Information Society News

This conference, organised by the Belgian Privacy Commission, will take place in the context of the 2010 Belgian EU presidency and focuses on several target groups : the European data protection authorities, national and international academics and researchers. Two areas of scientific research will be examined: historical and clinical-medical research. The conference is primarily intended as a discussion forum on best practices in both areas, workshops will therefore be organised alongside the traditional plenary sessions.

Modern networked embedded systems deliver flexible and dynamically adaptive capabilities through embedded intelligence, diagnostics, advanced control and new paradigms of loosely-coupled elements riding on a large-scale infrastructure. In the context of positioning on-going FP7 research in the area of Monitoring and Control in relation to the future FP7 work programme, this first meeting will discuss current and future trends in research and industrial applications and provide strategic guidance on how to shape a future research agenda for 2013 and beyond.

This International Conference on Wearable Micro and Nano Technologies for Personalised Health aims to attract scientists from various disciplines, doctors and policy makers from the healthcare industry. The detailed final scientific programme is now online

In the context of the “AAL Forum Odense 2010”, a Young Researchers and PhD workshop will take place on 15th September 2010. Young scientists from various disciplines (geriatrics, engineering, architecture, informatics, psychology, sociology, nursing sciences, economics, etc.) investigating technical solutions for older adults, are invited to submit their application before 30 June 2010.

This report has been prepared in view of the EU-LAC Summit that was held in Madrid on 18 May 2010. It compiles projects representing Scientific and Technological Cooperation between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union for Sustainable Development and Social Inclusion.

Europe's digital economy is growing in strength, spreading throughout all sectors of the economy and reaching into all areas of our lives, according to the European Commission's Digital Competitiveness report published today.

The program will include information about the idea behind the call for proposals, the process and timetable, and national eligibility criteria. A 3-5 minute slot for presentation of project ideas will be provided for participants who wish to do so. Time for networking, Questiions and Answers and discussions are also planned. Participation, lunch and coffee will be free of charge, travel and accommodation arrangements should be paid and planned by the participants.

This forum convenes over 400 leaders from all sectors of health care to share the best practices and successful initiatives for improved delivery and outcomes in Europe. Among the topics discussed are issues such as "Successful eHealth implementation : improving quality, access and costs" and "Ambient Assisted Living - new solutions for the ageing population".

The conference will focus on the following key themes : sustainable energy, sustainable ICT solutions and greening Europe's cities. The event will also provide an opportunity to network and exchange good practices in the use of cohesion policy instruments at regional level.

Europe's Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector, accounting for just 4.8% of GDP, leads the way in private research and development (R&D) in the EU, with 25% of total investment and 32% of researchers working in the private sector in 2007, according to a European Commission report released today. However, even with these numbers the EU is still lagging behind global competitors in terms of both public and private ICT R&D investment. This investment gap is identified as one problem to tackle by the forthcoming European Digital Agenda, one of seven flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Many AAL stakeholders, especially service organisations, SMEs but also political bodies and administrations, are operating on a regional level. In particular, end users and family carers have mostly a regional or even local perspective. Access to markets, especially for new systems solutions, are possibly easier on a regional level because of already existing networks and activities between main actors and supportive regional policies and programmes as e.g. special credit schemes for senior citizens. The AAL Association would like to welcome representatives of regions or projects closely related to regions for a first exchange of information and possible interest and ideas for cooperation in the area of Ambient Assisted Living. Deadline for registration is 20 May.

The headline theme of the meeting is 'The social model for Assistive Technology-technology transfer (AT-tt)'. This social model assumes that the development of AT is something that has to be driven by the goal of achieving an inclusive society – and so there are moral, financial, business and scientific issues to understand and manage. Participants are expected from business, academia, health or social care and users of assistive technology. A call for contributions has been launched (outline to be sent by 31 May). This workshop is organised by Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe and the University of Sheffield.

The subject of the contract is a study to understand and structure new needs and opportunities of the design of future embedded systems. It will support and prepare the FP8 ICT work programme for the embedded systems design area. A significant part will address emerging system of systems aspects.

We look for a company to assist the Commission with carrying out usability tests with children between 13 and 17 years old on social networking sites. The purpose of this exercise is to test how young people find, use and understand safety features implemented by some of the social networking sites signatories to the "Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU". We want to check how they find safety information, how they understand it, how fast they find the privacy settings, how they understand them, how they manage to change them, whether they are able to find the report mechanism, how they understand it, etc. Youth participating in this testing will have to be from the UK, France and Germany. The contract is for work of minimum 80 days to be carried out over a period of a maximum of 4 months, with a maximum total value of 50.000 €.

European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes will welcome the Council's conclusions on Europeana, Europe's digital library, and introduce the recently nominated Reflection Group on digitisation. Before the end of the year, the Group is due to present innovative solutions on how best to speed up digitisation, online accessibility and preservation of cultural works across Europe. Ms Kroes will urge Ministers to speed up work on the digitisation of cultural work to boost the availability of Europe's cultural heritage on Europeana.

The European Commission has adopted a Decision establishing harmonised technical rules for Member States on the allocation of radio frequencies in the 800 MHz band that contribute to the deployment of high-speed wireless internet services by avoiding harmful interference. In several Member States the 800 MHz frequencies are being freed up as part of the so-called "digital dividend" resulting from the switchover from analogue to digital television broadcasting. If Member States decide to change the existing frequency allocation (for broadcasting) they must immediately apply the harmonised technical rules laid down by the Decision to make these frequencies available to wireless broadband applications. Today's decision does not itself require Member States to make available the 790-862 MHz band for electronic communication services. However, the Commission is considering such a proposal in the forthcoming Radio Spectrum Policy Programme, which will take account of a recent consultation on the subject and the 22-23 March Spectrum Summit organised by the Commission and the European Parliament.

The European Commission has granted autonomy to the ENIAC Joint Undertaking, a body created by the EU's Council of Ministers to bring together European research in nanoelectronics. This is a major step forward because it marks the real beginning of a balanced and innovative public-private partnership in which industry, Member States and the Commission aim for industrial excellence and a significant impact on the economy. The European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council (ENIAC) will implement a budget for research of up to €3 billion over ten years, giving it critical mass on a global scale. ENIAC will foster research and development collaboration between stakeholders such as industry, public authorities, academia and research centres inter alia by effective coordination of resources and funding from EU, industry, national and intergovernmental R&D programmes. Nanoelectronic parts are very widely used, often almost unnoticed, to improve the performance, energy efficiency and functionalities of many kinds of machines ranging from cars, planes and phones, to factories, washing machines and televisions.

The study's principal goal is to analyse Europe's market status in photonics areas particularly relevant for building a future low carbon economy such as energy-efficient lighting, photovoltaics or all-optical communications, and its potential for further development.

The European Parliament's views on Europe's digital future have been welcomed by European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes. In particular, the Commissioner welcomed proposals from Parliament that all EU citizens should have access to broadband internet by 2013, be able to use their mobile phones as a mobile wallet and have access to all public services online by 2015. The Commission will take into account the European Parliament's Resolution adopted today in the preparation of its forthcoming Communication on a Digital Agenda for Europe, one of the flagships of Europe 2020, the Commission’s new economic strategy for Europe.

Strong support from the European Parliament for the further development of Europeana, Europe's digital library, archive and museum, has been welcomed by European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes. The European Parliament's Resolution adopted today has joined the European Commission in asking EU Member States to step up their efforts to make their cultural heritage available through the site that already gives direct access to 7 million digitised books, maps, photographs, film clips, paintings and musical extracts.