‘ICT Proposers’ Day’ event is organised every two years by the Information Society and Media Directorate-General of the European Commission promoting Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and this year under the auspices of the Hungarian EU Presidency, ‘ICT Proposers’ Day 2011’ event was held at Hungoexpo Fair Center, Budapest, on 19-20 May, 2011.
The event was dedicated to networking and partnership building for ICT Calls 8 and 9 of the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission (FP7), offering more than one billion Euros of EU funding. Thematic sessions on the Work Programme 2011-12 on ICT research with presentations of proposal ideas, meeting points presented by Commission officials and other information stands helped proposers to form project consortia and gather information at the same time.
The most challenging session of the event was Objective 1.2. Cloud Computing Internet of Services and Advanced Software Engineering. Many of the participants, who are interested in Cloud Computing area, couldn’t get in the session due to keen participation of the people. Therefore it is expected that many proposals under this objective will be submitted within the call 8. This objective focuses on technologies specific to the networked, distributed dimension of software and access to services and data. It will support long-term research on new principles, methods, tools and techniques enabling software developers in the EU to easily create interoperable services based on open standards, with sufficient flexibility and at a reasonable cost. The Indicative budget of this objective is EUR 68.5 million of which a minimum of 30% allocated to IPs and 50% to STREPs and EUR 1.5 million for CSA
The other attractive point of the sessions is the given information about the including the SMEs in the projects in nearly every objectives of the Calls . It is desired by EC that especially SMEs/professional associations should be included in the projects and SMEs users actively should take place in the pilot activities. Thus, it is a big opportunity for the all SMEs to participate in projects of Call8 and Call9 and to test and implement the new technologies which will be very useful for them and their sector.
1600 participants, mainly from academia, business and government from all EU Member States, Associated and Candidate Countries have attended the event to find a potential partner to build consortia with. The event has also hosted representatives of Turkish research and innovation community in ICT sector. Aslıhan Kağnıcı Assistant Consultant of TAGES, Hakan Dervis Kocak Project Manager in Enocta, Haluk Gökmen Consultant in Arcelik, Ebru Basak FP7 ICT National Expert for Turkey, Ezgi Bener ICT NCP for Turkey, Onur Jane EUREKA Project Officer in Turkey, Baris Ala Business and Technology Developer in Parkyeri, Kerem Erçoşkun R&D Projects Coordinator in INNOCENT, Suleyman Sevim General Manager in NOVEN Energy and the other representatives from Turkey participated to ICT Proposers’ Day. This year one of the most remarkable points was the participation and the activities of the Turkish representatives in the event; at least one project presentation made by a Turkish representative nearly in each thematic session and they participated in the Face-to-Face meetings actively. This year Idealist F2F event was well organized and the participants realized their meetings efficiently.
The participants found the opportunity to strengthen the relations with the main actors, researchers, professionals and key persons in ICT research and development area. They also found the face-to-face meeting opportunity with the EC DG-INFSO Officials. Approximately 75 Commission officials were present to provide information on the content of the calls for proposals and on how to submit a proposal. Therefore, the event became extremely helpful for the participants who are active in ICT sector to find suitable partners to build consortiums and develop projects within the ICT Call 8 and ICT Call 9.
After the event, online networking is still going on! You can join and take your place in the networking world. Please visit the following link to access all documents and presentations of the events: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/ictproposersday/2011/index_en.htm You can also download the ‘ICT Work Programme 2011-2012’ from the following link http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/
