5. European Technology Platforms (ETPs)

European Technology Platforms focus on strategic issues where achieving Europe's future growth, competitiveness and sustainability depends upon major technological advances. They bring together stakeholders, led by industry, to define medium to long-term research and technological development objectives and lay down markers for achieving them.
More specifically, these technology platforms

Provide a framework for stakeholders, led by industry, to define research and development priorities, timeframes and action plans on a number of strategically important issues where achieving Europe's future growth, competitiveness and sustainability objectives is dependent upon major research and technological advances in the medium to long term.
Play a key role in ensuring an adequate focus of research funding on areas with a high degree of industrial relevance, by covering the whole economic value chain and by mobilising public authorities at national and regional levels. In fostering effective public-private partnerships, technology platforms have the potential to contribute significantly to the renewed Lisbon strategy and to the development of a European Research Area of knowledge for growth. As such, they are proving to be powerful actors in the development of European research policy, in particular in orienting the Seventh Research Framework Programme to better meet the needs of industry.
Address technological challenges that can potentially contribute to a number of key policy objectives which are essential for Europe's future competitiveness, including the timely development and deployment of new technologies, technology development with a view to sustainable development, new technology-based public goods and services, technological breakthroughs necessary to remain at the leading edge in high technology sectors and the restructuring of traditional industrial sectors.

The European Technology Platforms are playing a crucial role in defining the priorities of FP7 and in writing the FP7 Work Programmes.

A list and pointers to the European Technology Platforms can be found via http://cordis.europa.eu/technology-platforms/individual_en.html.

The Technology Platforms that are relevant for EuroSys members are described in the following subsections.

5.1 ARTEMIS

ARTEMIS (ADVANCED RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY FOR EMBEDDED INTELLIGENCE AND SYSTEMS) is the Technology Platform for Embedded Systems. It is an industry-led initiative to reinforce the position of the EU as a leading worldwide player in the design, integration and supply of Embedded Systems. ARTEMIS will stimulate research and development for the methods, tools and technologies needed to incorporate intelligent and safe 'Embedded Systems' in, for example, cars, airplanes, home electronics, cellular phones, manufacturing lines, industrial automation and public infrastructures.

ARTEMIS brings together leading industrial groups, SMEs and academic research institutes together with national and European bodies to establish and to implement a coherent and integrated European research and development strategy for Embedded Systems. The creation of this European global eco-system is crucial for the wide and timely adoption of modern embedded systems across industries and across different sized companies. See also http://www.artemis-office.org/DotNetNuke/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

5.2 The Mobile and Wireless Communications Technology Platform

The overall policy objective of the Mobile and Wireless Communications Technology Platform is to reinforce Europe's leadership in mobile and wireless communications and services and to master the future development of this technology, so that it best serves Europe's citizens and the European economy. See also http://www.emobility.eu.org/about_us.html

5.3 NESSI

The objective of NESSI (Networked European Software and Services Initiative) is the provision of new approaches to developing services in an open environment and to deliver them efficiently through networks and devices as a distributed system. NESSI's goal is to be a key player in the transformation of the European economy through service oriented business models.

The NESSI member companies recognize that to remain competitive in the global economy, a unified European strategy is required to focus research on the development of secure and reliable software and service-oriented architectures. As crucial elements of software infrastructure are missing today, their creation in an open environment will facilitate the seamless and cost-effective development of services, enabling European organisations to achieve flexible business models and compete in an increasingly aggressive global commercial environment. Solutions built on NESSI principles will also benefit the citizen by widening the range of user-friendly services available, whilst guaranteeing privacy and safety.

NESSI's analysis shows that the future of computing will strongly depend on the social, economic and cultural context in which we evolve. Over the last months, NESSI has refined its Strategic Research Agenda and identified eight focus areas that need innovative research, stating that the overall private-public investment over the coming decade should amount to 2.5 B€.

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