Information and Communication Technologies

Welcome to the UK National Contact point for programmes covering:

This NCP exists to provide you with a free support service to help you understand what these Programmes offer in the context of your organisation. We will also highlight the very latest news and views on these programmes and offer expert and impartial guidance for those applying for EC funding.

The NCP team can provide general and specific advice on:

In addition, we will participate in seminars and workshops on a regional and national basis to ensure that we can maximise your chances of success in Europe.

In general the programmes provide support for collaborations in the context of  their workprogrammes following calls for proposals published in the Official Journal.

Calls For Proposals 2007 -8
ICT Theme
FP7 was launched at the end of 2006 with a budget in excess of 50B euros for the seven years 2007-2013. The ICT theme (known as IST in FP6) commands more than 9B euros to be spent principally upon collaborative research and technological development projects.

By the end of its first year the programme had launched a number of calls for proposals:

ICT Call 3 opened on 4th December 2007, with an indicative budget of 266 M Euros and closed on for 8 April 2008. 829 proposals were received, of these 307 scored above threshold. Limited budget means that only around 70 projects will obtain funding and are expected to commence at the turn of the year.

ICT CALL 4
Announced 19 November 2008 with a budget of  800 M Euros, the closing date for this call is April 1 2009  [at 17:00 hrs Brussels Local time].

See 2009 Workprogramme and other documentation available from:
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP7DetailsCallPage&call_id=185

Note:  the budget indicated in the 2009 Workprogramme which is the official document may be smaller than anticipated in the full version agreed by the members states committee which covers the  period 2009-2010 (obtainable from http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/ ). These differences arise because the Commission’s future budget decisions have not yet been formalised. Once they are it is expected that future versions of the official Workprogramme will result in upward revisions of the budgets.

ICT Calls 5 & 6 will be based upon the 2009-2010 Workprogramme.

FET Open – The Leading edge of ICT
The Future and Emerging Technologies open scheme accepts brief proposals for novel research at any time. ‘Short’ (5 page) proposals are collected into batches and evaluated on a timetable which is set out on the FET Open website. The best of these short proposals are subsequently asked to prepare a Full Proposal (50+ pages) by a specified deadline.

The first four batches have closed, further batches will follow until the call closes on 31 December 2008, by which time an extension to the call for a further 2 years is expected.

FET Open also accepts one step proposals for Coordination projects on a similar timetable.

In addition to the Open scheme FET proactively solicits ‘normal’ proposals on specific topics as part of the regular ICT Calls. e.g in ICT Call3:for “Science of complex systems for socially intelligent ICT”, “Embodied intelligence” and “ICT forever yours”

Non Framework Programmes
eContentplus
The final call for this programme expected closed on 12 June 2008.Evaluation is in process. In 2009 areas of interest to the eContentplus community will become part of the ICT PSP programme details from available from the eContentplus website 

ICT Policy Support Programme
The ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP) aims at stimulating innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and best use of ICT by citizens, governments and businesses. ICT PSP has completed two calls for proposals, a further call is anticipated in 2009.

 For further details are available on the ICT PSP page.

Help is at hand
If you need help in understanding the above – please call us on 0870 191 0112.