitive strategies and innovation cycles/time-to-market;
- Complete transition in the overall business model, from the classical two-tier original equipment manufacturer (OEM)-supplier model to agile dynamic multi-tier global OEM-supplier networks, delivering seamless solutions and services to customers irrespective of sector, location, mode, etc. and giving rise to an ever increasing role for SMEs in this dynamic fabric;
- Major societal challenges and their fall-out, such as: anaemic European growth rates
leading to employment challenges and calling for a new cross-sectional growth enabler like SiS; 9/11
events, heightening our sensitivity to safety and security to an unprecedented level, and leading to the
ever growing importance of and huge spending on ICT and on critical infrastructures to contain global
threats and security risks; and last but not least from European demographics calling for innovative
concepts to maintain quality of life, for example through ‘ambient
environments’; and - The rise of the Open Source Software/Open Innovation movement. As stated in the ITEA Report on open source software: ‘Open source software may well be one of the best tools to escape (at least partially) from the monopolistic positions that certain giant non-European companies have established in areas that are key to European development and independence. In particular, it may also be one of the best tools for preserving and strengthening European access to and control of basic software for embedded systems in those application areas (e.g. automotive) where European software companies have a strong position, and where other global suppliers aim to extend their monopolistic positions elsewhere.’
In other words, the challenges and threats to European competitiveness and well-being are even higher today – including in world-leading sectors such as the automotive, mobile phone, aeronautics, and manufacturing and process industries. Relentless innovation is our sole means of maintaining the European model – i.e. the triple societal benefits of growth, employment and quality of life.
Responding to these revolutionary challenges, ITEA 2 maintains the successful principal vision of ITEA, updated to the new global context, ‘for Europe to maintain leadership in this new era of embedded Software-intensive Systems and Services building on key European strengths and industries’.
For more information on ITEA 2, go to publications.
