Eight out of ten personal computers sold in Europe are imported from the USA; nine out of ten videotape recorders sold in Europe come from Japan. European-based integrated circuit manufacturers supply 30% of their own home market and represent 13% of world production, half of which is manufactured in the USA by subsidiaries of European companies. Large mainframe computer manufacturers in Europe have, without exception, entered agreements with overseas companies in order to benefit from their technological advance. In the field of electronic data processing, office and factory automation, process control and telecommunications[1], compared to the limited number of "niches" in which Europe is performing fairly well, the list of the areas in which Europe is struggling to catch up is lengthy.
Since the post war reconstruction period Europe has lagged behind in the industrial application of many high technologies and notably electronics. Because of the increasing direct or indirect influence of electronics in practically all aspects of industrial life in the western world, what was in the past just technological dependence in a few specialized areas is now threatening to become industrial and economic dependence plain and simple. In these conditions the identity of Europe and eventually its political independence will be seriously at stake. [1] These are the sectors broadly encompassed by the term "Information Technology"
At a time when, on the one hand US and Japan are taking new initiatives and increasing their investments[2] to improve their technological, industrial and commercial predominence, and on the other hand the emerging economies, in Asia and the Americas, are taking over more and more of the traditional manufacturing activities, Europe cannot afford to remain an observer.
The effects of the electronic revolution, that is now taking place, will impact directly on Europe's social and economic structure regardless of whether it has an active or passive role in it. Changes offer new possibilities, but bring about alterations that are not always without problems: only those who can control the determining factors of the changes can hope to minimize the problems. Europe must therefore assume a positive role to be master of its future.
Being first in the line of fire, industry has been aware of this for some time and has tried, often assisted by its respective governments, to remedy the situation. Measures taken so far, however, have not been sufficient to reverse the trend, and by and large have only managed to slow down the deteriorating process. The situation threatens now to get dramatically worse: our balance of payments in IT products and services, still positive in 1975, suffered a substantial deficit of US $ 5 billion in 1981 and this is believed to have doubled for 1982.
Representatives of the largest European companies active in the Information Technology field took the initiative in approaching the Commission in order to try to find a solution of a scale matching the problem. [2] e.g. the Japanese Government is investing US $ 500 M on the Fifth Generation Computer Programme; in the USA the largest computer and semiconductor manufacturers are organizing themselves to conduct R&D programmes in joint ventures, for example the Semiconductor Research Cooperative (SRC) and the Computer Aided Manufacturing International (CAMI). These actions are being favoured by the US administration's Economic Recovery Tax Act signed by President Reagan in August, 1981, that includes R&D tax credits, accelerated depreciation schedules and other incentives which are expected to stimulate an additional $ 3 billion in corporate R&D over the next five years.
In early 1983 they jointly wrote to Vice President Davignon depicting the situation as follows : "The figures of market share, i.e. European Industry commanding only 10% of the world market and less than 40% of its own indigeneous market, make stark reading. Not only is the situation in itself of great concern but the low market share means that the volume of sales and profit is inadequate to provide the essential investment needed to safeguard the future. Even worse, all the indications are that the situation is deteriorating rather than improving. The situation is not a new one but has been developing over a period of years and many attempts have been made to reverse the trend. These include such things as acquisition of foreign technology and joint business ventures with Japanese and American firms. Whilst these may hold short-term benefits for those involved, they cannot be considered as providing a long-term answer. In any case their contribution to the European economy as a whole has been slight; in some cases the effect may have been adverse. Some of the nations, recognising the dangers, have instituted, (or are instituting) their own national programmes - so far the impact has not been great but it is growing. The situation has, however, reached such a state that even programmes on the scale of those now being considered in some of the larger Member States are unlikely in themselves to solve unaided the problem in Europe".
Confronted with such a situation the companies see merging of efforts at Community level as a fundamental element of any remedial actioon: "unless a cooperative industrial programme of a sufficient magnitude can be mounted, most if not all the current IT industry could disappear in a few years time". The Commission shares this view and has formulated a proposal for the promotion of a concrete programme of action.
Long lead-time R&D at precompetitive level, sufficiently upstream of the product development phase, would appear a suitable domain for such cooperative action, and one which could be started without delay. Further measures would obviously need to be taken to complement this effort and ensure the best conditions for the timely and effective industrial exploitation of the results of R&D in the Community. The aim of such complementary actions would include stimulating the creation of sufficiently large leading edge markets, encouraging investments, promoting the establishment of adequate infrastructures and services, for example in telecommunication. This will be the subject of further analysis and may lead to new proposals.
The strategic objective of the current action was agreed with industry and Member States to be: "the achievement of technological parity with, if not superiority over, world competitors within 10 years". Consultation with industry and academia has enabled the Commission to identify the technical objectives, define the methods of carrying out the programme and estimate the resources required.
The financial resources that, according to the estimates, would have to be mobilized for a first phase of five years are some MECUS 1500 of which the Community would have to provide 50% i.e. 750 MECUS. To sustain the development of the technologies on which most of the European high-added-value transformation economy is going to depend for its efficiency, the proposed Community intervention may appear almost negligeable given an overall industrial research and development expenditure in the sector in Europe of some 5 billion $ per year and given the fact that the largest American companies active in the field invest every year, individually, some US $ 2 billion.
If Community intervention is focussed on promoting work of very advanced nature, however, and if a carefully selective approach is taken, the Commission believes that it will be adequate to stimulate strategic thinking, a growth of self-confidence and the joint efforts that are required to provide the European information technology industry with the basis for regeneration.
The Commission is now therefore proposing to launch the first five year phase of the ten year R&D programme called ESPRIT: the European Strategic Programme for Research and Development in Information Technologies. The programme includes the coordination of R&D activities in IT in the Member States and direct financial contribution to cooperative R&D projects to be excuted within the Community.
To this end the Commission is submitting a draft Council decision specifying the duration, the character and the main modalities of execution of the programme. A technical annex to the draft decision indicates the specific technological domains that will be the subject of the programme. These documents, including the explanation of motives, are enclosed herewith. The appendix, that is presented in a separate volume, outlines in some more detail the background and the proposed technical choices.
The Council is requested to approve the proposed action and the necessary budgetary appropriations.
1. In 1982 three Communications were sent to the Council[1] which: a) analysed the importance of Information Technology (I.T.) and introduced ESPRIT; b) outlined the concept of a pilot phase for ESPRIT and provided the main lines of an overall programme; c) provided a basis for a Decision on 16 Pilot Projects.
2. A decision was adopted by the Council on 21st December 1982 to fund the pilot phase to a level of 11.5 MECU, representing 50 % of the first year costs.
3. The purpose of the present document is to provide the basis for a Council Decision on the overall ESPRIT programme. This is designed to be an essential element in the industrial strategy of the Community as outlined in the documents COM (81) 639[2] and COM (82) 365[3] and is in line with the overall scientific and technical strategy proposed by the Commission in its Communication on a framework programme[4]. [1]a) COM 287: Towards a European strategic programme for Research and Development in Information Technologies b) COM 486: laying the foundations for a European strategic programme of research and development in information technology: the pilot phase c) COM 737: proposal for a Council Decision on a preparatory phase for a Community research and development programme in the field of information technologies. [2] COM (81) 639 - A community strategy to develop industry [3] COM (82) 365 - Communication to the Commission on the problem of investment [4] COM (82) 865 - Proposal for a European Scientific and technical strategy - framework programme 1984/1987
4. Technological advance represents an essential ingredient of development particularly for those nations which, like ours, rely essentially on a transformation economy and depend on external sources for the bulk of their raw materials and energy.
5. The new technologies of information (IT) will be one of the dominant sources of technological advance for the rest of the century. They hold the promise of providing the answer to many pressing problems of today; they will create new products, processes and services and thereby new export opportunities and employment.
6. IT is already a major industry in its own right, comparable in size[5] and value added to the automobile and steel industries. As a manufacturing sector the IT industry has been one of the fastest growing industries world-wide in the last decade, a decade which has seen general recession otherwise. Growth is expected to continue at about 8% - 10% overall until 1990 by which date, with an overall turnover of some $ 500 billion (at 1980 prices), IT will be one of the world's largest manufacturing sectors.
7. Occupations concerned with information[6] are becoming the single most important part of employment. The U.S. Bureau of statistics estimated that in 1980 nearly 50% of the employed civilian workforce were in "Information", and European figures are similar. IT manuacturing alone employs 5% of the total Community work force i.e. about 5 million persons. [5] $ 237 billion 1980 annual sales worldwide [6] This includes activities like TV broadcasting and the press that, although not encompassed by the term "information technology", are heavily dependent on it.
8. The whole economy is significantly affected in its performane by IT although not always directly: altogether nearly two thirds of Community GNP is in one way or another influenced by IT. Less immediately influenced sectors like agriculture can also greatly benefit from IT, for example, from satellite observation followed by computer analysis for agriculture production monitoring and computation of optimal crop conditions. By the end of the century there will be no significant aspect of the economy that will not be affected by IT.
9. Telecommunications, Office Automation and Factory Automation play a key role since they provide crucial infrastructures for the whole economy.
10. The Community has not managed to keep pace with developments over the last ten years. Community based industry does not even cover one half of its domestic market that is today 34% of the world market. In 1975 the Community still had a trade surplus in IT products. By 1980 the trade deficit had reached $ 5 billion, and according to certain sources, the $ 10 billion mark was passed in 1982.
11. The problem of the trade deficit is compounded by the fact that Community imports are primarily high technology products - such as central processing units and computer memories - from the United States and Japan, while its exports are the more mature, older technology products that formed its past strength but are now only of interest as a replacement market and for the less developed countries.
12. To improve this situation an increased effort in research and development must be the centre-piece of a policy to strengthen Community industry in the mid- to long-term.
European companies, in some cases stimulated and assisted by government actions, have taken up the challenge posed by the subject and by the increasing strength shown by US and Japanese firms. There is however evidence that the scale of resources committed in Community countries to R&D is too small to be effective individually and often not adequately focussed towards internationally competitive innovation.
13. In its analysis of the shortcomings of Europe's research potential[7], the Commission identified, amongst other things: insufficient multi-disciplinary research; large gaps in the research continuum between universities on the one hand regarding work as too applied and industry on the other hand regarding it as too basic; a mismatch between scientific "supply" (research labs), scientific and technical demand (particularly that arising from industry). A sufficiently ambitious "industry driven" long term R&D work programme, involving universities and users will have the ability to fill these gaps.
14. The main drive for such a large scale proramme has come from industry. Facing the formidable competition of Japan and the U.S.A., Community industry has acknowledge that, in order to reverse the trend of increasing reliance on importing technology, only joint strategic long-term research planning and the concentration of resources through the definition and funding of technology goals of common interest on a Community scale, can have a good chance of redressing the situation gradually but in a lasting manner by: a) ensuring that research teams achieve the critical mass to obtain results, b) enabling optimization of resources that will result in reducing duplication and widening the spectrum of research tackled, 7 COM (82) 865 Proposal for a European Scientific and Technical Strategy Framework Programme 1984/1987 c) reducing the timelag effect caused by reliance on imported technology. d) paving the way to the definition and adoption of standards of European origin.
15. An R&D action of this character can furthermore be started immediately and will provide new technology that is vital for competitiveness. As it is kept at pre-competitive level, industry can furthermore collaborate without impeding its ability to compete for markets.
16. Extensive consultations carried out over more than one year based on the above concepts with the leading IT companies, SME's, academia and Member States Administrations has resulted in the formulation of a long lead-time R&D programme called ESPRIT : European Strategic Programme for R&D in Information Technology. The objective: to provide European IT Industry with the technology base it will need to become and stay competitive world-wide within the next ten years.
17. The main criterion used in defining the R&D work was to be highly selective in order to enable the programme to focus on the key technological factors. This was necessary because IT is so R&D intensive and technology becomes so quickly obsolete that trying to cover the whole spectrum is simply not possible, given the relatively scarce human and financial resources that can be made available, without putting at risk the more pressing short term product development activities that are essential to maintain the present industrial and market presence.
18. The particular focus of the programme is a function of two conclusions drawn from the current trends in the development of IT: one is that more and more people will have to learn how to use this technology; the other is that the products of the technology will have to become easier to use and better integrated into the entire pattern of our daily lives.
19. This latter objective can only be achieved through major advances in hardware (components) and software technology and systems architecture (the combination of hardware and software into systems). This is why ESPRIT places particular emphasis on these three technologies that give the key to any application. In addition, the areas where IT will have the greatest impact on social and economic life will have to be the subject of intensive research activity and technology test-beds. The office and the factory are the two[8] proposed areas, chosen in the light of their growth potential, of their impact on other large industry sectors and of the width of the technology spectrum underpinning their development. The heavily interrelated areas[9] that form the object of Research and Development under ESPRIT are therefore: a) Advanced microelectronics that provides the physical structure for any information system. b) Software technology that addresses the medium that controls the behaviour of any IT system. c) Advanced information processing that addresses the optimization of functional behaviour through the architectural combination of hardware and software. [8] As noted in paragraph 9 telecommunications are equally fundamental to the development and application of Information Technology. The R&D domains that are proposed for ESPRIT must and do therefore cover all their main technological needs as well. The nature and organisation of telecommunication services however make them a particular application case requiring separate analysis. This is currently in hand and the Commission will present specific proposals shortly. [9] For the purpose of presentation and discussion it appears more practical to group the various activities identified into reasonably homogeneous sectors. It has to be stressed however that this division is incidental and not intrinsic to the nature of the work; it would be wrong, indeed disastrous, for the whole programme, to try and treat them as separate domains. d) Office Systems that can be viewed as an archetype of the whole service sector. Furthermore, they require a very wide spectrum of technologies and represent possibly the best test-bed for the outcome of R & D in the three key technological areas above. e) Computer integrated manufacturing that has a major strategic importance for the whole of the hard-pressed manufacturing sector in the Community[10]. In addition to this the nature of this application has many technological requirements that are complementary to those of office systems.
20. Mounting a "technology push" across the Community capable of achieving technical parity with, if not superiority over, our main competitors within the next 10 years represents an ambitious objective that will require for its achievement a joint effort drawing on all in the Community who can make an effective contribution to the R&D and to its exploitation: large and small industrial firms, research institutions, universities and individuals. Only in this way will it be possible to obtain a concentration of human and financial resources of a scale proportionate to the goals.
21. To this end ESPRIT is designed to be a programme through which: a) Funds will be made available to launch in the Community cooperative projects of precompetitive industrial R&D failing within agreed strategic technological lines. b) Systematic consultation will be promoted between Member States administrations, academic institutions, industry and the Community on the definition, appraisal and adjustment of R&D activities, with a view to achieving the best coordination of efforts and utilization of resources amongst all the actors in IT throughout the Community. [10] in particular the small batch manufacturers of discrete parts since 70% of goods manufactured in the Community are small series). c) Infrastructural and organizational facilities will be available to ensure careful selection, effective execution, proper monitoring and management and adequate dissemination of results of the actions.
22. In order to create the conditions for the gradual and effective build up and development of these activities, the ESPRIT programme is designed to span a period of 10 years. The first 5 year phase is now proposed. The main outlines of the R&D work, for this first phase in the areas indicated above, are given in the technical annex to the draft Council decision. In this framework a more specific programme of work, necessary for the day-to-day implementation of the programme, will be established, as a rule every year, and updated as required. This structure of programme will guarantee long-term perspective to the larger projects, flexibility to the smaller, and the possibility whenever required of timely adjustments in the light of results and technology evolution.
23. To this end it will be necessary to establish a close consultation between the Commission and the Member States as well as continuous monitoring of the sector to provide early identification of technology objectives and trends; the organisation of the administrative infrastructure to ensure the updating of the operational work programme and its matching to real needs; objective and accurate appraisal of work; contract administration; coordination of the various projects, and the dissemination of results.
24. These activities will be carried out by the Commission with the advice of the Management and Consultative Committee (MCC) established by Council decision and whose members will be nominated by the Commission in agreement with the Member States governments. The composition and main tasks of such Management and Coordination Committee are spelt out in the draft Council decision establishing such Committees that is the subject of a recent proposal of the Commission[11].
25. The definition and verification of the strategic technical objectives will be based on industrial inputs taking into account wider national and Community interests and will be supported by systematic analysis of the sectors. As for the projects for which a financial contribution is to be provided industrial R&D is acknowledged to rest essentially on two broad classes of projects[12]: a) Projects that require large infrastructure and resources, both human and financial, as well as clear and constant strategic perspective to ensure continuity of actions and the breadth necessary to reap the long-term benefits. Such medium to long term "system driven" R&D activities, that will be referred to in this document as type A projects, will represent the strategic backbone of ESPRIT. The share of the overall ESPRIT effort represented by this type of project will reflect the contribution of organisations involved in basic R&D in the information technologies in the Community. b) Projects that rely mainly on flexible infrastructure and on individual thinking rather than on a system approach, and require relatively much smaller resources. Such activities, that will be referred to as type B projects, could range from long term, very speculative R&D to relatively shorter term very specifically oriented R&D, and are expected to account for a significant share of the overall effort under ESPRIT. [11] COM 83 (143) of 16th March 1983, Communication from the Commission to the Council on Structures and Procedures for Common Policy in the field of Science and Technology. [12] The response to the call for proposal for the pilot phase with 195 proposals involving 638 submissioners, including very many small to medium IT companies as well as IT users, gave clear indications on the level of interest as well as on the size and quality of contributions that can be expected from industry, universities and other research institutions.
26. Given the different size and requirements of the projects involved, different considerations for their inclusion in the ESPRIT programme would appear to be required. a) For projects of strategic character (type A projects) the Commission proposes that the degree of financial contribution by the Community shall be 50% in form of a subsidy. The remaining 50% should normally be provided by the industry itself[13]. b) The smaller projects (type B) raise different issues, but in principle the Commission considers that whereas the norm should also be a 50% contribution by the Community, certain exceptions should nevertheless be provided for. For example: a) Where a request for industrial support comes from SME's, or others with very limited finance available, Community support beyond 50% may be considered. In such cases particular arrangements concerning the access to or the exploitation of the results are also envisaged. b) Where a research proposal is submitted by academic institutions which fail to secure an industrial partner or sponsor, if the Commission is satisfied that the technical features of the work are so outstanding that it should be supported despite the lack of industrial support, the proposal can be initially funded up to the level of 100%. However in this case a phased approach would be envisaged by which the project could be launched with the understanding that industry would take over a reasonable part of the financing after the project has achieved agreed milestones proving the validity of the chosen approach. [13] The degree of financial participation by industry is considered to be a test of the degree to which industry believes in the need for the work and will be one of the evaluation criteria. Whenever therefore there are direct financial interventions from national authorities, given the variation from country to country in the ways in which governments support industry, the Commission will examine the situation on a case by case basis bearing in mind the general principle.
27. In order to be eligible for aid, projects will have to be proposed by undertakings, including small and medium sized enterprises, universities and other bodies established and, as a rule, currently carrying out R&D work in the Community and will have to be carried out in the Community. Proposals will be submitted to the Commission in reply to an open invitation published in the Official Journal.
28. The following main criteria would as a rule be applied to the evaluation of all projects: - technical soundness - industrial strategy contribution in the light of ESPRIT objectives - Community dimension - technical and scientific, as well as managerial capability to carry out the proposed programme of work - measures envisaged and approach to accessibility and exploitation of results
29. Furthermore: a) For larger projects (type A) the participants of at least two companies not effective subsidiaries of each other and not established in the same Member State will be a mandatory requisite of eligibility. b) For the smaller projets (type B) such multinational participation, although not mandatory, shall be considered a major factor of preference all other things being equal.
30. The overall responsibility for the execution of the programme will rest with the Commission. Advice and consultation of the Member States will be provided by a Management and Consultative Committee (MMC) nominated by the Commission in agreement with the Member States governments.
31. In parallel with this formal advisory structure, the Commission will establish consultations with industry and where appropriate with academic and research institutions. It will organize them in such a way that large and small IT firms as well as users and academic and research institutions will have the opportunity of expressing their views and suggestions to the Commission on all major matters related to the content, structure and execution of the programme. To this end the Commission has the intention of setting up appropriate Industrial as well as Scientific Advisory Boards.
32. A primary justification for ESPRIT is in the synergetic effect that it will have through focussing a "critical mass" of research efforts on selected key strategic technological objectives. To meet this requirement adequate dissemination of information on work that is being planned or under way as well as on its possible results and their exploitation is going to be of fundamental importance. This will take into account the different kinds of information, the various groups to be served and their vested interests.
33. Apart from technical solutions designed for the main participants in research (like workshops for particular research topic, secondment of researchers etc.), a wider clearing house infrastructure is going to be established by which systematic information on work in progress, and information on the results that will have to be notified by the contractors to the Commission, would be collected and made available to an appropriate extent e.g. through special conferences or over the Information Exchange System that will be set up to serve the needs of all participants in ESPRIT.
34. As for access to and exploitation of results, the general guideline are, in principle, the same that apply to other projects financed by the Community i.e. that ownership and the right to exploit any information and industrial property rights resulting from the work under any contract (foreground information) will normally reside with the contractors.
35. A number of principles must furthermore be obeyed: - For cooperation to be meaningful arrangements between contractors must ensure that each participant in the same project, for the whole duration of the project and for the purpose of fulfilling its share of the work, has guaranteed and privileged access to the results of the work done by the others. - For the expected overall synergetic effect to take place, access for a project team to foreground knowledge generated by another team working on a different project within the ESPRIT framework shall also be arranged under privileged conditions in as far as such information enables better or quicker results to be obtained from the project which needs it. - To promote improved competitiveness in the Community, companies in the Community which did not participate in a specific project but which have the ability to use its results and wish to do so, should have the opportunity to acquire the rights. The terms should be negotiated on a commercial basis taking into account the contributions of the originating parties as well as those of the Community.
36. The size of the overall programme is the function of the strategic impact that this is designed to achieve. Such an impact can be broadly measured in terms of market and actual current level of expenditure. The total amount of industrial investment in research and development on IT in the Community can be estimated at some 5 bn ECU/year: of this a negligible fraction is spent in Europe on long term precompetitive R&D activities as compared with the 5 to 10% of our main competitors.
37. To be meaningful and stimulate the new strategic thinking that must underly the definition and execution of the R&D programme, a Community intervention would have to stimulate a joint long term effort in precompetitive R&D of the same order of magnitude (i.e. of at least 5 to 10% of the current overall industrial effort). The conclusions that were reached after consulting with industry, governments and academia, taking into account the physical limitation of a realistic and gradual build-up of capacity, indicated that an initial effort of precompetitive long term R&D reaching some 2000 man-years/year from the third year onwards could confidently and effectively be aimed at. The enclosed table 1 illustrates how resources for activities started during the first phase will build up during the first 5 years (1984/88) and tail off during the subsequent years. When the second phase of the programme will be planned a similar pattern of distribution of resources is expected for years 89/93 that will maintain at least for the first 3 to 4 years of the second phase (or possibly slightly increase in real terms) the yearly deployment of resources.
38. The conversion of these figures into budget estimates, according to current industry practice, leads to an estimated overall investment for the first five year phase of some ECUS 1500 Million. This would broadly correspond to 6% of the total industrial R&D investment in IT in the Community; very much in line with that of our main competitors and well within our possibilities. On the basis of an average 50% contribution the budgetary load for the Community would be of 750 MECUS, including the costs of the management of the programme and access to and use of the Information Exchange System.
Adopting a programme of Community research and development projects in the field of information technologies : ESPRIT.
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES.
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in praticular Article 235 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament,[1]
Having regard to the Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,[2]
Whereas the Community has as its task, by establishing a common market and progressively approximating the economic policies of Member States, to provide throughout the Community a harmonious development of economic activity and closer relations between the States belonging to it,
Whereas the Council adopted a Resolution[3] on Data Processing on 15th July 1974,
Whereas the Heads of State and of Government, meeting in Strasbourg on 21 and 22 June 1979, declared that the dynamic complex of information industries, based on the new electronic technologies, offered a major source of economic growth and social development,
Whereas the Commission has proposed to the Council in its communication COM(82)865 a strategy in the domain of science and technology and a framework programme for the period 1984/87, [1] [2] [3] O.J. No C 86, 20.7.1974, p. 1
Whereas the proposed framework programme calls for an action programme of research and development in information technology,
Whereas the Council has adopted, by Decision 82/878/EEC,[4] a series of pilot projects in the field of information technology,
Whereas the response of industry, universities and research institutions to the pilot projects phase has been of very high quality and shows a high degree of interest and it would be necessary to provide adequate resources to assure continuity to the actions about to be launched, and to proceed to the implementation of a full scale action programme,
Whereas a full scale programme of research and development in information technology should have the broad goals indicated in the annex hereto, but be capable of revision at various levels of detail to reflect changing industrial priorities,
Whereas adequate dissemination of and access to results of projects of Community interest is essential to the pursuit of the aims of the Community,
Whereas it is necessary for the execution of the programme that the Commission be assisted by a Management and Consultative Committee,
Whereas the importance of the action may require an extension of the programme adopted by this Decision,
Whereas the Treaty does not provide the necessary powers,
HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:
1. A programme of research and development for the European Economic Community in the field of information technologies, as defined in Section A of the Annex, hereinafter referred to as 'the programme', is hereby adopted for a period of five years, as from 1st January 1984. [4] O.J. No L 369, 29.12.1982, p. 37
2. The programme shall comprise projects carried out by means of contracts, to be concluded with undertakings, including small and medium sized enterprises, universities and other bodies established in the Community, and the coordination of research and development activities carried out under the programmes of the Member States and of the Community.
3. In principle the Contractors will be expected to bear a substantial proportion of the costs which will normally be shared 50% by the Contractors and 50% by the Community.
The Community shall contribute to the performance of the programme within the limits of the appropriations entered to this end in the budget of the European Communities.
The overall amount of the appropriations representing the Community's contribution to the performance of the programme is estimated at 750 million ECU, including the staff required estimated at 83 A staff, 17 B staff and 50 C staff as indicated in Section B of the Annex.
The Commission shall see that the programme is properly performed. In particular, it shall decide upon implementing procedures for the programme, on the definition of the detailed objectives and on the type of projects to be undertaken. It shall establish each year and update as required a working programme.
The Commission shall be assisted in the accomplishment of the tasks referred to in Article 3 by the Management and Consultative Committee in the field of information technologies, created by Council Decision / /.[5]
With regard to coordination activities, the Member States and the Community shall exchange all appropriate information to which they have access and which they are free to disclose concerning R.&.D activities in the domains covered by this Decision, whether or not planned or carried out under their authority.
Information shall be exchanged in accordance with a procedure to be defined by the Commission after consulting the Committee referred to in Article 4, and shall be treated as confidential whenever requested by the supplier.
1. The programme shall be reviewed after 30 months. The Council and the European Parliament shall be informed of the results of this review.
2. The programme may be extended for a second period of five years, following a proposal by the Commission to be transmitted to the Council in conformity with the appropriate procedures.
3. At the end of each five-year period of the programme, the Commission, after consulting the Committee referred to in Article 4, shall send the Member States and the European Parliament a report on the performance and results of the programme. [5] See draft Council Decision COM(83)143.
Done at Brussels for the Council
The programme contains areas of R&D activity and infrastructure actions.
The areas of R&D activities are:
The main objective is to provide the technological capability to design, manufacture and test very high speed and very large scale integrated circuits (ICs), that will be needed in the next two decades. A concurrent objective is to stimulate R&D on novel materials and devices for special applications. The activities to be pursued include: - Computer aided design, manufacture and test for Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits (VLSIC), - silicon IC process steps to 1 micron feature size, - integration of process steps, leading towards computer controlled VLSI fabrication, - process steps for submicron feature sizes in silicon and other semiconductor materials, - techniques for interfacing ICs to their environment, - research into optical information processing and transmission, notably integrated optoelectronics, optical switching and storage. - novel information and image presentation display technologies, - novel organic and inorganic materials for electronics & optical technologies.
Software technology aims at providing the sound engineering practices, the methods and tools that are needed in the software development process, the management principles for information technology as well as the scientific knowledge underlying them, and aims to integrate them into a consistent technology. It is founded on mathematics, economics and traditional engineering practices. A combination of three complementary research approaches will be addressed. The first approach stresses the scientific foundations and covers such areas as formal mathematical techniques, taxonomy and metrics, including empirical techniques and modelling. This approach to software development aims at a better scientific understanding and is predominantly theoretical research work. The second approach focusses on the software production process. It considers software development as an industrial activity in which large groups of (professional and specialized) software engineers create complex software systems, supported in operation - in many versions and variants - for large markets and over a long period of time. Work in this area relates to all parts of the software life cycle and addresses activities like requirements analysis, specification, design, implementation, verification and validation, maintenance and enhancement; of particular importance will be the full integration of methods and tools and the phase-to-phase continuity. Main R&D activity in this area concentrates on methods and tools and on their integration into complete systems for software production. The aim is the mastery of the technical production process of software goods. The third approach is concerned with software development process as an economic activity in its own right. It focusses on software as a product, investigating the mutual dependencies between commercial goals of an enterprise and the technical characteristics and performance requirements of the software product. It addresses also the problem of producing application-specific software, and the way in which the knowledge about the application domain may influence the tools and methods for software development. The aim of this approach is to provide the techniques and criteria for organizing, managing and optimizing all parts of software application engineering and production process. This entails R&D in : - Theories and methods for programme development, - Methods and tools in software engineering, - Economic and industrial software production.
The objective is to set the basis of industrial exploitation of the transition from data processing to knowledge processing systems that is the key to the next computer generation. Important objectives on this road include the provision of more user-friendly interfaces to non-expert users, and the exploitation of VLSI for a major increase in information processing power. The main thrust of R&D will be in the following topics: - information and knowledge engineering, including expert systems, - pattern recognition techniques and their application to interfaces with the environment, particularly intercommunication between human and machine, - information and knowledge storage, including novel hardware technologies and advanced software techniques, - computer architecture, particularly for parallel processing, leading to novel processing machines of advances capability, - design objectives and methods, of embedding trustworthy AIP concepts into VLSI circuits.
The objective is to carry out systems research on the information systems that will support the wide range of non-routine tasks performed by humans in the office environment. The activities to be pursued include: - Office Systems science, as prerequisite and support to the structural and functional analysis and description of office procedures, definition of standards and the design of adapted office products and systems; - Office Work-Stations, document description languages, document creation and distribution man/machine interfaces; - Office Communication Systems including local area networks and their interconnection, integrated interactive text-voice-image-video communication and value-added functions; - Office Filing and Retrieval Systems with emphasis on ease of access to and retrieval of "Knowledge", content- and structure-addressable data bases, office document languages; - Human Factors, encompassing all aspects of the interactions between man and information handling systems.
The objective is to establish the technology base for progressive introduction of computer aids in all phases of the manufacturing process leading ultimately to integrated manufacturing. The main emphasis is placed on manufacturing elements as they are needed for discrete batch manufacturing, as this is technologically the most demanding problem. The main thrust of the R&D will concentrate on: - integrated system architecture for CIM systems, including database management systems and incorporation of AIP (Advanced Information Processing) concepts. - computer aided design and engineering (CAD and CAE) systems of modular structure, - modular computer aided manufacture, test and repair systems and their integration with CAD, CAE, - software and operating systems, including command languages for generation of control programmes (starting from design, production or test simulation data) for automated assembly, for robot operations, or for computer numerically controlled machine-tools, - imaging and control systems for the real-time capture and processing of 3D images and for generating appropriate responses, incorporating AIP techniques, - VLSI design and fabrication for CIM subsystems, sensors, etc., - demonstration models of CIM subsystems leading to complete CIM demonstrators for experiments in real life situations.
The infrastructure actions consist of a number of specific measures aimed at establishing the conditions required for successful execution of cooperative R&D on a Community level and for drawing the maximum benefit from ESPRIT as a whole. These infrastructure activities include in particular: - Coordination of Community and Member States' research and development programmes, acquisition of information, both within ESPRIT and from the world at large, and its appropriate dissemination, - coordination and documentation of standards within ESPRIT and their relationship with national and international standards, - an Information Exchange System (IES) to ensure ease of communication to serve the good technical execution of R&D projects as well as their management and the appropriate dissemination of their results. Progressive implementation and upgrading would have to enable direct computer communication and distributed software development.
SECTION I: - BACKGROUND ........................... page 2 SECTION II: - ESPRIT SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES ........... page 13 SECTION III: - PROPOSED ACTIONS ..................... page 48
Purpose of present Communication
1. In 1982 three Communications were sent to the Council* which: a) analysed the importance of Information Technology (I.T.) and introduced ESPRIT; b) outlined the concept of a pilot phase for ESPRIT and provided the main lines of an overall programme; c) and provided a basis for a Decision on Pilot Projects.
2. The Ministers of Research, meeting in June 1982, welcomed the concept of ESPRIT and at their meeting in November 1982 approved the principle of a pilot phase. A decision was adopted by the Council on 21st December 1982 to fund the pilot phase to a level of 11.5 MECU, representing 50 % of the first year costs.
3. The level and quality of the response to the call fer proposals for pilot phase and the support received from industry, are clear indication that the definition and implementation of a full-scale programme is now required.
4. The purpose of the present document is to provide the basis for a Council Decision for such an overall programme in which the pilot projects will be incorporated. *COM 287 : Towards a European strategic programme for Research and Development in Information Technologies COM 486 : laying the foundations for a European strategic programme of research and development in information technology: the pilot phase COM 737 : proposal for a Council Decision on a preparatory phase for a Community research and development programme in the field of information technologies.
5. Europe's rise to historical and world importance has throughout been closely associated with its scientific and technological achievements. Although not without problems, technological advance represents an essential ingredient of further development of human societies; future progress will largely depend on the timely acquisition of new technologies and their appropriate and skillful use.
6. The new technologies of information (IT) will be one of the dominant sources of technological advance for the rest of the century. They offer an answer to many pressing problems of today and the chance of industrial renaissance in Europe by qualitative growth creating new products, processes and services and thereby new expert opportunities and employment.
7. For Europe's high value added economies IT is of vital importance, and indigenous capabilities will have to be acquired in key-areas in order to be capable to compete, and also to cooperate with the USA and Japan on equal terms.
8. European industry however is no longer leading technological development and innovation as it once did, and world conditions make it increasingly difficult to maintain economic and industrial strength in the face of the rising cost of energy and raw materials together with mounting international competition.
9. Given Europe's dependence on imports, the strength of its industry in providing export goods, and all related factors are therefore central policy issues.
10. Information Technology is highly R&D intensive and technology becomes quickly obsolete. This means that R&D investment is so high that a selective approach is inevitable.
11. The realisation of economic growth and of the potential benefits of IT have important Community dimensions. This applies specifically to a more efficient use of scarce technology assets and resources for medium to long-term R&D in IT.
12. Although the Community's efforts in this field are considerable they need to be significantly increased in key areas as well as made more effective.
13. The mobilization of Community technology potential in this field will depend on the collective commitment of governments, industry, research institutes, universities, trade unions and the general public, towards the goal of providing industry with the technological assets needed for long-term viability and strength.
14. Information Technology is perhaps the fastest developing area of industrial and business activity in the Western World. Its markets are large, its applications varied and pervasive, and its potential for increasing efficiency immense. IT will be the driving force of economic growth for at least the rest of the century, and is therefore a major factor in economic affairs.
15. Information Technology is an apopropriate industry for Europe's comparatively high-labour-cost economy. It can contribute to improved operational performance and lower costs in several other industries. Information Technology has high value-added and a large export potential. Furthermore it is knowledge-intensive, consumes little energy, has limited raw material requirements, and poses no known environmental problems.
16. IT is already a major industry in its own right, comparable in size[1] and value added to the automobile and steel industries. However, it differs from these mature industries by offering broadly based opportunities for growth. Its overall growth rate - including more mature products such as telegraphic and non-digital telephone equipment - is expected to be 8-10 percent per year in real terms. The size of the Community IT market is about 30% of the world market, although the performance of Community-based IT companies is disappointing and their presence in leading markets negligible.
17. Some 6% of the Community's GDP is produced by the IT core-industries, i.e. Computers including Peripherals Computer Services including Software Components and by a further 29% the industries which apply IT in a major way including: Telecommunications Office Automation Factory Automation Consumer Products Defence Applications Financial and insurance services
18. Another 20% of GDP is derived from other industrial sectors with a high information content such as services and retailing, and those which increasingly use computer aids in design, manufacturing, quality control, distribution and maintenance, such as automobiles and textiles. [1] $ 237 billion 1980 annual sales worldwide.
19. The remainder of the economy is also significantly affected in its performance by IT although not so directly. For example even agriculture can greatly benefit from satellite observation followed by computer analysis of the data, to optimise crop production. Considering the size of the agricultural sector, even a small effect is of great economic importance.
20. Telecommunications, Office Automation and Factory Automation play a particularly important role since these IT-applications provide a crucial infrastructure for the whole economy.
21. As a manufacturing sector the IT industry has been one of the fastest growing industries world-wide in the last decade, a decade which has seen general recession otherwise. Growth is expected to continue at about 8% - 10% overall until 1990 by which date, with a total turnover of some $ 500 billion (at 1980 prices), IT will then be the world's largest manufacturing sector.
22. Information occupations[2] are becoming the single most important part of employment. The U.S. Bureau of statistics estimated that in 1980 nearly 50% of the employed civil workforce were in "Information", which included not only manufacturing but all occupations concerned with information. European figures are similar. IT manufacturing alone employs 5% of the total Community work force i.e. about 5 million persons.
23. Four million jobs may depend on IT-related performance in the Community. If the market in the Community for It products had developed at the same rate as that in the USA and Japan, supplying this additional demand could have provided perhaps 2,000,000 more jobs. A similar number of jobs are at risk in the future if Community industry does not improve its competitiveness by applying IT as effectively as is being done by its competitors world-wide. [2] This includes activities like TV broadcasting and the press that, although not encompassed by the term "Information technology", are heavily dependent on it.
24. Information Technology is inextricably associated with social and cultural progress. 5000 Years ago the first major innovation in IT was made, by recording information by means of symbols. Since then, the transition to alphabetic writing, printing and recently computer editing are major milestones.
25. Information Technology has so far been mostly concerned with the perfection of comparatively simple high speed information processing, for example, calculations and printing. However even simple cognitive processet such as recognizing a voice are still very difficult with present techniques.
26. With the forseeable advances in IT, fairly advanced forms of machine intelligence are for example no longer out of reach and it is quite evident that this will introduce as important socio-cultural and political changes as have other major innovations of this century.
27. The opportunities for social and cultural evolution are enormous as IT removes social and educational barriers which have their origin in access to information and knowledge. Evidently this entails, as does any new product, risks which need to be carefully considered and may require cautious evaluation and choice.
28. The evolution of IT is happening throughout the world and offers opportunities to all societies to maintain and develop their cultural identity. Developing countries can with the help of Direct Satellite Broadcasting educate and inform their population. Community Member States will find it easier to use each others' languages as well as their own as machine translation advances. Education and training will be made more efficient and cheaper.
29. Success in the long-term will be determined by the skill of nations and regions in grasping the opportunities whilst controlling the risks. For this to be achieved, speeding up the advance of IT is necessary but not sufficient. Education and training, the questions of the changing nature of work, privacy and cross-border data exchange and many other important issues need to be considered. The Commission Services have already addressed several of these issues, proposed actions and implemented measures.
30. The Community is becoming rapidly dependent on IT imports. In 1975 it still had a trade surplus in IT products. By 1980 the trade deficit had reached $ 5 billion, and according to certain sources, the $ 10 billion mark was passed in 1982.
31. The problem of the trade deficit is compounded by the fact that Community imports are primarily high technology products - such as central processing units and computer memories - from the United States and Japan, while its exports are the more mature, lower technology products.
32. The Community IT-market is lagging behind the US and Japanese markets by several years. This is shown by the per capita sales of IT-products in the Community being only 60% that of the USA.
33. The Community IT -industry is relying increasingly on importing technology or on licensed manufacturing, distribution and maintenance for its profits. This is reflected in an important product and technology lag.
34. Because the rate of introduction of new generations of technology has been so rapid, and each generation has made such improvements in productivity, it has been estimated that the average life of high technology IT products is only 3 years. Products such as microprocessors and other key components, products and services throughout the economy are simply not competitive on the international market unless they incorporate the latest advances.
35. At the same time, the threshold investment in R & D for enabling technologies continues to increase demanding larger and larger markets for an economically viable return on investment. Digital exchanges have required R & D investment of about $ 1 billion. To amortize this investment, $ 14 billion in sales are necessary, which exceeds the size of any one market of a Member State as projected for the next decade, a market for which there are many competitors.
36. Similar constraints apply in varying degree to many IT sectors, and in particular to the enabling technologies required to develop leading edge products and services.
37. European companies, in some cases stimulated by government action, have already taken up the challenge posed by the subject and the increasing strength shown by US and Japanese firms. There is evidence that the level and scale of resources committed in Community countries to R&D are too small to be effective and often not adequately focussed towards internationally competitive innovation.
38. In particular long lead-time R&D subjects are neglected in favour of short term R&D. Short term R&D serves well for catching up but is not able to establish a leading position in specific sectors.
39. The present way of managing technology assets and resources in the Community does not seem to be sustaining indigenous industry in this field, and what is even more worrying, may not perform the vital role of developing the technology base for the innovations of the 80's and 90's when the competition between industrialized regions for export opportunities to pay for energy and raw material is likely to be fierce.
40. The centre-piece of mid- to long-term strengthening of the community IT industry is research and development. In this area the community has resources which are adequate to compete with the USA and Japan, but the way these are at present managed makes them not effective enough. Strategic long-term planning and the concentration of resources through the definition and funding of technology goals on a Community scale, has a good chance of redressing the situation gradually but in a lasting manner.
41. The Commission shares the views of industry that present efforts in R&D must be made more effective and at the same time significantly increased over a prolonged period.
42. The current rate of decline is fast and is accelerating. There is therefore a need to begin taking effective action as soon as possible.
43. Extensive concertation with the leading IT companies, SME's academia and Member States' Administrations has resulted in the definition of the long lead-time R&D programme called ESPRIT: the European Strategic Programme for R&D in Information Technologies.
44. The main drive for ESPRIT has come from industry. In order to reverse the trend of increasing reliance on importing technology, a joint programme of R&D has been proposed by industry whose goals are to: - reduce duplication of pre-competitive R&D, - ensure that research teams achieve critical size and sufficient stability over time to be able to focus on key areas and achieve results, - reduce the timelag effect caused by reliance on imported technology.
45. Industry has made clear its willingness to put up half of the necessary funds, and even more important, to share its most precious technical manpower resources - this is particularly true for those companies who have major facilities and will participate in an integrated way in large-scale strategic projects.
46. The reasons for industry to approach the Community for the remainder of the funds, and the interest for the Community in providing them, is that: 1) by working together on the enabling technologies, the foundations for common standards and the creation of a Community IT-market can be achieved. Progress on this can only take place on the broad front which the Community offers; 2) there is a need to avoid wasteful duplication of national efforts (*see footnote).
47. The natural starting point for Community industry to begin to redress the balance is with improving the technology base for the late 80's and 90's by pre-competitive generic R&D. * For example several Member States are working in "the Office of the Future" without profiting from each other. Any products resulting might be optimised for a national market but are unlikely to benefit from the size of the Community markets. Given that such a project is concerned with clarification of procedures and concepts, and identifying standards for interfaces and communications, the Community dimension enhances the chances of other countries adopting European standards.
48. The reasons for choosing an R&D programme are: 1) It can be started immediately: 2) New technolog is vital for competitiveness; 3) Industry can collaborate on pre-competitive research without impeding its ability to compete for markets.
49. ESPRIT will have the appropriate scale and thrust to make a major impact on the availability of advanced know-how in information technologies. It will re-inforce the efforts of industry and academia on a selective basis in relation to strategic technology where the Community approach offers important advantages. This will provide technology push. Research and development is however, not the only aspect which offers important advantages of Community scale. Education and training, technology transfer, standards and certification, creation of leading-edge markets, improvement of the business environment for small and medium sized companies and other aspects, offers opportunities for a selective Community approach to improve the market environment. (** see footnote). In addition to these infrastructure measures, there are solid economic arguments which indicate that a Community approach should be urgently applied to several IT-sectors. This is true in particular of Telecommunications, but also of other sectors which have a major IT component.
50. Section II of this document will explain the content and thrust of ESPRIT in the light of its contribution to industrial performance. ** The Community has already launched several actions in IT which address specific aspects complementary to ESPRIT: - Pluriannual programme for data processing, including measures to facilitate the introduction of IT; - INSIS/CADDIA, fostering the introduction of IT in Community Institutions and Member State Administrations; - MICROELECTRONICS Programme, supporting the advance in specific design and IT manufacturing techniques.
1. The overall strategic goal of the ESPRIT programme is to provide the European IT industry with the technology base which it need to become and stay competitive with the U.S. and Japan within the next decade.
2. Because of the rapid growth in the demand for information and communication in all walks of life IT is crucial to the entire economic tissue. Very soon close to 70 % of the economy will be affected, in one way or another by computers or other IT products.
3. Over the last two or three decades technology has enormously developed the potential to provide improved forms of communication. This technological push is still with us and is still full of vigour. One can identify in this process a number of broad trends, amongst which are: - a continuing decrease in the size, power consumption and cost of electronic equipment, coupled with an enormous increase in its functional power and reliability; - increasing physical distribution of information processing functions, allowing remote access and cooperative operation through wideband communication links; - the build-up of information data bases in electronic form, available to a wider and wider audience in industry, service and home; - increasing levels of interaction between man and machine across the input/output interface.
4. Extrapolating these trends, the 1990s will see previously separate information systems and services merging with each other through wide area and local networks. Public networks (such as Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN)), will distribute data over wideband links, including satellites, and reach into the home, the office and the factory via digital subscriber links. Local area networks will connect into wide area networks through gateways.
5. People will interface with these networks through terminals or workstations, gaining access to an enormous range of services for business, education, entertainment and person-to-person communication.
6. During the 1990s and beyond, all information systems will exhibit more and more characteristics of machine intelligence. This will be apparent in the adaptable behaviour of machines - in the ability to handle knowledge rather than data; to understand speech; to accept printed or written texts and graphics; above all, to be much more responsive and helpful to the humans who wish to use the information systems. Machines built for purposes such as transportation, industrial activities, defence and medicine, will possess much more sophisticated capabilities and behaviour. They will be increasingly alert to their environment and able to adapt their operations according to changes of circumstances.
7. In short, there will be a progressively tighter interaction between man and machines at all levels and in all sectors of economy and society. There are two obvious implications in these facts and trends: - one is that more and more people will have to learn how to use this technology; - the other is that the products of the technology will have to become easier and easier to use, and better integrated into the entire pattern of our daily lives both at work and at home. The first implication has far reaching consequences for education and training, but is outside the scope of the present communication. The second one provides the clue to the challenges that the technology must master in the next ten years.
8. Let us analyse this in more detail. Moving closer to the user implies that the level of the "man-machine interface" must be raised. Computers and other IT systems capable of communicating with the user in a variety of more "natural" ways than presently possible must include the capability of understanding natural language, speech and handwritten material, although probably still with some limitations. Communication will become more interactive, where the user will explore with the system the various ways in which it can help him to do his job, perform his task, solve his problem or provide him with the relevant information he needs. The pattern of man-machine communication will increasingly move away from detailed, specific commands for performing minute operations to descriptions of larger units of work to be done, leaving the system to figure out the detailed sequence of instructions it needs to carry out the task. As the system becomes more "intelligent" and undertakes to perform more ambitious or less specific tasks, it may in fact discover ambiguities or contradictions in the desires of the user and need to carry out a clarifying dialogue with the user to resolve them. At the same time the system will need to understand more about what it is doing in order to explain to the user why it arrived at a certain result, and how to proceed further in case the result is not satisfactory to the user.
9. There are three other important requirements. One is that users must be able to access conveniently all of the relevant sources of information which they need to solve the particular problem at hand, at the time they need it, and regardless of where it is physically located. This by no means implies centralized processing or centralized data bases. On the contrary it establishes the requirement for interconnected local and wide area networks and all possible forms of distributed processing. It should be emphasized that, in order for this interconnection of all IT services to be at all possible, it is mandatory that standards be established for their interfaces. A second requirement is system reliability. As everybody becomes dependent on them to carry out more and more tasks, these systems must increase their reliability in a major way. System malfunctions should not cause an entire factory or economic unit to stop operations. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that more people will be using these systems, and that these people will be less and less sophisticated professionals, therefore more likely to misuse the systems or to try to use them in ways which were not foreseen by the systems designer. At the same time making the system easier to use also makes it more complex internally, thereby again increasing the likelihood of hardware or software errors or malfunctions. Furthermore, the need for systems to interface with a larger number of systems and facilities again increases their internal complexity, with the same effect on reliability. A third requirement, is improved security. As more information becomes available to more people, and as the number of interconnections grows dramatically, protection of that information must be considerably strengthened.
10. Each of the key factors discussed above (higher level of interfaces, more intelligent processing, interactivity, interconnection, reliability and security) presents major technological challenges to overcome(*1). Taken together they represent a formidable challenge which ESPRIT plans to attack. (*1) A concrete example will help to clarify the size of such challenges: let us take a high level interface capable of understanding and synthetising human voice. (cont. on next page)
11. All of the above factors require considerable progress in sophisticated software systems. This increased software complexity, coupled with the interactivity and reliability, requirements, in turn implies considerable increase in processing power. This can only be achieved through major advances in components (microelectronics) and systems architecture (the combination of hardware and software into systems). (*1 cont.) A practical implementation of such a machine would have to rely on efforts cutting across a wide spectrum of scientific disciplines such as mathematics, computer science, semiconductor technology, theory of information and linguistics. It would require the development and verification of special algorithms for pattern recognition, a suitably tailored process architecture capable of high speed, high accuracy analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, and ultra high speed computing power. If we imagine addressing the problem of real time recognition (0.5 second maximum response time) of just a limited vocabulary of works through the development of a special integrated circuit, the minimum circuit performance requirement to achieve this would be gate delays of not more than 100 pico-second and a density of some 50,000 components/chip. If we address the problem of continuous speech recognition in terms of a typical data processing measuring unit, this would require a processing power equivalent to 1000 Million Instructions Per Second (MIPS). To manfuacture a chip with the above characteristics we would need to master 1 micron minimum feature bipolar process in production, as compared with 2 to 3 micron of today. This would in turn require a full spectrum of technological improvements (shallower emitter base structures, thin (0.5 micron) epitaxy techniques, purer materials etc.). To obtain data processing speeds of the order required for continuous speech recognition, starting from the 30/50 MIPS that can be achieved today, not only such circuit density and speed improvements as mentioned above will have to be reached but a completely new approach to computer architecture is required. This is why ESPRIT places particular emphasis on these areas. In addition, the two areas where IT will have the greatest impact on economic life - the office and the factory - have been selected as the two basic application areas and technology test-beds on which to concentrate. These heavily interrelated[2] areas are considered in more detail below.
12. The three of them address the key technologies that are at the very core of IT and provide the capability to address any IT system requirements: - Advanced microelectronics is the technology which provides the physical structure for any information system. It implies a capability to design, manufacture and test VLSI devices in silicon and other semi-conductor materials. It also embraces research into optoelectronics, optical digital processing systems and display systems. - Software technology addresses the medium that controls the behaviour of any IT system and aims to integrate into a consistent technology the scientific understanding, sound engineering practices, methods, tools and management techniques that are needed for its development, production and maintenance. - Advanced information processing refers to the architectural combination of hardware and software required to bring about the qualitative leap forward from today's data processing to the knowledge processing concept that is the key to the next computer generation. It will provide, inter alia, the basis for the development of systems for high speed real-time signal processing (e.g. for speech input), of expert systems[3] and of knowledge-based information systems generally. [2] For the purpose of presentation and discussion it appears more practical to group the various activities identified into reasonably homogeneous sectors. It has to be stressed however that this division is incidental and not intrinsic to the nature of the work. It would be wrong, if not disastrous, for the whole programme, to try and treat them as separate domains. Fig. 1 at the end of this Section II graphically illustrates the interrelationship between R & D domains and the main application areas in IT. This sub-programme is central to the long-term theme of machine intelligence, perhaps the most potent concept underlying information systems of the future. The mastery of these three technologies is the key to any application, and is a major factor in the competitiviness of the IT industry.
13. The two additional areas proposed are selected because of their growth potential and impact on other large industry sectors and on the width of the technology spectrum underpinning their development. - Office systems are a significant and fast-growing IT application area in themselves, and have a major strategic importance for the efficiency of business and commerce throughout the Community; they require advances across the widest spectrum of technologies and represent therefore the best test-bed for the outcome of R & D in the three key technological areas above. Furthermore, developments in office systems will have a direct read-across to the whole service sector and to the field of home automation. - Computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) has major strategic importance for the whole of the hard-pressed manufacturing sector in the Community, in particular the small batch manufacturers of discrete parts (70% of goods manufactured in the Community are small series). [3] These are systems containing a database and associated software that enable a user to conduct an apparently intelligent dialogue with them in a user oriented language. CIM involves the complete integration of the manufacturing process through computers, sensors and automatic control systems at all levels and at all stages. As such, it is an excellent test-bed for R & D into man-machine and machine-machine intercommunication.
14. To ensure the acquisition by the European IT industry of a technological capability adequate for the goals pursued, a major R & D effort is needed at the same time in all sectors indicated; this will require a pooling of all available resources throughout the Community.
15. Industry must be the main actor and driving force of this exercise but it will have to be capable of relying, on the one hand, on the contributions of academia and, on the other hand, on the active participation of future users and the support of the public authorities at national as well as at Community level.
16. National programmes have played an important role in support of R & D in IT and related technological domains, but they also create dispersion of resources.
17. The first pole of action that ESPRIT proposes is to enhance their effectiveness and reduce these negative effects, through a systematic consultation of all parties interested, during the planning and the execution of such programmes, aimed at achieving selectivity of attack and improved overall efficiency.
18. Effective coordination however cannot take place in a vacuum without the cohesive action of a concrete objective of common interests which unites all participants and focusses their attention.
19. Hence the second pole of action of ESPRIT : the pursuit through concurrent and cooperative efforts of a number of very ambitious technological objectives that will be of benefit to the whole Community and that could not be achieved in the same time scale and to the same extent without a joint approach at Community level.
20. In order to identify and select the specific R & D domains meeting these requirements the services of the Commission have had resort to the contribution and advice of leading scientists and engineers from industry, university and research institutions from all over the Community. Some 200 such persons responded and contributed to this work over a period of almost one year ; the outcome of this activity, contained in several reports totalling more than 1.000 pages, is briefly outlined paras 26 to 37 below. Part A of the Annex to the draft Decision spells out the main boundaries and objectives of the proposed work.
21. In analyzing and selecting concerted and cooperative R & D actions to be undertaken by companies that are competing with each other in the marketplace care has been taken to ensure that these were sufficiently upstream of the product (i.e. of precompetitive nature) whilst not too far away from potential application to lose contact with the projected needs of industry and socity (i.e. of "enabling" character).
22. Discussions on the content of joint cooperative research work led furthermore to the analysis of the conditions that would make such work possible. It would in theory have been conceivable to gather research teams in a few public or private laboratories and concentrate the bulk of the research work there. In spite of the objective difficulties in moving people from one country to another, this is expected to some extent to take place spontaneously for smaller projects requiring little infrastructure. It would certainly not be possible for projects involving two or more of the larger community organizations and their research infrastructures.
23. Technology however offers the possibility of overcoming the effect of geographical separation, making it possible for Research and Development teams and individuals working in collaboration with each other on the same or in related projects, but in laboratories and installations in different countries, to liaise with each other and with those responsible for the overall coordination and management of the programme.
24. Amongst the proposed actions has therefore been included the establishment of an adequate infrastructure ensuring the availabiliy of such an information exchange system, to be progressively set up to serve the needs of all involved in ESPRIT.
25. The process of selection outlined in the preceeding chapters was applied at various levels down to the identification of the detailed objectives of research work within the key strategic areas.
26. It is however worth recalling here, before presenting an outline of the proposed research work, that the closer we get to the details of work the shorter becomes the validity of the forecast. In other words whereas are no doubt about the strategic importance for the next 10 years of the five broad areas identified and of the size of the overall effort necessary to catch up with the competition, the detailed R & D objectives have a much shorter expected validity and reliability. Throughout the execution of the actual ESPRIT R & D work programme, a continuous monitoring and feed-back of the results achieved both in the Community and elsewhere in the world is necessary and this process may lead to the need for major adjustments from time to time. This is foreseen by the management structure of the programme.
27. In the light of the above it is possible to propose the following main research work :
27.1.1 The requirements for microelectronic subsystems for application in IT all demand advances in current performance either in speed of operation or low power consumption or lower cost. An important factor to meet these requirements is to increase the functional density of integrated circuits in silicon, the material on which the majority of integrated circuits will continue to be based for the foreseeable future. Scaling down from present state of the art 3 micron feature production processes to processes based on 1 micron dimension, with corresponding improvements in interconnection technology, will give a speed increase of 10 times, a power consumption reduction of 10 times, and an improvement by a factor of 8 in packing density. The packing density improvement will result in production cost reductions of the same order, while the speed and power consumption will provide faster and cheaper system performance.
27.1.2 To achieve the goals R & D projects will be aimed at achieving the following technological objectives : - 1 micron to 0.5 micron bipolar, MOS and mixed MOS/bipolar technologies - packaging and interconnection techniques for VLSI circuits capable of handling up to 5 watts power, with up to 250 K gates and 400 pins outs per chip unit, and of transfering signals with no more than 0.1 nano-second gate delay. - improved material quality - interface technology suitable for combining high voltage and/or high power with high speed data processing capability on the same physical substrate.
27.1.3 Progress towards the VLSI goal depends as much on the management of design complexity as on the development of silicon technology. Existing design tools are far from adequate to exploit the full potential of VLSI. The programme initiated by the Commission in Council Regulation 3744/81 has made a start which needs to be extended into a comprehensive computer aided design (CAD) system under ESPRIT.
27.1.4 Thus, included in this technology drive is a total initiative building on the regulation 3744/81 in the following areas : - Architecture : Data Structure, Interfaces, New Methods Verification - Testing : Test data generation, Testability design factors, Data Verification - Modelling : Numerical, Physical, Analytical, Table - Simulation : Device Level Simulation (forward/reverse), Timing, Functional Simulation - Languages : High Level Language Development, High Level to Low Level Interface, Database Communication upwards and downwards - Layout : Includes Database Standards, Modular Packaging, Libraries, User Friendliness, Placement, Routing, Tracking. CAD for complex VLSI will require the support of very powerful computing tools ; the production of these tools will depend on the development of a powerful disciplined software technology
27.1.5 Under the broad heading of microelectronics are also included non strictly silicon VLSI related technologies like optical signal processing technologies as well as research on new organic and inorganic materials.
27.1.6 One of the major requirements for the application of IT will be an adequate telecommunication infrastructure of broad band communication links capable of carrying integrated data, text, graphics and images. Public networks are already being developed to provide the service using optical fibres as the transmission medium. Other areas, such as local networks, offices and process control are about to adopt this technology. Research is required to achieve integrated opto-electronic circuits for modulation/demodulation and transmission/reception, together with optical couplers and switches as well as low loss fibers transmission media.
27.1.7 Integrated optoelectronics will require submicron geometry structure on new materials such as Gallium Arsenide and Indium Phosphide and their tertiary and quaternary alloys. These are of interest as well for very high speed logic circuits due to the greater mobility of electrons in the material. Research on such new materials will therefore be promoted.
27.1.8 Finally included in the same physical technology drive is research on integrated "intelligent" sensors for improved automation as well as on improved image presentation technologies, for which close interaction with the activities in the areas of computer integrated manufacturing and office automation is envisaged.
27.2.1 In information technology systems, the importance of software has been increasing steadily, and its share in the overall development cost is rising continuously. Projections indicate that in the next decade, costs for software may rise to 90 % of the overall system development cost. A competitive industrial capability for software production will impinge on more than just the information technology industry : a wide range of industrial products will depend critically, for competitiveness on the world market, on information technology, either for their development or manufacture, or because information technology components embedded in them provide an increased functionality.
27.2.2 For the development of software, just as for the development of hardware, sound engineering practices based on scientific knowledge are required. Software technology aims to provide that knowledge, the methods and tools needed in the software development process and the management principles for information technology, and aims to integrate them into a consistent technology. It is founded on mathematics, management science, economics and traditional engineering practices.
27.2.3 Research on software technology in Europe lacks community of thought and unity. Research teams in industry, universities and research institutes communicate to a limited extent through conferences and technical publications but their programmes are not co-ordinated or structured towards a common approach. Technology transfer between research and practical applications is much slower in Europe than in Japan and the U.S. A persisting aversion to early standardisation prevents an inter-working of products. The future demand for software will not be satisfied in quantity and quality unless a coordinated European approach is taken.
27.2.4 Traditionally, there have been different perceptions on what the main emphasis is in research in software technology and they have given rise to different individual approaches.
27.2.5 One approach stresses the scientific foundations and covers such areas as formal, mathematically based techniques, taxonomy and metrics, including empirical techniques, and the discipline of modelling. This view considers software development as an intellectual activity. It aims at a better scientific understanding.
27.2.6 A second approach focusses on the technical production process and considers software development as an industrial activity in which large groups of (professional and specialised) software systems, supported in operation in many versions and variants for large markets and over a long time. Work in this area orientates itself by the life-cycle model of software and addresses activities like requirements analysis, specification, design, implementation. Important aspects are full integration of methods and tools and of phase-to-phase continuity. Research objects in this area are methods and tools and their integration into complete systems for software production. Aim is the mastery of the technical production process.
27.2.7 A third view is concerned with the overall organization of the software development process as a commercial and entrepreneurial activity, and focusses on software as a product, investigating the mutual dependencies between commercial goals of an entreprise and the technical characteristics of the software produced. This view also addresses the problem of producing application specific software, and the way that knowledge about the application domain influences tools and methods for software development. Among the aims are quantifiable criteria to make choices concerning organization, method and tool support for technical development, and computer assisted methods and tools for managing the software development process.
27.2.8 All these views are legitimate and important in their own right but substantial progress towards a mature industry of software can only be made if they are applied in combination. They have therefore all been reflected in the definition of the three main research themes chosen. These are : 1) Theories and methods for program development Projects related to this theme will deal with the fundamentals of the development of software and of systems including software. They are to yield theories and methods on which the industrial development process can be based. 2) Methods and tools in software engineering This theme deals with industrial applications of the above, its projects aim at building tools and methods for using these tools in an industrial environment. 3) Economics of industrial software production Projects related to this theme will emphasize the economic viewpoint of the production of software systems by the industry. Software and systems will be considered as products, resulting from planning and production, and being marketed, supported, etc., these activities being performed according to the rules of an industrial process.
27.3.1 Today's computers can solve instances of problems when given a solution, in the form of a program. These traditional systems, designed to assist man in the process of collecting and processing data, are about to reach their limits as valuable tools and we are about to experience the fundamental change from data processing to knowledge processing that is the key to the next computer generation.
27.3.2 The level of specialized education that is required to interact with the present generation of machine and their relatively rudimentary interface to the outside world will soon become intolerable bottle-necks in the development and diffusion of information technology.
27.3.3 To help man to overcome the problem of managing an ever growing volume of more and more interrelated information, advanced systems will be needed that will perceive information directly in the form in which it is being generated, relate it to knowledge previously acquired (stored) and create new knowledge using rules and inference. Advanced Information Processing (AIP) addresses the automation of the perception and processing of signals and the automation of reasoning processes with the aim of combining these two functions in one single system capable of a form of "intelligent" behaviour.
27.3.4 There have so far been only few and only moderately successful attempts to exploit "artificial intelligence" (AI) research results for practical applications. However some of the conditions for industrial exploitation of AI are now changing. Advances in microelectronics and new processor and system architectures make it feasible to employ and further improve computational techniques in artificial intelligence. The point has been reached where practical research and development can be taken up in both main areas: signal perception and processing and knowledge representation and inference. In addition, work on cognitive ergonomics will have to lead to design principles for man-computer systems that are geared to full support of the user in the communication process and do not suffer from the artificaial limitations imposed by the present inadequacies of the computing equipment, its architecture and software.
27.3.5 In recent years, experimental systems and prototypes, for instance for mathematical problem solving and geometric reasoning, for learning and simple dialogues, have been developed that show a considerable potential for enhancement. Europe lags behind in this area.
27.3.6 The goal of this programme is to reach a stage at which the industrial exploitation of the technology of advanced information processing is possible in the Community. For this, research and development in the following main areas is necessary.
27.3.7 Information and knowledge engineering. Research and Development that is required to reach a stage at which industrial products can be based on expert system technology includes : - Selection of forms of representations for knowledge based systems - Methods of capturing data and deriving facts from data. Sepcial hardware and algorithmic structures will have to be developed. - Synthesis of new and efficient hardware/software architectures to support knowledge-based systems. - Design of Knowledge Base system (KBS) in specific areas, and check on their practical behaviour and utility. - Design and evaluation of tools for design and implementation, methods for design, exploitation and evaluation of expert systems.
27.3.8 Signal processing and external interfaces The interface of an AIP system must provide certain functions in the signal processing and recognition area so that it can gather direct information. A further aim of the research programm is therefore signal understanding to enable computers to transform sets of observed data into knowledge to be extended to include the formulation of rules for the recognition of world. Research into architectures and interfaces with desirable characteristics will furthermore have to be based on results of studies on natural systems and applied psychology. Models of cognitive behaviour of individuals and social behaviour of groups must lead to design guidelines capable of practical use. Research areas include - studies of human behaviour to identify desired design features and undesired weaknesses in interface products, - studies of alternative formal representations of knowledge about the external world, - algorithms and architectures for signal analysis, - selection of "candidates" for recognition with associated probabilities - role of inference in human recognition processes - extraction of the semantics of inflexion, intonation etc. of human speech.
27.3.9 Information/Knowledge storage and usage In knowledge bases information is stored that embraces judgement of significance and value, together with rules for interpretation ; meta-rules may control the application of rules. In pointer structured databases or relational data bases access methods perform dereferencing of access criteria; methods for automatic dereferencing in knowledge bases are not clear yet. The main work will be to establish the interfaces, languages, hardware, and software technology which are required for the construction, distribution, functional partitioning and hierarchic (or other) structuring of data bases and knowledge bases, including formulation of inference and data query accesses, at levels ranging from human visible to those internal to the new generation of systems.
27.3.10 Computer Architecture The completely new economics of logic, storage cells and their interconnection brought about by VLSI make it promising to look for new processing and data handling models with e.g. the following properties: - few cell types with a high degree of replication - computational locality in (group of) cells - short and regular control and data flow - minimal use of high fanout/wire or routes - highly contextual inter-cell/group/node communication - high degrees of asynchronous concurrency among cells/groups/ nodes. Furthermore, in order to exploit very highly parallel architectures that are made economically available by VLSI, research is needed to develop algorithms that allow for parallel evaluation and languages and environments and support this.
27.3.11 Design objectives and methods Rigorous approaches to specification and design that can be turned systematically into provably correct implementations, auditing of actual systems in use and high level consistency checks are areas in need of work. Technology assessment of risk rules, expert system validation mechanisms and methods of formal proof must also be studied. As continuous operation of systems must be provided, fault tolerance and online monitoring and repair techniques of systems at all security levels need to be provided : computer system security has to be improved to counter penetration attempts. In the area of VLSI design, circuit complexity is growing to a level very hard to master. Formal design methods and tools need to be developed to allow rapid design of complex chips. Only with "silicon compilers", which incorporate substantial engineering knowledge and enable deisgners to specify their circuits at a high level of abstraction from the physical implementation, will it be possible to develop chips of increasing complexity for information technology.
27.4.1 The real long-term challenge for Office Technology is to support the wide range of non-deterministic tasks performed by "knowledge workers" (the vast majority of the white-collar population) not just the mechanization of a narrow spectrum of structured repetitive tasks like typing. For the next twenty years Office Automation is expected to: - represent the largest single potential market for Information Technology estimated at 100 Billion ECU per annum worldwide by 1990 compared with a projected 29 Billion ECU for the manufacturing and process industry sectors together. - Account for most of the potential improvement to overall business efficiency while the productivity of production sectors will probably experience lower growth rates than in the past. - Bring about fundamentally new solutions in the work breakdown between man/machine and man/man.
27.4.2 The signs are that USA and Japan can dominate this market and increasingly export successfully from a homogeneous home market into Europe which is far from unified. This attack is supported by booming research into the advanced concepts on which future system growth will depend (natural languages, decision making support, etc.). In USA, leading companies invest individually more on this subject that European industry and academia combined while the Japanese 5th Generation Computer system Programme is aimed at just such applications.
27.4.3 To concede this potential business to non-European competitors means not only the loss of major market growth for European Office Automation suppliers but leaves the whole of European commerce and industry dependent on non-European sources in an area where socio-cultural considerations are high and would be best addressed domestically. It means the introduction of business practices and operational standards in line with foreign strategies and the loss of a major opportunity to capitalise on the special and diverse characteristics of European culture to provide a more efficient and more attractive work environment. The definition of objectives for office automation and their translation into opportunities is highly dependent upon local cultural considerations and is made difficult because we lack a related scientific discipline. To understand the interplay of human factors, technical possibilities and their educationa, sociological and industrial consequences requires skills seldom previously encountered in industrial organizations. Technology alone is not sufficient. Human beings are intimately involved with the systems to be developed and attempts to introduce them without taking account of the cultural background and the expectations of the users will result in failure.
27.4.4 While research on hardware technology will still be needed to provide adequate support to office system concepts, it is becoming clear that architectural and software considerations will require utmost attention from the research community before information technology can be widely accepted in the office. Beyond this, it is the impact of the integration of man and information technology which is the most critical unknown factor in determining the rate of introduction of new office equipment. Interfacing man and computer networks will change the world dramatically. Therefore, it would not make sense to start intensive research and development on man machine interfacing without also studying its impact on the individual (e.g. education, self-respect of the human being), on the professional environment (e.g. number of jobs, quality of work), and on society (e.g. impacts on the educational system and on the democratic process).
27.4.5 With this perspective, five main research areas will have to be considered : - Office System science, as prerequisite and support to the structural and functional analysis and description of office procedures and the design of adapted office products and systems ; definition of standards. Three main research areas which cover the three basic office activities (creation/distribution, transmission, and storage/retrieval of information) : - Office Work-Stations; document description languages, document creation and distribution man/machine interfaces ; - Office Communication Systems including local area networks and their interconnection, integrated interactive text-voice-image-video communication and value-added functions ; - Office Filing and retrieval Systems with emphasis on ease of access to and retrieval of "Knowledge", content and structure addressable data bases, office document languages. And a fifth area : - Human Factors, encompassing all aspects of the interactions between man and information handling systems.
27.5.1 One of the main reasons for selecting this particular subject area is its expected significant market prospects*, and its expected positive impact on manufacturing productivity.
27.5.2 The general objective of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) is to establish the technological base for progressive introduction of computer aids in all phases of the industrial production of goods. Fully integrated production is the end result. Future manufacturing systems will integrate functions like computer aided design (CAD), computer aided manufacturing (CAM) and computer aided testing (CAT) through the creation of a common data-base acting as the backbone of the computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) system.
27.5.3 The generic term CIM will be used to describe this general concept of productive and flexible discrete parts manufacturing which is consequent on the complete integration of computers and/or automatic control systems at all levels of factory operation. * (General Electric Corp. USA is reported to forecast a 29 Billion ECU world market per year by 1991, and a recent report by Creative Strategies forecast a 760 million ECU market in western Europe for robotics by 1986).
The main areas of R & D activities selected are :
27.5.4 The Integrated System Architecture area covering: - Identification and development of overall integrated system structures for data-base systems for engineering data of total product models and manufacturing data of plant, machines and tool models, - Data-base management systems aiming at ensuring the required data communication between the components of the integrated manufacturing system and the data-bases.
27.5.5 The system and General software area covering: - Computer aided design/computer aided engineering systems aiming at an improved design process both in respect of shorter design time and accuracy, and at establishing total product models for subsequent use in various stages of the manufacturing process, - Computer aided manufacturing systems aiming at formulating modular CAM system structures allowing for all types of applications in all sectors of industry, - Computer aided testing/computer aided repair, aiming at cost-effective improvement of product quality, - Command languages aiming at developing software modules capable of generating control programmes from design/production/test simulation data for robot manipulators, computer numerically controlled machine tools and flexible manufacturing systems.
27.5.6 The Machine Control area covering: - automated assembly and assembly operating systems aiming at establishing fully automatic assembly systems, - robot operating systems where future areas for robot applications will pose different requirements from those being met today, - imaging (global and control) where future systems will require the use of complex imaging "sensory input" for CIM applications in such areas as assembling, machining, testing, etc. - computer numerically controlled machine tools (CNC Machines) where new application areas within metal forming and other mechanical engineering industries are expected to take place.
27.5.7 The component area covering : - sensors, where progress is considered necessary for the future development of advanced automated manufacturing systems, - microelectronic sub-systems aiming at integrating entire control sub-systems onto single chips.
27.5.8 Models of operation are furthermore proposed as a stimulus for keeping the recommended R & D programme properly goal oriented, and as consequence of the multi-vendor nature of CIM development and manufacture. It is suggested that a number of pilot plants/advanced development centres be implemented in order to demonstrate advanced computer integrated manufacturing systems. The pilot plants/advanced development centres would eventually form the basis of more permanent research centres or centres of excellence, where further research and development could evolve and also offer an industry advisory service. These centres would also serve as test benches for experiments and evaluation of computer integrated manufacturing techniques and for training and education. Work at the centres should be undertaken as a collaborative effort between private companies and universities or other public research institutions. By locating such centres in different Member States long-term cooperation between researchers from within the Community and elsewhere would be facilitated and enhanced.
27.5.9 Pilot plants/advanced Development Centres should initially be established for a least three important activities, such as : - production of heavy, precision machined parts or sub-assemblies for machine tools or engines, - batch production of electromechanical products such as household appliances and IT peripherals, - production of high precision components or sub-assemblies such as medical instruments. The pilot plants/advanced development centres will also provide "on the job" training and education for both engineering and managerial personnel.
28. As stated in paras 22-24 above, cooperative research work on as large a scale as the one planned within ESPRIT cannot simply rely on the concentration of research teams and infrastructure in a few privileged centres. Even if theoretically conceivable the problems that such a solution would entail would outweigh the benefits of collaborative effort.
29. In order to ensure effective cooperation between different participants established in geographically separated locations, it is necessary to establish an infrastructure that will ensure information exchange capabilities meeting the needs of all involved.
30. All participants in R & D projects, and indeed many others including "Member States" administrations, will need ready access to documentary information about ESPRIT itself, about the various technical areas concerned, and about corresponding activities elsewhere. This leads to a requirement for easy access to regularly updated data-bases.
31. The administrators of projects will need ready access to project management information, project management tools and software packages, and need a rapid and efficient message system, as well as text-preperation facilities. The initial facilities established for the pilot phase of ESPRIT will need to be progressively enhanced.
32. Those involved with the development and use of software will need access to software development tools, in a progressively more integrated environment, and those involved with computer aided design (CAD), and with graphical information will need access to powerful tools for the creation, management and transmission of such information, by means of advanced peripheral devices (digitisers, displays, plotters, etc.)
33. Most of the research teams, whatever their field, will also need remote access to other computing facilities and environments, often on different models of machine.
34. The functional requirements for an Information Exchange System meeting all these requirements were defined by a joint working group set up by the Commission and Industry.
35. The particular feature of IES in the context of ESPRIT is that it will be a working tool for research work, not a research topic in itself. The implementation of the IES, must be open to quick incorporation of the latest techniques resulting from R & D but must be based on mature and proven technologies and services.
36. Based on an assessment of facilities already available or likely to be available in the short to medium term, and on the need for the system to be capable of evolving in step with user requirements and to profit from technical progress, the basic requirements identified were: - Computer-based message and conference services - Common text preparation facilities - Information retrieval (documentary and other) - Integrated software development environment, to include facilities for file transfer remote execution of programmes, and all aspects of software life-cycle management. - Graphics facilities, initially via facsimile, and in particular digital facsimile but not excluding the later transfer of graphical information directly between computer systems, as coding methods and transmission capabilities evolve.
37. The multiplicity and diversity of these requirements, and the inherent lack of precise estimates of data volumes, numbers of users, etc. and their rate of growth over the next 10 years, lead to the necessity for the system to be flexible, evolutive and firmly based on European and international standards.
38. The preceding paragraphes have indicated : - the technology objectives - selective criteria used in drawing up the programme - the five main inter-related topics plus the proposed IES infrastructure. A careful analysis of the resources necessary to carry out the programme and achieve the objectives has been carried out. The resources required are summarized below and related to the wider context.
39. The main boundary conditions taken into account are the present level of existing financial and human resources in industry and university, the current level of public expenditure in Member States, and the overall level of investments in R & D work, of our main competitors. Also considered essential from an industrial point of view is the break-down between development, product-oriented R & D work and longer term precompetitive R & D.
40. Community IT industry produces goods and services worth some bio ECUS 40/year and is estimated to spend some 5 billion/year in R & D, which corresponds to some 10% of the overall R & D expenditure in the Community. If the same proportion is maintained within public expenditure, some additional 2 to 2.5 billion ECUS a year are spent on R & D in IT, bringing the total expenditure on IT R & D to 7/8 billion ECUS per year in the Community. This corresponds to approximatively 20% of the world effort in this domain.
41. If one considers that the aims of Community industry must be to attain a proportion of the world market equivalent to the Community's share of such a market, i.e. 30%, the figures in preceding paragraph lead to the conclusion that whereas Community IT industry is already making large efforts in R & D, and indeed is in some cases spending a greater proportion of turnover on R & D than its major competitors, this effort is not sufficient in relation to the volume of expenditure in R & D by its competitors, nor in relation to the size of the market aimed at. This relative paucity in size impinges furthermore on the nature of work leading companies to privilege shorter term product oriented, when not plain trouble-shooting, activities at the expense of the long term strategic R&D that will underlay the next generation of products.
42. A substantial increase, and a substantial rationalisation are therefore going to be necessary. The former will require a fairly long time to build up; the latter can be undertaken immediately.
43. Although ESPRIT is designed to promote such rationalisation, rather than to bring in a decisive increase in financial resources, the size of the effort it will mobilize must be proportionate to the impact it intends to achieve. Such an impact can be broadly measured in terms of market and actual current level of expenditure. The total amount of industrial investment in research and development on IT in the Community can be estimated at some 5 bn ECU/year: of this a negligible fraction is spent in Europe on long term precompetitive R&D activities as compared with the 5 to 10% of our main competitors.
44. To be meaningful and stimulate the new strategic thinking that must underly the definition and execution of the R&D programme, a Community intervention would have to stimulate a joint long term effort in precompetitive R&D of the same order to magnitude (i.e. of at least 5 to 10% of the current overall industrial effort). The conclusions that were reached after consulting with industry, governments and academia, taking into account the physical limitation of a realistic and gradual build-up of capacity, indicated that an initial effort of precompetitive long term R&D reaching some 2000 man-years/year from the third year onwards could confidently and effectively be aimed at. The enclosed table 1 illustrates how resources for activities started during the first phase will build up during the first 5 years (1984/88) and tail off during the subsequent years. When the second phase of the programme will be planned a similar pattern of distribution of resources is expected for years 89/93 that will maintain at least for the first 3 to 4 years of the second phase (or possibly slightly increase in real terms) the yearly deployment of resources.
45. The conversion of these figures into budget estimates, according to current industry practice, leads to an estimated overall investment for the first five year phase of some ECUS 1500 Million. This would broadly correspond to 6% of the total industrial R&D investment in IT in the Community; very much in line with that of our main competitors and well within our possibilities. On the basis of an average 50% contribution the budgetary load for the Community would be of 750 MECUS, including the costs of the management of the programme and access to and use of the Information Exchange System.
1. Mounting a "technology push" across the Community capable of achieving technical parity with, if not superiority over, our main competitors within the next 10 years represents an ambitious objective that will require a joint effort of the size mentioned in the preceding section. Only a programme of sufficient scale will draw on all in the Community who can make an effective contribution to the R&D and to its exploitation: large and small industrial firms, research institutions, universities and individuals. In this way it will be possible to obtain a concentration of human and financial resources proportionate to the goals.
2. ESPRIT is designed to this end to be a programme through which: a) Adequate funds will be made available to launch in the Community cooperative projects of precompetitive industrial R&D falling within agreed strategic technological lines and having directly identifiable Community interest and character. b) Systematic consultation will be promoted between Member States administrations, academic institutions, industry and the Community on the definition, appraisal and adjustment of R&D activities, either directly or indirectly related to those identified by the Esprit technical programme, with a view to achieving the optimum coordination of efforts and utilization of resources amongst all those involved in IT throughout the Community. c) Infrastructural and organization facilities will be set up to ensure careful selection, effective execution, proper monitoring and management and adequate dissemination of results of the actions.
3. The programme is primarily an industrial one, hence funds will be provided by industry in the first place; Community contribution will be essential to achieve the desired concentration in time and size.
4. The definition of the strategic technical objectives will be based on industrial inputs taking into account wider national and Community interests and will be supported by systematic analysis of the sectors. As for the R&D projects for which financial support is to be provided, ESPRIT is designed to ensure the best coverage of the selected spectrum of key technologies as well as of their possible spin-offs and forerunners.
5. In this perspective industrial R&D is acknowledged to rest essentially on two broad classes of projects:
5.1 Projects that rely on large infrastructure and resources, both human and financial, and that presuppose the capability of substantial investments in a subsequent phase of application oriented R&D. For such activities to be fruitfully conceived and undertaken, there must be a clear and constant strategic perspective to ensure continuity of actions and the breadth necessary to reap the long-term benefits. Such medium to long term "system driven" R&D activities, that will be referred to in this document as type A projects, will represent the strategic backbone of ESPRIT. The share of the overall effort represented by this type of project will reflect the contribution of the contractors involved in basic R&D in the information technologies in the Community.
5.2 Besides these there is a second wide range of projects that will require relatively much smaller resources. Such activities, that will be referred to as type B projects, could range from very long term, speculative R&D to relatively shorter term very specifically oriented R&D. These tend generally to rely very much on a system approach, and are expected to account for a significant share of the overall effort under ESPRIT.
6. In order to create the conditions for the optimum development of both these types of activities, the ESPRIT programme, designed to span a period of 10 years, is now proposed for an initial phase of 5 years, with as a rule, a yearly updating of the detailed work programme, and an overall review milestone after two and a half years. This structure of programme will guarantee a long-term perspective to the larger projects, flexibility to the smaller, and the possibility whenever required of altering course in the light of results and technology evolution.
7. To this end it will be necessary to establish a close consultation between the Commission and the Member States as well as continuous monitoring of the sector to provide timely identification of technology objectives and trends; the organization of the administrative infrastructure to ensure the updating of the work programme and its matching to real needs; objective and accurate appraisal of work; contract administration; coordination of the various projects, and the dissemination of results.
8. These activities will be carried out by the Commission with the advice of the Management and Consultative Committee (MCC) established by Council decision and whose members will be nominated by the Commission in agreement with the Member States' governments. The composition and main tasks of such Management and Coordination Committee are spelt out in the draft Council decision establishing such Committees, that is the subject of a recent proposal of the Commission.[*1] [*1] COM 83 (143) of 16th March 1983 Communication from the Commission to the Council on Structures and procedures for Common Policy in the field of Science and Technology.
9. The technical annex to the draft Decision indicates, in section A, the main outlines of the proposed R&D work, as well as some of the main avenues of attack and objectives that can already be identified. The indications given therein are, in the Commission's opinion, sufficiently clear and detailed to define the overall envelope of work, its broad size and expected impact, when compared with the present state of the are in Europe and in the world. This work programme is however not intended to provide a definition and evaluation of concrete R&D projects.
10. In such a fast moving sector as IT where the average life of a product is 3 years it would be illusory and misleading to try and define "ab initio" detailed activities and time schedules for the next 5 years to come; a meaningful operational work programme needs continuous monitoring and would have to be revised at least once a year. It is furthermore to be expected that particular events may occur that could lead to the need for revising some actions at short notice at any time during a year. To cope with this and other possible emergencies it seems necessary to have a lighter mechanism than a decision by the Council. Such a mechanism should from the outset ensure the continuous decision making process necessary and react quickly and efficiently when an immediate decision is needed.
11. This is why it is proposed that a more detailed programme of work necessary for the day-to-day implementation of the programme be established, and updated as required, by the Commission after consulting the Management and Coordination Committee. As a rule such a work programme will be established every 12 months covering the detailed activities of the first year [2] and a decreasing refinement of the activities of the subsequent 4 years. A draft will be submitted and discussed with the Management and Coordination Committee three months in advance of the 12 months period to which it refers and adopted at the latest within the first month of such a 12 month period. More frequent revision or partial modifications that are required would be possible at any time. [2] "years" are to this effect 12 month periods starting with the first month after the adoption of this programme by the Council. A rolling plan could in this way be established, within the general programme, that would enable ESPRIT to be kept up-to-date and effective in the light of the experience directly acquired through the technical achievements of ESPRIT projects, through advances by competitors and through the practical response of the main actors in Europe and outside.
12. A first preliminary draft of such a more detailed work programme is being prepared by the commission, with appropriate consultation, that will take into account the up-to-date information resulting from a series of preparatory studies (launched at the end of last year) that will be available as from June 1983. A final draft work programme covering the years from 1984 to 1988 will be ready by September 1983.
13. To prepare the ground for the formulation of the opinion of the Management and Coordination Committee on this first programme as soon as ESPRIT is adopted, close consultations have been started with the Member States' administrations through the Senior Executives Committee (S.E.C.) established for the pilot projects and are planned to continue until the formal definition of the programme.
14. Furthermore, given the ambitious long-term objectives and the complex and evolutionary nature of its technical goals, a programme like ESPRIT is expected to need revisions and/or changes in its broader lines over a period of years. For this reason, although the programme is designed to space 10 years, it is now proposed for a first phase of 5 years. Before the end of the 4th year of execution of this first phase, a new proposal will be prepared concerning the second phase of the programme in the light of the experience and results acquired to date. The choice of proposing a 5 year programme in a framework of a ten year perspective has several reasons of which the most important are: - that ESPRIT is expected to give short-term benefits while addressing mid- to long-term objectives which require a continuity going beyond 5 years irrespective of the level of fundings; - the impact of ESPRIT depends as much on anticipation and learning of cooperating in R&D as on the excellence of the research work. This implies the need for continuity over a longer period. The option to propose immediately a decision over 10 years was not chosen in the light of the practical impossibility of giving even broad programme details beyond a time horizon of 5 years in this rapidly evolving domain.
15. Given the different size and requirements of the projects involved (A & B type projects) and in many cases also their different operational nature and in order to obtain the best from all contributors, different procedures for their inclusion in the ESPRIT programme would appear to be required particularly with respect to the percentage and nature of support and the criteria for eligibility.
16. For projects of strategic character (type A projects) the Commission proposes that the degree of financial contribution by the Community shall be 50% in form of a subsidy. The remaining 50% should as a rule be provided by the industry itself. The degree of financial participation by industry is considered to be a test of the degree to which industry believes in the need for the work. Whenever therefore there are financial interventions from national authorities, given the variation from country to country in the ways in which governments support industry, the Commission will examine the situation on a case by case basis, bearing in mind the general principle.
17. The smaller projects (type B) raise different issues. In principle the Commission considers that for the smaller projects, the norm should also be a 50% contribution by the Community. Possible variants are however envisageable along with the lines of the following examples: a) Where a request for industrial support somes from SMEs, or others with very limited finance available, Community support well beyond 50% may exceptionally be considered. In such cases particular arrangements concerning the access to or the exploitation of the results are also envisaged. b) In exceptional cases, where a research proposal is submitted by academic institutions which fail to secure an industrial partner or sponsor because the work proposed is too advanced for industry to assist in its early stages, if the Commission is satisfied that the technical features of the work are so outstanding that it should be supported despite the lack of industrial support, the proposal can be initially funded up to the level of 100%. However in this case a phased approach would be envisaged by which the project could be launched with the understanding that industry would take over a reasonable part of the financing after the project has achieved agreed milestones proving the validity of the chosen approach.
18. In order to be eligible for aid, projects will have to be proposed by companies or organisations established and, as a rule, currently carrying out R&D work in the community and will have to be carried out in the Community. Proposals will be submitted to the Commission in reply to an open invitation published in the Official Journal.
19. The following main criteria would as a rule be applied to the evaluation of all projects, other than technical soundness: - Industrial strategy contribution in the light of ESPRIT objectives - Community dimension - technical and scientific, as well as managerial capability to carry out the proposed programme of work - measures envisaged and approach to accessibility and exploitation of results
20. Within the general principles above the following specific orientations are envisaged (concerning the various elements of the process of project selection):
20.1 For larger projects (type A) the participation of at least two companies not effective subsidiaries of each other and not established in the same Member State will be a mandatory requisite of eligibility. There are no specific restrictions to the form of such coparticipation which can range from Prime contractor/subcontractor relationship to a joint venture set-up for the duration of a specific project.
20.2 For the smaller projects (type B) such multinational participation, although not mandatory, shall be considered a major factor of preference all other things being equal. In order to maintain the Community dimension in cases in which proposals from one single Member State are to be considered, suitable arrangements to ensure adequate diffusion of and access to the results of the research work would have to be negotiated.
21. There will be a periodical open call for proposals for all projects. All projects submitted within the deadlines will be examined on their own merit and a selection made within the limits of the budget allocated.
22. All other things being equal, the main factors determining the allocation of funds and the choice of projects will be the overall technical quality of the proposal and the capability of the proposer to deliver the results: where many good competing projects are available the principle will be to grant adequate support to the very best rather than dilute the support amongst all the good ones.
23. The overall responsibility for the management of the programme will rest with the Commission. At the same time the advice and consultation of the Member States, of industry and the academic world will be indispensable if coordinated effective actions have to take place. Advice and consultation of the Member States will be provided by a Management and Consultative Committee (MCC) nominated by the Commission in agreement with the Member States governments.
24. In parallel with this formal advisory structure, the Commission will establish consultations with industry and whenever appropriate with academic and research institutions. It will organize them in such a way that large and small IT firms as well as users and academic and research institutions will have the opportunity of expressing their views and suggestions to the Commission on all major matters related to the content, structure and execution of the programme. To this end the Commission has the intention of setting up Industrial as well as Scientific Advisory Boards.
25. Apart from the more traditional financial and technical monitoring of contracts, the programme management will ensure: - that projects are invited and selected in conformity with the agreed strategic objectives; - that the objectives and the programme of work are monitored and updated in order to maintain their strategic validity; - that all qualifying companies, research institutes and universities are given the opportunity to make a contribution and that optimum use is made of available scientific resources; - that coordination is established and maintained between the various actions and research projects; - that information concerning ongoing and planned activities and their results are brought to the attention of all potential beneficiaries, - that information concerning or affecting standardization issues are given adequate diffusion and consideration.
26. An organization with advanced data processing and communications facilities will be set up requiring a kernel of administrative staff to ensure continuity of action and basic infrastructure, plus a number of scientific staff. Through this infrastructure it will be possible at any point in time to have management information on all activities under way, completed or planned, to appraise the effectiveness of particular measures taken, and to define early corrective actions whenever this appears necessary. The timely updating of files and access to data will be possible through a connection to the Information Exchange System that is going to be set up to serve the communication need of all participants in ESPRIT as briefly described in Section II, paras 26 - 37.
27. ESPRIT is a programme of precompetitive research. That means that as a rule the results cannot be immediately applied in the marketplace and will normally require a further phase of R&D beyond that covered under the programme, before marketable products or processes result.
28. On the other hand a primary justification for ESPRIT is in the synergetic effect that it will have through focussing a "critical mass" of research efforts on selected key strategic technological objectives. It is designed to provide Community industry with the technological tools that will enable it to improve its competitiveness on the world market. To meet these requirements adequate dissemination of information on work that is being planned or under way as well as on its possible results and their exploitation is going to be of fundamental importance. This will take into account the different kinds of information, the various groups to be served and their vested interests. At the level of the scientists directly involved in research, the Commission intends to organize or promote a series of workshops per research topic, during which information concerning research work could be exchanged on a fairly informal basis. Participants would have to be invited and would have to undertake to contribute actively by presenting their activities and their progress. Qualified observers from establishments not directly involved in ESPRIT work, but having a legitimate interest in participating, could be invited. This would represent a concrete infrastructure to ensure that those who are involved in a particular kind of research work in Europe keep in contact with each other and are informed of each others results. In this way future cooperation and a de facto coordination of efforts would be effectively promoted.
29. Apart from this more specifically technical solution addressed to the main actors of research themselves a wider clearing house infrastructure is going to be established by which systematic information on work in progress, and intellectual property rights that will have to be notified by the contractors, would be collected and made available e.g. through special conferences or over the Information Exchange System that will be set up to serve the needs of all participants in ESPRIT. To this end the Commission will retain as a rule the right to publish or make known free of charge appropriate reports on the results of work carried out within ESPRIT.
30. Access to and exploitation of results raise other issues. ESPRIT is characterized by the fact that : - Industry itself pays a significant and substantial share of the cost of the work - the major objectives of the work will only be achieved when and if industry itself exploits commercially and profitably the results. These conditions existed when the ESPRIT pilot projects were under consideration and they are, in principle, the same that apply to other projects financed by the Community.
31. The guidelines for these projects are that ownership and the right to exploit any information and industrial property rights resulting from the work under any contract (foreground information) will normally reside with the contractors.
32. The detailed arrangements between the contractors participating in the same projects will be left to the interested parties to agree, the Commission only ensuring that competition rules are not infringed. Whatever the arrangements between these contractors, they must ensure that each participant in the same project, for the whole duration of the project and for the purpose of fulfilling its share of the work, has guaranteed and priviledged access to the results of the work done by the others.
33. In order to benefit from the overall synergetic effect that a Community action is designed to favour, access for a project team to foreground knowledge generated by another team working on a different project within the ESPRIT framework shall also be arranged under priviledged conditions in as far as such information enables better or quicker results to be obtained from the project which needs it.
34. Furthermore, to promote improved competitiveness in Community industry as a whole it is necessary that other industrial companies in the Community which did not participate in a specific project but which have the ability to use its results and wish to do so, should have the opportunity to acquire the rights. The terms should be negotiated on a commercial basis taking into account the contributions of the originating parties as well as those of the Community.
35. To this end, if the originating party does not wish to exploit part or all of the results of the research, without a legitimate reason, there will be adequate provisions to ensure that the Community can require him to grant license either to exploit the results of his work or to carry the research work further.
36. ESPRIT is a carefully and selectively targeted programme with specific objectives, not an "aid programme". As a consequence the Commission will require sufficient qualified staff resources to assure an effectiv, responsible and transparent management.
37. The overall programme is designed to extend over 10 years based on a 5-year initial decision. After a three-year build-up (including the Pilot Phase) the number of persons working in Member States within the framework of ESPRIT will reach almost two thousand.
38. As anticipated already in section II, for organisational purposes we will distinguish here 5 R&D areas plus one infrastructure activity. R&D activities cutting across one or more of the areas will include: - a comparatively small number of major strategically oriented projects which will require complex planning and coordination and - a much larger number of relatively small projects, which in spite of their larger number will not require a proportionately larger staff as they will require simpler monitoring and coordination procecdures.
39. As a consequence the project related staff requirement can be broken down as follows: a) Head Coordinator..........................................1 A b) Staff unit (Budget Planning Personnel)....................3 A c) Sub-Programme Coordinators................................6 A d) Project and Contract Managers[4]* for large projects.....30 A e) Project and Contract Managers[4]* for small projects.....24 A [4]* The tasks of Project and Contract Manager include technical monitoring of the projects, assessment of results as well as all questions related to the administration of contracts.
40. The success of ESPRIT will rely also on the effectiveness of adequate infrastructural activity that will require additional specialized personnel. The envisaged break-down of such personnel is as follows: - continuous monitoring of the IT sector and adjustment of ESPRIT objectives ........................................ 6 A - assuring dissemination of the results within the agreed conditions ............................................... 6 A - providing reports to Parliament, Council and Member States on work progress and adjustments of the programme ........ 2 A - informing and consulting industry, SMEs, user groups, trade-unions and the general public ...................... 5 A
41. The overall ESPRIT team, according to this estimate, will need 83 A. The nature of the programme is such that all or most posts can be temporary posts.
42. The organisation and management of ESPRIT with this comparatively small number of staff represents a challenge in itself because: - Community R&D needs to be transparently managed and accounted for; - Industrial strategic orientation demands high flexibility, rapid response and strong focus on critical enabling technologies; - IT is a fast moving and rapidly changing sector; - ESPRIT features horizontal and vertical integration of R&D between companies, research centres and industrial users for the execution of the R&D; - ESPRIT includes closely linked, but rather diversified subjects requiring an interdisciplinary approach; - Access and dissemination of results needs to be rapid but carefully managed.
43. This is brought home e.g. by the following: a) Comparable Commission Programmes which are comparable in size, although not in complexity and are not as interdisciplinary have 1 A per 0.5 to 5 MECU a year. In the ESPRIT estimate, each A has on average responsibility for some 20 MECU over the 10-year framework, i.e. about 2 MECU p.a. b) In project management of this character an allocation of 10% of the total research work force to R&D management and administration is considered to be a reasonable figure. The above estimate represents less than 5% of the number of researchers active after completion of the build-up.
44. The above figures represent the minimum required to fulfill all essential central management tasks in a way that is compatible with the institutional duties associated with the execution of ESPRIT and that is best suited to contribute to its technical success.
1. Budget heading 7310 - Information technologies - ESPRIT project
2. Legal basis - Article 235 - Council Resolution of 15 July 1974 - Council Resolution of 11 September 1979 - Council Decision of 21 December 1982 - 82/878/EEC
3. Description of Project The aim of the proposed project is to increase the capability of the European information technologies industry to make it competitive at world level. The ESPRIT (European Strategic Programme for Research and Development in Information Technologies) programme is to be the key-stone of a strategy designed to develop a powerful Community information technologies industry between now and 1990. On the basis of cooperative R&D, the main programme has as its objective the development of a pre-competitive technological basis for a Community industry in the following fields: 1. Advanced microelectronics 2. Software technology 3. Advanced data processing 4. Office automation 5. Computer-aided manufacture
4. Justification of project The new information technologies (IT) can be regarded as the main source of technological progress for the rest of the decade. As far as the European industry-based economy is concerned, IT are of vital significance. If the Community is to compete with the United States and Japan or to cooperate with them on an equal footing, it is essential for it to acquire its own skills in the key areas of this sector. The exploitation of economic growth and the potential benefits of IT are of prime importance to the Community. This applies particularly to the use we make of our technological acquisitions and to the long- and medium-term resources embodied in R&D in the field of information technologies.
5. Financial implications for intervention appropriations (million ECU) 5.0 Implication for expenditure 5.0.0 Total cost over the whole of the expected duration - From the budget of the Communities: 748 - From the national administrations: ) 690 - From other sectors at national level: ) Total cost: 1438 5.0.1 Multiannual schedule Committment appropriations Payment appropriations 5.0.2 Method of calculation a. Expenditure by contract This expenditure covers the Community's financial contribution to the research carried out normally under shared-cost contracts (research and development for a total of 9 268 man year) to be concluded with industry and the research institutes of the Member States, specializing in the field (average Community financial contribution - about 50% of total cost). b. Operating expenditure Administrative costs (management committee and working party meetings), consulting of experts, missions, document distribution or dissemination of techniques, use of dataprocessing equipment). c. Management staff expenses The requirements for this programme have been estimated on the basis of a staff complement of: 1) in 1984 51 temporary officials - category A 9 temporary officials - category B 31 temporary officials - category C 2) for 1985 and subsequent years 83 temporary officials - category A 17 temporary officials - category B 50 temporary officials - category C These calculations take account of the rates of increase of Commission salaries used to calculate the appropriations entered in the 1982 budget, with application for the subsequent years of an increase in volume corresponding to the rate of increase of the general price level in the Community, adopted in drawing up three-year forecasts, i.e.: 7% per year.
6. Financial implications for staff and current administrative appropriations (See sub-point 5 above - included in Chapter 73 of Part B of the budget)
7. Financing of expenditure The appropriations required to cover the Community's contribution to this project are to be entered in the Community's future budgets.
8. Implications for revenue - Community tax on the salaries of officials - Officials' pension contributions
9. Type of control - Administrative control by the Directorate-General for Financial Control as regards budget implementation. - Scientific control: * MCC (Management and Consultative Committee) * Scientific officials of the IT Task Force - Audits by the Court of Auditors in accordance with the provisions of the Treaties.