Information Society News

ICT Finance MarketPlace is an initiative to improve access to finance for innovative Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. SMEs, coaches and investors are invited to attend the events which will be run in conjunction with Tech Media Europe 2012 at the same venue. The Venture Academy consists of a one-day, coaching event where experienced coaches from relevant industry areas will help SMEs pragmatically to develop their pitching skills towards potential investors. The Investment Forum offers SMEs the opportunity to showcase their business in front of an international network of venture capital and corporate investors, strategic partners and expert advisors.

This event will focus on challenges within the ICT domain that relate to the segment of consumer electronics. The aim is to stimulate discussions on the issues of energy labeling, e-waste, the potential of telework and the diffusion of broadband which all comprise contradictory aspects relevant for policy-making. The event aims to foster networking and knowledge exchange between policy-makers and experienced researchers in the field.

This event will focus on some of the most relevant topics to boost international collaboration. What is the future of Internet and its many applications? How to combine the interests of platform developers, application and service providers and future customers? Which applications will generate new business opportunities? How can Internet be used to tackle challenges such as environmental change, healthcare & ageing and transport?

The FP7 project FI-WARE, part of the Future Internet Public Private Partnership, announces its first Open Call for new project partners. FI-WARE will deliver a new service infrastructure, building upon generic and reusable building blocks called “Generic Enablers”. FI-WARE develops open specifications and reference implementations of Generic Enablers. This open call asks for organizations that can contribute or develop the Generic Enablers related to middleware and business models. Total funding available for new partners is up to 2 Million Euro, and the call closes on 25 April 2012 at 17h00. For further information, please refer to http://www.fi-ware.eu/open-call/ or email fiware-opencall-help@lists.fi-ware.eu.

Over the past 12 months, the Arab Spring has brought about unprecedented political changes across the region. The right to communicate is increasingly recognized and asserted, and now needs to be complemented by opportunities to be educated and employed, and to contribute to the development of the economy and wealth of the region. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are the drivers that will make these opportunities a reality. This summit will bring together government leaders and ICT experts from the region and beyond to develop strategies to drive broadband deployment and mobilize the human, financial and technical resources needed to bridge the digital divide in countries right across the Arab world.

Security and Defence Agenda dinner, Brussels, 30 January 2012

“Fuelling the European Economy” event, Microsoft Executive Briefing Centre, Brussels, 30 January 2012

The 5th Call for proposals of the AAL Joint Programme will aim at the development of ICT-based solutions which enable and sustain older adults to continue managing their daily activities in their home. This call aims also at ICT-based solutions which support informal carers in their assistance. It is anticipated that the call will be launched at the end of February 2012, with a proposal submission deadline at the end of May 2012. The information event will take place on 13 March 2012 in Brussels. All potential proposers are strongly advised to come to the information event, and those wishing to attend should register their interest by sending an e-mail to Jacqueline Teller before 24 February 2012.

This newsletter informs about ongoing and future activities in the field of Future and Emerging Technologies and presents some key results and achievements of ongoing projects and initiatives. This months issue focuses on these topics: Perspectives of FET under Horizon 2020, the new EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation; Results from the FET-Open commissioned study to boost exploratory power of open research; The FET-Flagship Pilots Midterm Conference held in Warsaw in November 2011; Findings from FET-Proactive consultation meetings feeding Work Programme 2013.

The European Commission is inviting European eHealth user and industry representatives to participate in a eHealth stakeholder group, to be set up in early 2012. The group will contribute to the development of legislation or policy related to eHealth, by providing for example reports, opinions and relevant data. Deadline to send your expression of interest is 30/01/2012.

This white paper was prepared to assess the opportunities and obstacles that confront us as Europe plans to make full use of the integration of genome-based data resources with resources detailing disease-based and other human phenotypes. The report represents the consensus outcome of Think Tank discussions among 17 invited experts in Brussels on October 2011. The report addresses prospects for the development and application of genotype-phenotype resources, considering them to be very promising. Establishing clear relationships (correlations) between increasing amounts of genotypic information available from clinical studies (e.g. as provided by genome wide association studies (GWAS)), and similarly of phenotype information at the population level, is still largely impossible today. This approach advocated also assists in “stratification” – instead of rejecting so many drugs during clinical trials, it could be that many deemed to be failures today will work well for sets of patients on genotypic/ phenotypic grounds.

2012 is the European Year for Active Aging. With an ever older population, Europe is looking for ways to improve the quality of living of their elderly people, a generation far more active and technologically trained than previous ones. This Futuris will take a look at how ICT devices can help patients with three different diseases to increase their quality of living -while staying at their homes. In Cadiz, Spain, we´ll be visiting an elderly house and a home where patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are currently testing a brand new device that will help them to know if an unexpected respiratory crisis is about to happen. This will help them call for aid in a faster way, or better prepare their transportation to nearby hospitals. We´ll be meeting COPD patients, personal caretakers, doctos and the computer scientists that have developed the prototype.

This white paper was prepared in order to assess the opportunities and obstacles that confront us in facilitating a translational role for bioinformatics and systems biology in drug discovery and clinical medicine. The report represents the consensus outcome of Think Tank discussions among 23 invited world-leading experts in Barcelona, Spain, on October 2011. There is potential in sub-cellular (or molecular) systems biology approaches to biomedicine, as compared to conventional methods of drug design. Despite the early stage of these approaches, and lots still to be done, they may be able to assist in more personalised approaches to drug treatment. For translational systems biology to make a major impact, the whole system of data access needs to be transformed into one based on more openness and sharing of information between hospitals, academia and industry. Various societal structures currently impede this development. Regulatory and funding agencies must be involved to overcome these obstacles.

Setting up the European Cloud Partnership World Economic Forum Davos, Switzerland

The European Commission has closed an infringement case against the UK in recognition that UK national legislation has now been changed to properly implement EU rules on ePrivacy and data protection on the confidentiality of communications such as email or Internet browsing. The Commission believes UK law and institutions are now well-equipped to enforce the privacy rights of UK users.

Special attention will be given to the 'Digital Patient' as well as 'health forecasts'. VPH2012 aims at reaching outside of the VPH community to other equally important communities: systems biology and genomics. In this respect, our vision is to have a conference that truly encompasses all possible scales to model physio/pathology with a clear ICT focus.

European Parliament Intellectual Property Forum, European Parliament, Brussels, 24 January 2012

The draft ICT PSP Work Programme 2012 has been approved by the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) ICT Committee. The 6th Call for Proposals will be open from 1 February until 15 May 2012 (pending the formal approval of the Work Programme 2012 by the Commission). Additional thematic workshops will be organised for themes and objectives of the 6th Call for Proposals, as well as national information days.

The European Commission has unveiled a study on a Digital Agenda for European Film Heritage. The study analyses the challenges and the opportunities that film heritage institutions are facing in relation to collection, storage and long-term preservation of digital film material, digital restoration, digitization and access to collections thanks to new technologies.

This event will give the opportunity to present and discuss with experts and interested parties the LAPSI (European Thematic Network on Legal Aspects of Public Sector Information) policy recommendations on various aspects of Open Data and re-use of public sector information. During the second day of the Conference the winner of the 3rd LAPSI Award on the most user-friendly design of an open data portal in the EU will be announced. Registration is free, but mandatory in order to attend the meeting and the lunch served at the University Foundation.