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eMobility News - September 2009
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Many of us are currently busy with project proposals for the upcoming FP7-ICT
Call 5. The submission deadline, 26 October 2009, is just a month away. Again,
it is to be expected that only a small share of consortium partners will be SMEs.
If you would like to know what the reasons are, read the report about the
eMobility survey on SME participation.
FP7 Call 5 was also an important topic at the recent eMobility General Assembly
in Brussels. Beyond this short-term target, eMobility is in the process of
generating a new version of the Strategic Research Agenda. Read more about this
and other activities at the GA in the report below.
Please enjoy reading, and send us your comments.
Milon Gupta, Eurescom
Editor
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FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME 7
+++ eMobility survey: Participation of SMEs in FP6 and FP7 +++
In a recent survey conducted amongst eMobility's small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs), we tried to learn more about the variables that concern the
participation of SMEs in EU Framework Programme projects, both FP6 and FP7. The
majority of SMEs in eMobility are small companies with up to 50 employees.
We found out that the participation rate in FP projects is relatively high -
64%. Out of these, 53% have reported that they have participated in 2-5
projects, and additional 31% reported to have participated in over 5 projects.
Almost all, 95%, will consider participating again.
Getting involved in new FP projects is always an issue for SMEs. Most of the
SMEs (74%) would prefer to be invited to participate, but reality shows that
being proactive is better than waiting for an invitation. Results show that two
thirds were in fact invited, while one third (32%) have initiated their
projects.
The main hurdles for SMEs in FP projects remain: the administrative burden,
finding partners, lack of funding for initiating and building consortia, and a
problematic long-term perspective.
Common complaints of SMEs include the perception that most projects are given
always to the same companies, that SME cannot afford lobbying and attending all
meetings in Brussels, and that the cycles are too long for SMEs, causing
negative effect on cash flow.
Nevertheless, the general feeling of SMEs towards FP7 is positive, as SMEs
definitely state that they want to increase their participation. In this sense
it seems that their first participation gives SMEs appetite for more.
We can conclude that complaints about red tape are likely to remain, but,
interesting enough, this is not the main hurdle for SMEs. The tough competition
for the money is perceived as the highest barrier. To ease that, SMEs have
expressed their wish to receive a more favorable and sociable approach from the
large enterprises with whom they are trying to collaborate.
Yoram Bar-Zeev, Beacon Tech Ltd., ybz[at]beacontech.eu
PAST EVENTS
+++ eMobility GA in Brussels +++
The 5th General Assembly of the eMobility Technology Platform was held in
Brussels on 3 September 2009. 80 representatives from industry and academia
attended the event.
The main items of this GA include a report highlighting the eMobility work of
the past year, presentations on the progress and plans on the Strategic Research
and Strategic Applications Agendas, news from the Mirror Group, and a report on
eMobility coordination activities regarding Call 5 proposals.
Andy Houghton from the European Commission informed the participants about the
upcoming Call 5 of FP7 and about a Future Internet PPP that is currently being
developed by 16 industry stakeholders. This PPP could be in the Workprogramme
2011-2013, and could be a dedicated topic in Call in September 2010.
Parallel sessions on the application topics of transport, energy, and health
took place in the afternoon. During the GA also the election of the new Steering
Board members with mandate for the next two years took place. The new Steering
Board members, grouped by category, are:
Industry group: Alcatel-Lucent, Deutsche Telekom, DoCoMo Communication Laboratories Europe, Ericsson AB, France Telecom, NEC Europe, Nokia Siemens Networks, PT Inovação, SAP, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor ASA, TeliaSonera, Thales Communications SA, Vodafone Group.
Research group: Centre Tecnologic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC), Fraunhofer Institute (FOKUS), FUNDACIO ROBOTIKER, IST - Tech. Univ. Lisbon, Waterford Institute of Technology.
SME group: APIF MOVIQUITY S.A., Beacon Tech Ltd., GOWEX, InterInnov, Targeting Innovation Ltd.
Before the end of the meeting, Fiona Williams, chair of eMobility, informed
the attendees about future plans. eMobility will continue its major activities
in 2010, although in a broader technical scope, addressing networking in a wider
sense compared to solely mobile communications. The Steering Board has added one
further observer from Photonics 21 in order to include topics related to optical
transmission and other photonics topics. eMobility will integrate these
technologies into eMobility publications and the Strategic Research Agenda
(SRA). Next year, the Strategic Applications Agenda (SAA) and the SRA will be
merged into one document which will be called SRA for the sake of simplicity.
The minutes and slides presented at the eMobility GA 2009 are available on the
eMobility Web site (for members only):
http://www.emobility.eu.org/GA5/GA5-intro-after.html
INFO FOR MEMBERS
+++ eMobility Wiki for members +++
eMobility has set up a Wiki for members. It allows to easily create and edit
Web pages within the browser. This gives members of eMobility the unique
opportunity to present their company profile and make their skills visible to
other members.
Members who prepare an FP7 Call 5 proposal and require project partners with
specific skills are encouraged to check on the Wiki for potential partners.
The Wiki is available at
http://wiki.ist-emobility.org - for login please use your regular member
password.
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Contact person:
Dr. Fiona Williams
Chair of eMobility - The Mobile and Wireless Communications and Technology
Platform