Europe's ITEA to issue call for new projects

By Junko Yoshida

PARIS - ITEA (Information Technology for European Advancement), Europe's premier R&D program with a special focus on embedded and distribution software platforms, has issued a new Call for Projects.

The 7th Call opens on January 19th, when meetings will be held here to prepare for applications, firm up proposals and meet with potential partners. Applicants must submit Project Outlines by April 2nd, 2004.

ITEA, one of the EUREKA cluster programs sponsored by national governments in Europe and the European Commission, is looking for new projects that are based on industry-driven initiatives involving complementary R&D from at least two companies in two different countries.

Projects may involve between 40 and 300 man-years and typically would last up to three years. According to ITEA, a consortia should include partners from three main categories: large industries, small and medium size enterprises and universities/research institutes.

ITEA, now halfway through its eight-year program, has run 49 projects thus far. Of all the projects - 23 are completed, 25 are running and one is in its start-up phase. Many of them are focused on R&D for "software intensive systems" and are expected to be deployed in automotive, consumer electronics, aerospace and mobile communications industries.

The technical content particularly relevant to this Call should fall into "five domains" defined by ITEA roadmap, ranging from home; nomadic (mobile and transportation applications); cyber enterprise; intermediation services & infrastructures; and services and software creation, according to an ITEA spokeswoman.

Since the ITEA program is scheduled to end in June, 2007, new projects proposed at this time should not last more than 30 months, she added.

An average budget given to the current ITEA projects is "about 18 million euros per project," according to the ITEA spokeswoman. However, the budget can range from two million euros per project to 42 million euros per project, depending upon the size of man-years required by a specific project.

ITEA Calls for Projects is a two-step procedure, with short Project Outlines approved and then submitted as a Full Project Proposal. If approved these are given the ITEA (EUREKA-endorsed) label. Project participants can then apply for funding in their own countries.

ITEA is a sister program to MEDEA+, another EUREKA cluster program, which covers pan-European R&D activities in microelectronics.