CELEX: 51987PC0313
Language: en
Date: 1987-07-23
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION CONCERNING THE EUROPEAN STRATEGIC PROGRAMME FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES ( ESPRIT )

No C 283/4                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                21.10.87
                                                               II
                                                       (Preparatory Acts)
                                                  COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Regulation concerning the European strategic programme for research
                                   and development in information technologies (ESPRIT)
                                                      COM(87) 313 final
                                (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 29 July 1987)
                                                         (87/C 283/05)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES;                           enabled more ambitious research projects         and  has
                                                                   accelerated the execution of these projects (2);
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Article 130 Q                Whereas the ESPRIT Review Board recommended that
paragraph 2 thereof,                                               for the future development of ESPRIT emphasis should
                                                                   continue to be on precompetitive research and
                                                                   development, the research areas be consolidated and
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                 restructured and particular attention paid to technology
                                                                   integration projects;
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee,                                                  Whereas in a broad consultation process with a large
                                                                   number of representatives from industry and science the
                                                                   future technical scope of the programme has been
In cooperation with the European Parliament,                       defined;
                                                                   Whereas a continuous need exists to ensure systematic
Whereas by Decision 84/130/EEC (') the first phase of
                                                                   coordination between ESPRIT and national programmes
the European strategic programme for research and
                                                                   in the information technology sector;
development in information technologies (ESPRIT) was
adopted by the Council on 28 February 1984;
                                                                   Whereas this programme meets the absolute need for the
                                                                   constitution or consolidation of a specifically European
Whereas the framework programme of Community                       industrial potential in the technologies concerned;
activities in the field of research and technological              whereas its primary participants must therefore be the
development (1987 to 1991) was adopted by Council                  undertakings, universities and research centres in the
Decision 0000/000/EEC (');                                         Community which are best suited to attain these
                                                                   objectives;
Whereas the ESPRIT workprogrammes                periodically
established in close consultation with the       Information       Whereas small and medium-sized companies should be
Technology (IT) industry, industrial users      and science        encouraged to maintain a high level of participation in
have proved to be an efficient means of          programme         the programme;
management;
                                                                   Whereas adequate dissemination of, and access to results
                                                                   of projects of Community interest is essential to the
Whereas the Commission set up an independent high-                 pursuit of the aims of the Community and in particular
level body, known as the ESPRIT Review Board, to                   to the needs of small and medium-sized companies;
assess the progress of the Programme;
                                                                   Whereas there exists a need for periodic assessment of
Whereas the ESPRIT Review Board concluded that the                 the Programme;
Programme has been successfully established and is well
on its way to meeting its original objectives, is                  Whereas it is necessary for the execution of the
progressing faster than initially expected, has initiated          Programme that the Commission be assisted by a
trans-European cooperation at all levels especially where          committee;
small and medium-sized companies are concerned, has
C) OINo L67, 9. 3. 1984, p. 54.                                    (2) COM(85) 616, Brussels, 19. 11. 1985.
 ---pagebreak---   21.10.87                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 283/5
  Whereas it is in the Community's interest to consolidate             3.    The projects shall be carried out by means of
  the scientific and financial basis of European research              contracts, to be concluded by the Commission with
  by means of the involvement to a greater extent of                   companies, including small and medium-sized under-
  participants from the EFTA countries in certain Com-                 takings, universities and other bodies established in the
  munity programmes and, particularly, in programmes                   Community.
  involving cooperation in research and development of
  information technology;                                              The proposals for projects shall as a rule be submitted by
                                                                       the interested parties in reply to an open invitation
  Whereas the implementation of actions in basic research              published in the Official Journal of the European
  providing long term prospects as well as concerted                   Communities. The projects must normally involve the
  actions in the COST framework are essential elements to             participation of at least two independent industrial
  complement industrially-oriented R & D projects;                    partners not established in the same Member State. Each
                                                                      contractor will be expected to bring a significant contri-
 Whereas the Council, in its resolution of 8 April                    bution to the project. The contractors shall be expected
  1986 ('), has re-emphasized its commitment to the                   to bear a substantial proportion of the costs, 50 % of
  ESPRIT Programme and requested the Commission to                    which shall normally be borne by the Community.
 ensure, in its implementation of the programme that, in
 scope and flexibility, the programme continues to                    4.     The actions shall be carried out by means of
 provide an effective response to the ever-increasing                 contracts to be concluded by the Commission with
 challenge in the IT field;                                           universities, research institutions or undertakings
                                                                      established within the Community. The proposals for
 Whereas the Scientific and Technical Research                        actions shall as a rule be submitted by the interested
 Committee (CREST) has expressed its opinion,                         parties in reply to an open invitation published in the
                                                                       Official Journal of the European Communities. The
 HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:                                         actions must, normally, involve the participation of at
                                                                      least two universities or research institutions not
                                                                      established in the same Member State.
                            Article 1
                                                                      The Community may bear up to 100 % of the costs of
  1.   A second phase of the ESPRIT Programme of
                                                                      the actions.
 research and development for the European Economic
 Community, hereinafter referred to as 'the programme',
 is hereby adopted for a period ending on 31 December                 5.     In exceptional cases where the call for proposals
 1992. The technical scope of the programme is described              has not resulted in a satisfactory response, or in cases of
 in Annex. I.                                                         urgency, or where a call for proposals is not the most
                                                                      appropriate procedure on grounds of cost and efficiency,
 2.    The programme shall comprise pre-competitive                   it may be decided, in accordance with the procedure laid
 research and development projects (hereinafter referred              down in Article 7, to depart from the general provisions
 to as 'the projects'), actions in basic research (hereinafter        set out in paragraphs 3 and 4, viz.
 referred to as 'the actions') and accompanying measures.
                                                                     — the public call for proposals,
                            Article 2                                — the participation in the projects of at least two
                                                                          industrial partners not established in the same
 1.    The detailed objectives and the type of projects to
                                                                          Member State,
be undertaken as well as the corresponding financial
plans shall be set out in an annual work programme to
be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down                — the participation in the actions of at least two
in Article 7. Any updates which may be required during                    universities or research institutes not established in
the year under consideration shall be adopted in                          the same Member State.
accordance with the same procedure.
                                                                     6.     Contracts for the execution of projects and actions
2.     The evaluation of the projects and actions which              which conform to the rules laid down in paragraphs 3
are submitted shall be undertaken by the Commission                  and 4 may include companies, universities and other
having due regard to the general objectives of the                   bodies established in one of the non-Member States
programme and of the annual work programme. With                     referred to in Annex II. That Annex may be changed by
regard to projects requiring R & D efforts exceeding 100             the Council, acting by qualified majority, on the basis of
man-years, the eligibility of these projects shall be                a proposal submitted by the Commission.
decided in accordance with the procedure laid down in
Article 7. With regard to the other projects and the                 7.     The accompanying measures, in particular those
actions, the results of their evaluation shall be brought to         referred to in Annex I (C), aim specifically at providing
the attention of the Committee referred to in Article 6.             an adequate communications infrastructure, access to
                                                                     project results and the coordination of research and
                                                                     development activities carried out under the programmes
(') O J N o C 102,29. 4. 1986, p. 1/                                 of the Community and of the Member States.
 ---pagebreak--- ^oCh^BD                                      Official journal of the European communities                                                         ^.to.^
                                                                        ^.      ^Phe commission may consult the committee on
                                                                        any matter falling within the scope of this Regulation.
The Commission is hereby authorised to concluded in
accordance with Articlet^Ol^ of theTreaty^a^reements
with non^^iember states participating in European
cooperation in the field of scientific and technological                ^ h e r e theprocedure laid down in this Article is to be
research ^CC^T^ with a ^iew to ensuring concerted                       followed^ the representative of the Commission shall
actionhetweenthe Community acti^itiesrelatin^ to the                    refer to the committee a draft of the measures to be
collaboration in actions in basic research and                          adopted. .Phe committee shall deliver an opinion withina
accompanyin^measuresreferredtoin A n n e a l and the                    time limit set by the chairman in relationto the urgency
relevant programmes of such states.                                     of the matter. .Phe opinion shall be delivered by the
                                                                        majority specified in Article i ^ ^ of the Treaty for
                                                                        decisions which the Council is required to adopt on a
                                                                        proposal from the commissions the ^otes of the rep^
                                                                        resentati^es of the member states bein^ weighted as
The Community shall contribute to theperformance of
                                                                        indicated in that Article. The chairman shall not ^ote.
the programme within the limits of the appropriations
entered to this end in the budget of the European                       The Commission shall adopt the proposed measures if
Communities.                                                            they are in accordance with the committee's opinion. If
                                                                        the proposed measures are not in accordance with the
The overall amount of the appropriations estimated to be                committee's opinions or if no opinion is deli^ered^ the
necessary for the Community's contribution to the                       Commission shall without delay submit to the C^ouncila
projects^ actions and accompanyin^measures under the                    proposal concerning the measures to be taken, f h e
programme shall be tDOO million ECaU. The amounts                       Council shall act byaqualified majority.
include expenditure on staff^whose cost shall not exceed
^ ^ B o of the community contribution.                                  If the council has not acted within a period of one
                                                                        month of the proposal bein^ submitted to it^ the
Up to a maximum of ^^Bo of the Community's total                        proposed provisions shall be adopted by the Commission.
contribution to new projects launched under this
programme may for the firstyear be allocated to new
proiects which fall below the threshold referred to in
A r t i c l e ^ ^ . If the call for proposals has not resulted in        .Phe commission shall address a report to the council
a satisfactory response this percentage figure may be                   and to the European parliament at the latest either in
chan^edinaccordance with the p r o c e d u r e l a i d d o w n i n      t ^ O or as soon as DO^Bo of the appropriations judged
Articled.                                                               necessary ha^e been committed^ in order to assess the
                                                                        interim results achieved as comparedwiththe objectives
                                                                        of t h e p r o ^ r a m m e . T h i s r e p o r t s h a l l b e a c c o m p a n i e d b y
                                                                        suggestions for changes which m a y b e necessary in the
The commission shall ensure that the programme is                       li^ht of these results.
properly performed and^ to this end^ shall establish the
appropriate measures and infrastructures^ without
prejudice to the powers provided for in Articles ^
^and^t.                                                                 ^ i t h regard to the activities provided for in A r t i c l e t ^
                                                                        the member states and the community shall e^chan^e
                                                                        all appropriate information to which they ha^e access
                                ^r^AA^^                                 and which they are free to disclose concerning the areas
                                                                        cohered by this Regulations whether or notplanned or
P        .Phe Commission shallbe assistedby acommittee^
                                                                        carried out under their authority.
consistin^of tworepresentati^esof each^iember^tate^
and chaired by a representative of the Commissions                      The information shall be e^chan^ed in accordance w i t h a
hereinafter referred to as ^the committee'.                             procedure to be defined by the commission after
members of the committee may be assisted by experts or                  consulting the C^ommittee^ and will be treated as
advisers depending on the nature of the issue under                     confidential at the supplier'srequest.
consideration.
The proceedings of the committee shall be confidential.
                                                                        fhis Regulation shall enter into force on t Mecember
 .Phe committee shall adopt its own rules of procedure.
secretarial services for the committee shall be provided                fhis Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
by the Commission.                                                      directly applicable in all member states.
 ---pagebreak--- 21.10.87                               Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s             N o C 283/7
                                                                ANNEX       I
                                                                  ESPRIT
         The programme contains research and development projects, actions in basic research and accompanying
         measures.
         A. Research and development projects
            Research and development projects will be carried out in the following three sectors:
                                    1. Microelectronics and peripheral technologies
                                   2. Information processing systems
                                   3. It application technologies
            1. MICROELECTRONICS AND PERIPHERAL TECHNOLOGIES
               Work in this sector will have to be addressed primarily at improving the competitiveness of the
               Community microelectronics industrial sector so as to enable it to provide the IT industry with full
               system capability through access to up to date functional components and subsystems based in
               particular on state of the art semiconductor technology. To this end and in support of the
               developments of application systems, it will encompass the provision of the technological capability
               to design, manufacture and test application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) in a 'system on a chip'
               concept. Such circuits to range from high complexity random logic including several million
               elementary devices to very high speed lower complexity circuits capable of operating at up to
               5 GHz.
               The R & D activities to be pursued include:
               — High density integrated circuits:
                   The goal is to provide random logic-integrated circuits (ICs), including up to four million gates
                   for use in particular where a high degree of parallel processing is possible as, for instance, in
                   processor arrays or systolic arrays. To this end it will be necessary:
                   — to develop user friendly CAD systems, including automatic layout and design verification
                       tools (advanced silicon compilers),
                   — to develop low power high density processes, including the optimization of an automated
                       flexible manufacturing line for high yield production.
               — High speed integrated circuits:
                   The aim is to fabricate devices for use where processing of large quantities of information in real
                   time cannot be assured by parallelism due to high serial bit rate. They are potentially valuable in
                   supercomputers or front end processors for telecommunications systems. The target performance
                   will be:
                   — operation between five and 10 GHz clock frequency or gate delays less than 50 ps,
                   — complexity greater than 10 000 gates.
                   The main activities towards this goal are:
                   — development of a very fast silicon bipolar process,
                   — GaAs FET technologies will also be considered, as appropriate,
                   — special CAD tools to optimize circuit speed,
                   — special packaging techniques for GHz operation.
               — Multifunction Integrated Circuits:
                   The goal is to build a complete system on a chip with digital and analog functions, operating
                   over a wide range of speeds. Complexity up to one million transistors, minimum achievable gate
                   delay of 50 ps, power control and non-volatile memory capability will have to be implemented to
                   meet the requirements of peripherals (display and LAN control, memory management),
                   telecommunications equipments (voice and image processing), factory and office automation
                   (intelligent sensors and actuators).
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 283/8                            Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s           2 1 . 1 0 . 87
                   In order to enhance the performances of very large information systems, optoelectronic ICs will
                   be developed and used to optically interconnect distributed processors for instance.
                   The main activities to be pursued are:
                   — tuning of manufacturing processes for dedicated application,
                   — adaptation of CAD tools to mixed functions, such as analog-digital device design.
                   Throughout the execution of the programme, a special emphasis will be given to definition of
                   standards both on the software side (data exchange, tool portability between CAD system and
                   manufacturing equipment) and on the mechanical side to meet requirements for higher degree of
                   automation and flexibility.
               — Peripheral Technologies:
                   This area of the programme is aimed at ensuring that Europe develops the specific technologies
                   necessary to play a sustainable role in future peripheral systems developments. Topics requiring
                   action are, in particular, those of magneto-optic and optical mass storage and retrieval systems,
                   non-impact printers, displays, devices incorporating logic elements in conjunction with sensors,
                   transducers, and actuators.
            2. INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEMS
               The main objective of this sector is to bring together tools and technologies from the hardware and
               software domains in order to enable the design and development of the information processing
               systems of the 1990s. Particular attention will be paid to new approaches to systems design which
               will enable high quality complex systems to be developed efficiently. To develop the methods and
               tools needed, it is imperative that all aspects of the system (e.g. architecture, interfaces) are
               considered while at the same time new technologies like knowledge engineering are integrated.
               As a consequence, work in this sector will provide the capability of producing systems (of similar
               complexity to those produced now) with a significant increase in designer productivity. For example,
               the methods and tools developed will provide the mechanism by which the development costs of
               selected system components (e.g. microprocessors, real-time software modules) will be reduced to
               10 °/o of the current development costs.
               The R & D activities to be pursued fall into four complementary areas:
               — Systems design:
                   This area addresses the process from the definition of the requirements of an IT system, through
                   to its manufacture, distribution and maintenance.
                   Activities include:
                   — evaluation of methods and tools, guidance in method introduction and product evaluation
                       metrics,
                   — integration and rationalization of integrated programming system environment interfaces,
                       project support environments and knowledge-based techniques,
                   — reusable system components, automated generation of high quality programs for real-time
                       systems, formal techniques and methods.
               — Knowledge engineering:
                   This area includes the development of systems which help reasoning and decision making under
                   conditions of uncertainty and incomplete information.
                   Activites include:
                   — knowledge acquisition, learning and adaptive systems, knowledge representation, knowledge
                       manipulation and validation of knowledge-based system,
                   — natural communication processing and user interaction mechanisms,
                   — integration of knowledge engineering techniques into systems design.
 ---pagebreak--- 2 1 . 1 0 . 87                             Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s           No C 283/9
                  — Advanced systems architectures:
                      This area includes, notably, parallel archicectures aimed at overcoming system limitations and at
                      supporting modular construction.
                      Activities include:
                      — parallel architecture and interconnection of cooperating processors, programming and
                           verification techniques,
                      — distributed systems of semi-autonomous components,
                      — specialized architectures for signal processing and knowledge based information subsystems.
                  — Signal processing:
                      This area addresses the need to cope with the complexity of processing signals of varied physical
                      nature (e.g. temperature, pressure, image, natural voice).
                      Activities include:
                      — formal description of information flow, symbolic manipulation,
                      — preprocessing, feature identification, classification, error correcting methods,
                      — system components for signal processing, real-time-systems,
                      — advanced technologies for multi-sensor signal processing systems.
               3. IT APPLICATION TECHNOLOGIES
                  The main objective of this sector is to enhance European capabilities in the integration of IT into
                  systems able to be used in a broad range of applications and to validate the results in selected,
                  realistic environments.
                  The R & D activities to be pursued in IT application technologies fall into three complementary
                  areas:
                  — Computer integrated manufacturing:
                      The objective is to provide the technology base which is necessary for system vendors in order to
                      successfully meet the competitive requirements of the world market. At the same time, it is
                      expected that the rapid uptake of these IT-based technologies will induce a completion of the
                      modernization process in a wide range of manufacturing industries.
                      The scope of work will include the application of IT not only in discrete part production but to a
                      wide range of industries up to and including continuous process.
                      The establishment of open system concepts to support multi-vendor operation is an important
                      means of achieving the objective of the area.
                      Activities include:
                      — design and analysis systems allowing flexible product development so that time, materials and
                           other resources for production are minimized,
                      — factory management, planning and production control so that availability and usage of
                           equipment are increased, man-machine interactions for production planning and control
                           systems optimized, real-time applications implemented and just-in-time production supported,
                      — robotics systems,
                      — integration of material handling systems (including robots) in the production and assembly
                           process. Issues to be addressed are e.g. tool change, monitoring, washing, waste disposal,
                           assembling and other tasks associated with production. Particular emphasis will be put on
                           solutions for smaller batches,
                      — computer integrated control in process industries to create more efficient plant operation,
                     — architecture and methods for integration, including the development of methods and tools for
                          installing, operating, and monitoring computer integrated manufacturing systems and the
                          demonstration of early implementations addressing different manufacturing requirements.
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 283/10                               Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s           2 1 . 10. 87
                  — Integrated Information Systems:
                       This area addresses systems integration R & D for selected applications. Application domains
                       include office environment and the domestic environment.
                       Activities include:
                       — user environment analysis and support in order to evaluate requirements, constraints, human
                           factors, reduce introduction periods and increase productivity through improvement of user-
                           system interaction. Particular emphasis will be put on the requirements of less skilled users
                           and flexibility aspects,
                      — systems engineering comprising systems integration and validation tools, reliability, avail-
                           ability and security of systems,
                      — generic communication technologies and integrated office systems comprising multimedia
                           handling on the basis of open system architectures, generation, routing, monitoring of office
                           information, remote activities support and selected special functions,
                      — distributed systems with particular emphasis on integration of knowledge based systems and
                           advanced distributed storage systems,
                      — data collection and monitoring systems in non-factory environments (e.g. home, laboratory)
                           comprising telecontrol and networking of autonomous equipment, management of data
                           acquisition systems.
                  — IT application support systems:
                      This area addresses the integration of basic IT components into subsystems. The major goal is to
                       provide low cost technologies and large scale applicability. Particular emphasis will be put on
                       modularity and fail-safe aspects.
                      Activities include:
                      — workstations for multiple application purposes,
                      — storage and processing subsystems for stand-alone and distributed systems,
                      — local network systems and related basic services,
                      — user interfacing subsystems (e.g. visual, vocal, manual),
                      — subsystems interfacing the physical environment (e.g. vision and environment understanding,
                           laboratory data acquisition, monitoring and control).
               Throughout these three sectors (microelectronics and peripheral technologies, information processing
               systems and IT application technologies) a limited number of technology integration projects will
               be undertaken. These projects will aim at meeting ambitious, well-defined industrial targets, will be
               preplanned at an appropriate level of detail in the work programme, and normally require large-scale
               industrial efforts of a Community dimension.
            B. Actions in basic research
               The envisaged actions in basic research aim at complementing the proposed precompetitive IT R & D
               efforts by providing a Community dimension to fundamental research work in selected areas of long
               lead-time. They include promotion of high level professional training in areas of particular concern to
               the Community. The actions shall, in particular, encourage highly qualified research institutes in IT to
               become international in their orientation.
               The work areas include:
               — molecular electronics,
               — artificial intelligence and cognitive science,
               — applications of solid state physics to IT,
               — advanced System Design,
               and other areas of basic research which may be identified during the course of the programme.
 ---pagebreak--- 21.10.87                              Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s       NoC283/ll
         C. Accompanying measures
            The main objective of the accompanying measures is to provide the framework necessary to make
            optimum use of the R & D activities undertaken in the ESPRIT Programme and related activities.
            The accompanying measures include in particular:
            — coordination of Community and Member States research and development programmes and with
                programmes at international level, acquisition of information, both within the ESPRIT programme
                and from the world at large, and its appropriate dissemination,
            — coordination and documentation of standards within the ESPRIT programme and their relationship
                with national and international standards,
            — provision of means to ensure ease of communication, to serve the good technical execution of
                research and development projects as well as their management, and the appropriate dissemination
                of and access to their results, including an Information Exchange System (IES).
                                                               ANNEX       II
         The non-member States referred to in Article 2 (6) are:
         — Republic of Austria,
         — Republic of Finland,
         — Kingdom of Norway,
         — Kingdom of Sweden,
         — Swiss Confederation.