On 23 May, Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda gave a speech named "The Economic and social benefits of big data" at a webcasted Conference on Big Data in Brussels.

The ARTIST project is a research project co-funded by the European Commission, under the FP7 Programme Objective “Cloud Computing, Internet of Services and advanced software engineering”. It proposes a software modernization approach using Model Driven Engineering techniques to automate the evolution and migration of legacy applications to and from platform-dependent models, allowing a cheap and rapid alternative to redeveloping applications by hand. It reduces the risk, time and cost of migrating legacy software and lowers the barriers for service companies wanting to take advantage of the latest Cloud Computing and SaaS-based technologies and business models.

NESSI is very pleased to announce the NESSI Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, in which NESSI presents reommendations as key for achieving the ambitious goals set out in Horizon 2020.

On 7 February, the European Commission adopted its strategy for a cybersecurity alongside a Commission proposed directive on network and information security (NIS).

The proposals have been jointly prepared by the Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes, the Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström and Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy with the aim to prevent and respond to cyber disruptions and attacks

NESSI is very please to share with you the NESSI white paper on Big Data. The paper addresses the challenges rising from the use of Big Data and how to overcome those in order to enable new technical and business opportunities for Europe’s software industry and economic sectors.

On Monday 19 November, the Steering Board of the European Cloud Partnerhsip (ECP) met for the first time in Brussels to kick-off the the project which aims at helping public authorities and administrations adopt cloud services.

The European Commission organised a workshop named "Towards a Breakthrough in Software for Advanced Computing Systems" as preparations for Horizon 2020 in July 2012 which resulted in a report entailing three recommendations.

On 12 October, the Future Internet Enterprise Systems (FinES) Cluster together with the European Commission organised a meeting in Brussels to discuss the topics of “Digital Enterprise and Business Innovation” and “Sensing Enterprise”.

The FP7 Security project INSEC (www.insec-project.eu) aims to improve the Innovation and Research processes within security organisations, enabling them to evaluate novel approaches and services dedicated to the safety of citizens.

As part of the project an online questionnaire has been produced for Security Technology Providers in order to better understand how they collaborate with security organisations and create new business opportunities. To read more about INSEC and to fill in the online questionnaire, please click here.

On 17-20 September, the European Commission is organising an 'ICT Competitiveness Week' in Brussels as part of preparing for the final adoption of Horizon 2020. 

The 'ICT Competitiveness Week' aims to enrich the policy tools and priorities available to the Commission in order to help the ICT sector create more jobs and to deliver European growth. In particular, DG CONNECT is looking for new ideas on how research priorities are set and how they can combine them with the use of the wider range of policy tools beyond those covered in H2020.

On 21 September, the European Commission invites stakeholders to participate in a workshop on the topic of “FIRE in Horizon 2020”. The aim is to endorse a common position and to identify concrete objectives, mechanisms and expected impact of Research and Experimentation in connection with the Future Internet.

The European Cloud Partnership was set up in order to overcome the fragmented public sector demand for cloud services in the EU and the European Cloud strategy will be launched soon.

In that context, NESSI is happy to announce the publishing of its position on Cloud Computing. To read the full paper, please click here.

We are very pleased to invite you to the NESSI Members Day 2012 on 28 September in Warsaw, to provide you with a unique opportunity to meet key actors in the Software and Services research sector and to support the creation of project consortia in response to the calls of the FP7 ICT Work Programme 2013.

Today on 11. July 2012, the European Co-funded Roadmap Project "ActionPlanT" coordinated by the NESSI member SAP successfully concluded its final review and published the last version of its ActionPlant Roadmap for "ICT for Manufacturing". The ActioPlanT roadmap was presented and discussed on the occasion of the two information days for the FOF PPP coming work programme 2013 and the coming Horizon 2020 research Framework Programme .

ICT Work Programme 2013 has been published today by the European Commission. It shall ensure a certain degree of continuity in present priorities and complete activities launched since the start of FP7 (e.g. networks and service infrastructures as well as the PPPs) while at the same time serve as a bridge to activities in the EU’s next framework programme for research and innovation Horizon 2020, which shall start in 2014 (e.g. “next generation computing”, robotics, photonics).

With a view on NESSI’s core technology areas, the following ICT WP challenges are of major interest:
• Challenge 1: Pervasive and trusted network and service infrastructures
• Challenge 4: Technologies for digital content and languages
• Challenge 5: ICT for health, ageing well, inclusion and governance
• Challenge 6: ICT for a lower carbon economy
• Challenge 7: ICT for the Enterprise and Manufacturing
• Pre-Commercial procurement (PCP)

On 21 and 22 June, the 2012 Digital Agenda Assembly (DAA), the European Commission’s annual event for assessing progress and identifying new challenges for the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) took place. The DAE is the EU’s prime flagship for developing a digital society in Europe and creating smart growth. It proposes key actions in areas like: digital single market, trust and security, interoperability and standards, very fast internet, research and innovation, and e-skills. This year’s Digital Agenda Assembly focused on the topic of “Digital Growth”, including workshops on Cloud Computing, Security and Big Data. The results of the various discussions shall feed into the European Commission’s review on the Digital Agenda, scheduled for the end of this year.

On 25 June, the interest group of entrepreneurs within the German Christian Democratic Party (CDU) organised a European Symposium of the Economic Council in Brussels with the title “Cloud Computing – Between Growth Opportunities and Privacy”. The symposium gathered both political and economic representatives to discuss European strategies for Cloud Computing, especially focusing on how to create a constructive dialogue between the private and public sectors, since they both play key roles in making Europe Cloud active.

The three Members of the European Parliament appointed by the ITRE committee to lead the discussions on the Horizon 2020 regulations, Teresa Riera Madurell, Christian Ehler and Maria Da Graça Carvalho published draft reports respectively on the Regulation establishing Horizon 2020, the Regulation laying down the Rules for Participation and Dissemination in Horizon 2020 and the Specific Programme implementing Horizon 2020. These reports were presented to the Committee on 18 June 2012.

On 20 June, the event “Security and Privacy in the Digital World” was organized in Brussels by Eurosmart – an organisation representing the Smart Security Industry for multi-sector applications. The event focused on topics related to smart embedded security for the Internet of Things, security of mobile applications and digital identity and access management in cloud based services.

On 13 June, at the fourth Cloud Computing World Forum in London, the European Commission gave an update on its work with the European Cloud Strategy. At the conference, Megan Richards, Acting Deputy Director-General for DG INFSO, presented the key parts of the strategy and stressed that there has been extensive preparations and discussions on EU-level on the matter. The strategy will consist of three parts; a legal framework, research support actions – especially focusing on security and privacy issues – and market stimulating measures helping for example the public sector align their demands for cloud computing.

The European People’s Party (Christian-Democrats) organized a public hearing on Horizon 2020 in the European Parliament on 6 June 2012. NESSI participated in the hearing, which was divided into three panels allowing relevant discussions for selected industrial and academic stakeholders.

EU cloud computing will lag two years behind the US due to European privacy rules and the eurozone crisis, said a report on the future of cloud computing released on Friday (1 June) by US technology research company Gartner.

The SEMIRAMIS project is organizing a workshop with demonstrations on identity management for mobile citizens across Europe on the 12 and 13th June 2012 in Paris. This event is collocated with the EEMA conference.

On 31 May, the Competitiveness Council of the European Union held a public deliberation on Horizon 2020 and agreed on the main elements of the Competitiveness and SME programme for 2014 to 2020 . Please find out in details, which aggreements could be accomplished regarding Horizon 2020:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/intm/130562.pdf

A recent workshop organised by the ITRE Committee investigated the planned 'financial instruments' for the Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs (COSME) and Horizon 2020. It was said that the two new programmes are mainly designed to support industry and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EU in research and innovation activities.

Several EU member states and organisations representing European universities have recently published position papers regarding Horizon 2020. Switzerland and Norway, together with EARTO (European Association of Research and Technology Organisations) and EUA (European University Association) cover a range of issues in their position papers, especially focusing on the Horizon 2020 rules for participation. All papers expressed concern about the single reimbursement rate for all types of partners in Horizon 2020 projects and call specifically for the option to use real indirect costs to be reinstated, alongside the proposed 20 per cent flat rate. In addition, the EARTO paper includes an analysis on how research organisations will be affected by the proposed new reimbursement rate, based on a survey of the 20 research organisations most active in FP7 Cooperation.

The working document ‘Specific Programme Implementing Horizon 2020’ by the Industry, Research and Energy Committee of the EP is now available. This document by MEP Maria Da Graça Carvalho will form the basis of the EP report on the EC proposal for Horizon 2020 from November 2011.

Within the document, the EC proposal is regarded as a real step forward and it strikes the correct balance between the three pillars (Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges). Maria Da Graça Carvalho welcomes the emphasis placed on the ERC but would like to see more prominence given to the Marie Curie Actions. The document devotes a chapter to the synergies between Horizon 2020 and the Structural Funds. It gives some concrete suggestions for how the two instruments could be made more complementary and linked. Regarding industry participation, Carvalho emphasises the importance of strengthing the industrial base in Europe and ensuring that research results are effectively converted into innovative products which then make it to the market. In, the document looks at the proposed structure for Horizon 2020 and suggests a slightly modified model, which would see a number of horizontal instruments across the three pillars.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe organized a public hearing on Horizon 2020 in the European Parliament on 15 May 2012.

On 10 may, the International Data Corporation organised the workshop “Removing Barriers to Cloud Computing in Europe” on behalf of DG Information Society. The main goal was to discuss preliminary conclusions and recommendations of a study conducted by IDC on the demand and barriers to take up of Cloud Computing.

The main outcomes of the workshop will be included in the final IDC report, which will be available in June 2012 and aims to provide input for the EC Cloud Computing Strategy.

On 2 May, the Commission organised an all-day event on the topic of Research in future Cloud Computing. At the event, the Commission’s Cloud Expert Group presented the outcomes of its report “Advances in the Cloud”, stressing in particular the importance for Europe to focus on long-term research efforts.
 
The report also discussed cloud from a business perspective and provided suggestions for specific research areas. The report published on 2 may, was a follow-up on the Expert Group’s report “The future of Cloud Computing” from 2010.

Please find links to the agenda and the presentations here: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/ssai/events_en.html

We would like to inform you that the European Commission's Directorate General 'Information Society and Media' (INFSO) will be renamed into 'Communication Networks, Content and Technology' (DG Connect) by the 1st of July. The name stands for the key areas Communication Networks, Content and Technology.


More information can be found under following links:
• The Commission changes to face the future: We launch DG Connect
• Website of the DG

The name change reflects a change within the organization of the Directorate General. For further details upon the organization chart, please click here.

On 12 April, the Commission organised an information day about the European Cloud Partnership (ECP) which Commissioner Neelie Kroes announced in Davos on 26 January. The purpose of the event was to explain the future plans for the European Cloud Partnership and to answer the large amount of questions that the Commission received about the partnership after the announcement.

Rainer Zimmermann, head of the Commission’s unit for Software and Services at DG INFSO, explained the objectives with the ECP saying it aims to overcome the fragmented public sector demand for Cloud services in the EU. The ECP is intended to provide public sector requirements for Cloud across Member States, regions and application areas. The Partnership will be organized around a governance level and an implementation level, inviting around 10 Member States and a number of different Industry Players to participate and the work will be organized around 3 phases. EU funding will initially be available in the form of a pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) action by approximately 10 million euro. The first call is expected for July with a deadline in January.

More information about the European Cloud Partnership will be announced in connection to the European Cloud Strategy that the Commission will present later this year.

Please find more information about the European Cloud Partnership Info Day on 12 April 2012 here.

NESSI Strategic Project SERENOA presents its latest Newsletter. Please use following link to find out more about about multidimensional context-aware adaptation of service front-ends, the latest news and upcoming workshops!

On 2nd May, the Commission is organising an event for Research in Future Cloud Computing. The purpose of the event is to present a report by the Cloud Expert Group established by the Commission to develop a Cloud Computing vision for Europe.

In 2010, the Expert Group published the report “The Future of Cloud computing”. Since then, technology for supporting cloud computing has made considerable advances. In order to reflect on the future changes and challenges of Cloud Computing, the expert group re-convened in 2011 to identify the major gaps and necessities for future research and development in cloud technologies. Their results will be presented in the form of a follow-up report, on the event on 2 May.

The event is organized by the Commission unit for Software and Services (DG INFSO) and is now open for registration. This is the draft agenda and to register, please visit this link.

The Vice-President of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes, announced the European Cloud Partnership on the World Economic Forum Davos (Switzerland) on the 26th January 2012.The Commission launched the Partnership with an initial investment of 10 million Euros to ensure that Europe will maximise the benefits from clouds, while allowing organisations to respect their obligations under EU law. It shall bring together public authorities, the industry as well Cloud buyers or suppliers in order to create a strong common basis for Cloud procurement by public authorities.

For more information on the European Cloud Partnership, please visit following link:
Speech of Neelie Kroes