Executive Summary

Programme Report 1^st half 2002

Previous Executive Summaries

This sixth ITEA Programme Report covers the first half of 2002 (1 January to 30 June 2002).

Mid-term Assessment
With the 5th Call in progress, ITEA is almost at the halfway stage of its eight-year programme. At the Directors Committee Meeting on March 7 2002, it was decided to carry out a Mid-Term Assessment to make recommendations for the future direction of the programme and benchmark its current status (both against programme objectives and industry/technology trends). This eight-month exercise is due to start following the planned publication of the Interim Report on ITEA's Status (the IRIS Book) in April 2003.

Projects in ITEA
This year we forecast the level of R&D to be 1,377 FTEs (Full Time Equivalent). Call 4 started with 10 labelled projects and 1067 FTEs, but - due to funding decisions - was reduced to nine projects and 850 FTEs. A total of 35 projects (representing 4,104 FTEs) were submitted for Call 5 and 24 project outlines (3,527 FTEs) were accepted, nine with conditional recommendations.

There appears to be a two-year cycle for participation in projects (starting in 2001, 2003, etc.). We therefore expect a better result from Call 5 than from Call 4. However, as projects tend to start later than January, Calls may fluctuate, but research will be more stable on an annual basis. Final reviews of projects finished in the current reporting period (EUROPA and VHE-Middleware) were positive.

Roadmap
A follow-up to the first ITEA Roadmap (published in March 2001) focuses on Intermediation Services and Infrastructures (ISI) and Complex System Engineering (CSE), alongside updates of activities in the other domains. An intermediate report is due in January 2003 and a full in January 2004.

Symposium
Our 3rd symposium (Koepelkerk Amsterdam, 10-11 October 2002, by invitation only) featured exhibits of 31 projects (for more details, see www.itea-office.org/symposium).

New Corporate Identity
Templates and logos plus guidelines for implementing the ITEA Corporate Identity are available on our website. Our brochure (released April 2002) and a new website, which went live in July, are in the new house style.

ITEA & FP6
The chairmen of ITEA and MEDEA+ sent a joint letter to commissioners Busquin and Liikanen on ways of further improving cooperation with the IST programme. The Strategic Domains concept was proposed at a meeting with FP6 representatives in Brussels and presented to the EUREKA High Level Group (HLG) meeting in Thessalonica on April 26, where it was well received.

Organisation
Mr R. Havas, Mr J. Magen and Mr B. Ulmer - representing respectively Thomson multimedia, Alcatel and DaimlerChrysler - join the ITEA Board Support Group and the ITEA Steering Group welcomes Mr R. Glaschick and Mr J. Bermejo, who represent respectively Siemens and Telvent of Spain.