Future and Emerging Technologies

European Commission - DG CONNECT Excellence in Science

Aymard de Touzalin, Deputy Head of Unit March 26, 2013

FET IN FP7

Pathfinding future ICT

• Establishing new foundations for future ICT

•

• Redefines the conventional boundaries of ICT • Venturing into uncharted territories

• Relying on fresh synergies, cross-pollination and convergence with different scientific disciplines

E.g. Biology, chemistry, nano- and molecular science, neuro- and cognitive science, ethology, social science, economics, including the arts and humanities

• Nurture early proofs-of-concept into novel directions for mainstream research and innovation

FET mission in FP7

FET

Interdisciplinary

Novelty

S&T targeted

Foundational

High-Risk

Long-term vision

FET components

FET – three complementary approaches ('schemes')

FET Open

Individual research

projects

Early Ideas

FET Proactive

Research clusters

Incubation

FET Flagships

Common research

agendas

Large-Scale

Partnering Initiatives

Exploring Developing Addressing

novel ideas topics & communities grand challenges

Roadmap based research Open, light and agile

FET Open, an incubator for radically new

ideas for future technologies

New and visionary ideas with long-term impact on ICT … come from anywhere, from anybody and at anytime

… hard to find

… fragile and easy to shoot down

… hard to do and take time to incubate

… require an open and transdisciplinary research atmosphere

Needs a specific approach…

FET-Open in FP7

• FET-Open call, a long history of more than 20 years.

• Light, topic-agnostic and deadline-free scheme

• Continuously open 24/7

• 2-steps submission and evaluation

Step 1: 5 pages 'short' proposal, with double-blind evaluation of S&T

Step 2: 'full' proposal

• FET-Open Xtrack call, a pilot to become lighter and faster

FET-Open in FP7

How does operate the FET Open continuous call?

Batch 1 Batch 2 Batch 3 Batch … t

Short Proposal

Batch 1

cut-off date

Batch 2

cut-off date

Full Proposal

Go/no Go

FET-Open call overview

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

9.3 YR

9.2 SME

9.1

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

~3000 short proposals received, ~2 per day in the last years.

Timeline t=0

Short

Prop.

+ 3 months +5 months

Full

Prop.

+8 months +12 months

Contract

Go/ no

go

Go/

no go

Full proposal

Evaluation

~12 weeks

Short proposal

evaluation

~ 12 weeks

Full Proposal

preparation

~ min. of 8 weeks

Negotiation

~12 weeks

• 80% fails at short stage and get feedback within 3 months

• 40% of the 'full' proposals submitted are funded

FET Open in FP7 141 Funded projects

Body on a Chip

A closed-loop neural prosthesis for dizziness suppression

Linking biological and artificial neuronal assemblies to restore

lost brain functions: towards the design of innovative

bi-directional neuroprostheses

Optogenetic Neural stimulation platform

ICT challenges of mineral extraction under extreme geo-environmental conditions

Artificial Wet Neuronal Networks from Compartmentalised Excitable Chemical Media

Bacterial Computing with Engineered Populations

Innovative Robotic Artefacts Inspired by Plant Roots for Soil Monitoring

Evolutionary microfluidix

Enhance environmental awareness through social information technologies

A theoretical framework for swarms of GRN-controlled agents

which display adaptive tissue-like organisation

Hyper Interaction Viability Experiments

Social Interaction and Entrainment using Music PeRformance Experimentation

Curved Artificial Compound Eyes Similarity-Based Pattern Analysis and Recognition

Electronic Chemical Cell

FET-Open Xtrack- What is it?

• Keep the best of FET-Open but…

• Get lighter • “light end to end process” for proposers

• Get faster • Reduce time from idea to contract

• Get more robust • Combine internal scalability with high quality review

FET-Open Xtrack

t=0

Proposal

10 pages

+ 3 months +5 months +7 months +12 months

Contract S&T

Impl.

and

Impact

Implementation

and Impact

~8 weeks

S&T evaluation

~ 12 weeks

Negotiation

~8 weeks

• 10 Pages proposals

• One step submission, two stage evaluation

• 320 proposals received(currently in evaluation)

• 80% expected to fails at S&T stage

FET Open

+ Popular FET-hallmark scheme

+ Numerous scientific and technological

success stories

+ A source of new directions

and early signals for FET pro-active

+ Attracts new disciplines

and actors, including many

young ones and SMEs

+ Largely academic, with some

high-tech industry and SME

+ Highly competitive

2012 Foresight Institute

Feynman Prizes for

Nanotechnology

Experiment and Theory

Thanks for your attention!

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/programme/fet_en.html