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FP6-Wayforward IST - FP6

FP6 - Overview

HLT Overview
IST Programme in FP5
Achievements in the EU
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EC Team

The European Commission's Proposal for the 6th Framework Programme (FP6) ? the follow-on to the current FP5 Programme ? was published on 21 February 2001. The field of Information Society Technologies (IST) is the principal thematic priority of this programme, with a budget of ?3625 million.

The first Call of IST Proposals under FP6 was published on 17 December 2002. The deadline for submissions is 24 April 2003. The final version of the Work Programme 2003 - 2004 is available for download. (Other language versions in the background documents section.)

 

FP6 Priority Areas

As a pre-activity to FP6, the EC launched an invitation to submit an Expression of Interest (EoI) to allow interested parties to propose ideas. The HLT-relevant event took place in Luxembourg 13-14 May 2002, titled 'Interface technologies in FP6'. The report, Analysis of the Expressions of Interest, is vailable for download from CORDIS and makes interesting reading. By the close of the deadline, the EC had received a total of 3200+ expressions of interest for the IST programme, more than twice the anticipated number.


Timeline


April 2001

Programme Consultation meetings

to April 2002

Internal Reflection Groups

1 April 2002

Call For Expression of Interest

May 2002

Open Workshops

7 June 2002

Deadline of Call For Expression of Interest

October 2002

Draft Workprogramme 2003 - 2004 becomes available

November 4-6, 2002

IST 2002 - Launch of IST in FP6

17 December 2002

Launch of First Call For Proposals

>>24 April 2003

Deadline of First Call For Proposals

June 2003

Second Call For Proposals



What's New?

The Sixth Framework Programme is bringing with it two major changes.

  1. new directions - the European Commission's research priorities are being re-oriented, to fit in with its new vision of the future. In the section What Role for Language Technologies in FP6? you can find relevant human language technologies research themes within FP6
  2. new instruments of research - the EC is changing its approach to research, through the introduction of two new types of projects ('instruments') for undertaking its research. Called Integrated Projects (IPs) and Networks of Excellence (NoE) these are expected to form the new research vehicles for FP6.

What Role for Language Technologies in FP6?

Future work in language technologies under FP6 will come under the heading Knowledge and interface technologies, and more specifically under Intelligent interfaces and surfaces (IST-4.2) and Knowledge technologies and digital content (IST-4.1). This new emphasis is in line with the concept of 'ambient intelligence' proposed by the ISTAG - Scenarios for Ambient Intelligence in 2010 [PDF, 921 KB] report.

    Work Programme for 2002 - 2006

    The first Call for Proposals under FP6 was launched on 17 December 2002. The final Work Programme 2003-2004 is available for download from the link, as is the Gui de for Proposers. Here are some extracts from the document, relating to Interface Technologies:

    IST-2002-2.3.1.6 - Multimodal Interfaces

    Objective: To develop natural and adaptive multimodal interfaces that respond intelligently to speech and language, vision, gesture, haptics and other senses.

    This work is envisaged to focus on two areas:

    • Multimodal Interaction - Interaction between and among humans and the virtual and physical environment, using intuitive multimodal interfaces that are autonomous and capable of learning and adapting to the user environment in dynamically changing contexts. They should recognise emotive user reaction and feature robust dialogue capability with unconstrained speech and language input. Interactions envisaged include: human-to-human; human-to-things; human-to-self; human-to-content; device-to-device; human-to-embodied robots.
    • Multilingual Communication - Facilitating translation for unrestricted domains, especially for spontaneous (unrestricted) or ill-formed (speech) inputs in task oriented settings. Areas to be addressed include: speech-tospeech translation; statistical/mixed approaches to translation; adaptive techniques, incorporating learning; robustness of approach.

    IST-2002-2.3.1.7 - Semantic-based knowledge systems

    Objective: To develop semantic-based and context-aware systems to acquire, organise, process, share and use the knowledge embedded in multimedia content. Research will aim to maximise automation of the complete knowledge lifecycle and achieve semantic interoperability between Web resources and services.

    Focus is on two areas:

    • Semantic-enabled systems and services - facilitating multimedia content mining on the Web and across distributed computing platforms. They should be self-organising, robust and scaleable and enable better mastery of complex information spaces through improved analysis, interpretation and visualisation of high-dimensional objects and content
    • Knowledge-based adaptive systems - combining semantically enriched content with "anytime-anywhere inferencing" in support of knowledge-intensive, time-critical tasks, especially for modelling and optimisation, automated diagnosis and decision-support.
    New Instruments

    The following new instruments are being provided to implement the priority themes:

    • integrated projects (IPs) - large scale projects, typically 3-5 years' duration, designed to support objective-driven research where the primary deliverable is new knowledge.
    • networks of excellence (NoEs) - designed to address the fragmentation of European research on a particular research topic through the cooperation of several European centres of excellence
    • Article 169 - to enable the joint implementation or cross-fertilization of national programmes

    Also available are two traditional (FP5) instruments:

    The necessary background documents concerning the new instruments are available from:

    • Introduction to the Instruments for Implementing the FP6 Priority Thematic Areas [PDF, 65K]
    • Provisions for Implementing Integrated Projects [PDF, 250K]
    • Provisions for Implementing Networks of Excellence [PDF, 162K]

    Did You Know?

    Here are some lesser known facts worth knowing:

    Background documents

    Here is a selection of useful background documents and information sources:

    Interface Technologies specific

    • IRG Report - Interface Technologies [Word, 108 KB]
      An EC internal reflection group (IRG) report
    • Multisensorial, Multilingual Interfaces & Virtual Environments [PDF, 94 KB]
      Report of the IST Programme Consultation Meeting 10
    • Interface Technologies in FP6 [Powerpoint, 169 KB]
      A powerpoint presentation given at the Interface Technologies Workshop in Luxembourg, 13-14 May 2002.

    Call for Proposal related documents

    • Call Text    EN [PDF, 119KB];   FR [PDF, 124KB];  DE [PDF, 148KB];   ES [PDF, 124KB]
    • Work Programme 2003 - 2004 (Final version)
      EN [PDF, 614KB];   FR [PDF, 642KB];   DE [PDF, 659KB];   ES [sin anexos - PDF, 469KB]
    • Guides for Proposers (for IPs) [Word, 506K]
    • Electronic Proposal Preparation and Submission System (EPSS) is now available from CORDIS.

    • The paper forms are avaiiable here:
      • Integrated Projects (IP) [zip, 136K]
      • Networks of excellence (NoE) [zip, 136K]
      • Specific support actions (SSA) [zip, 136K]
      • Specific targeted research projects (STREP) [zip, 136K]
    • Model Contract [Final version, .zip, PDF, 129KB]
    • Guidelines on Proposal Evaluation & Selection Procedures [PDF, 124 KB]
    • IST Guidance Notes for Evaluators for IST Priority Call 1 (Call Specific, 165KB, .zip, PDF)
    • Becoming available soon:
      • Financial Guidelines
      • Negotiation Guidelines
    [ Other language versions of documents, where available, can be downloaded from CORDIS.]

    General

    • New Instruments
      • Introduction to the Instruments for Implementing the FP6 Priority Thematic Areas [PDF, 65K]
      • Provisions for Implementing Integrated Projects [PDF, 250K]
      • Provisions for Implementing Networks of Excellence [PDF, 162K]
    • ISTAG - Scenarios for Ambient Intelligence in 2010 [PDF, 921 KB]. A report offering provocative glimpses of possible futures, setting the scene for IST research themes in the coming years
    • Seven thematic priorities of the Specific Programme Proposal, of which the IST research priorities is one part
    • Invitation to Submit Expressions of Interest [Deadline now passed]
    • Analysis of Expressions of Interest
    • Formal Proposal ? 6th Framework Programme (FP6) [PDF, 436KB]
    • Council Decisions - specific programmes e.g. ERA [PDF, 889KB]
    • IST section of FP6 Proposal [DOC, 26KB]
    • Introduction to IST in FP6 [Powerpoint presentation, 1.03MB]

    Additional sources of information: [ISTWeb - IST in FP6];   [EUROPA - FP6 information pages];  [CORDIS - RTD Beyond 2002].


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