It has been published the Communication of 5th September 2008 from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions related to the ex-post evaluation of the ‘Information Society Technologies (IST)’ Thematic Priority in the Sixth Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration (RTD) (COM(2008) 533 final).

Background

The objectives of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) were to strengthen the European Research Area and the scientific and technological bases of European industry and encourage its international competitiveness, and to promote research activities in support of other EU policies.

In FP6, implemented from 2003 until 2006, the major investment was in a number of thematic priorities intended to focus and integrate Community research: €3,984 million was invested in the ‘IST Thematic Priority’ and an additional €216 million was invested in high-speed networks to connect research institutions in Europe with others in the world. The budget for the ‘Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Theme under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) is €9,050 million for the period 2007-2013.

Objectives

The objective of the evaluation was to assess the systemic effects of the IST research activities under the FP6, and the extent to which they have contributed to the FP6 and wider EU strategic objectives. It focused on the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, utility and sustainability of the investment.

Main Recommendations

1. It is recommended that efforts be made to continue to consolidate public-private partnerships of a more permanent nature, such as Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs), under the Seventh Framework Programme.
2. It is recommended to continue the effort to ensure that support for SMEs and for large firms is not ‘compartmentalised’ into different measures or tools.
3. A platform should be created under the Seventh Framework Programme for new and high-growth companies to meet venture capital investors.
4. Participation from outside Europe should be encouraged in all projects, from both developing and industrialised countries.
5. The advisory system — e.g. the IST Advisory Group — should be Internationalised by including top scientists and engineers from around the world.
6. The latest international developments and challenges should be reflected in the work programme. A more flexible approach may be needed to integrate new, interesting developments in the field faster.
7. The research effort should focus on creating and sustaining world leadership where Europe already has a comparative advantage and where Europe has a new opportunity to take the lead. Europe should be selective and not attempt to become a world leader in every area.
8. The eInfrastructures approach should be expanded to more application-oriented and user-oriented platforms in other sectors.
9. Accounting control in JTIs should be carried out by Member States and participating companies, with a minimum of intervention at Community level.
10. The Panel strongly recommends developing a more trust-based approach towards participants at all stages. The existence of a few unfortunate examples should not be allowed to stand in the way of innovation.
11. Shorter proposals should be required with fewer details of work packages and a focus on the appropriateness of partnerships, in particular the inclusion of highly innovative participants.
12. More complete and helpful feedback should be provided to proposers whose ideas are not funded.
13. A new approach should be tested whereby proposals are not fully evaluated initially. All applications passing a few basic checks should be given a small amount of ‘seed funding’ for an exploratory phase. After this, exploratory projects with successful results would be selected for full project funding.
14. Financing projects based on actual performance rather than promises and reputation could both reduce the initial paperwork and be a viable way of attracting innovative (small) companies that would not otherwise consider applying for Community funding.
15. Consideration should be given to expanding the two-step evaluation procedure from the Open part of the ‘future and emerging technology’ area to other parts of the programme — prospective participants first provide a broad outline of their project idea, and only provide a more refined plan once they are selected.
16. Reporting, which is time-consuming and may be untimely, should be optimised to allow the participants to report when there is something to report.
17. It should be possible to refocus research on different priorities if this becomes necessary during implementation.
18. Similarly, more flexibility should be allowed in the composition of partnerships during the project, including the possibility of changing partners if the research takes a direction that would benefit from new partners or the replacement of partners.
19. The Panel recommends a more strategic use of standardisation to create new EU-wide markets. Standard-setting is needed as a tool for pulling through innovations and creating viable markets for new products and services.
20. Welcoming the recent Commission Communication on pre-commercial procurement, the Panel recommends that new initiatives be taken to allow public authorities to procure the development of innovative goods and services.
21. The European single market needs to be made more effective for business angels and venture capitalists, and European investment funds need to be more effectively utilised to pull through innovations from the Framework Programmes.
22. When this cannot be left to market forces, a more strategic approach to standardisation at European level, focused on interoperability and development of standards where there is a well-documented need for coherent innovative services and European leadership, will be in the broader public interest.