Commission seeks bids for €780m of IT funding

The European Commission has requested proposals for IT projects that could draw on a funding pot worth €780m.

The Commission is seeking proposals for research projects that will develop technology around the future internet, robotics, smart and embedded systems and photonics, as well as IT for health and energy efficiency, it said on Tuesday.

"Increasing overall investment into ICT research is crucial for our future... this research will help Europe's industry to strengthen its competitiveness," the digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement.

This marks the official request for proposals for much of a €1.2bn (£1bn) chunk of IT funding that was announced in July as part of a €6.4bn pan-European funding call. At the time, €220m of funding was set aside for public-private partnerships.

Most of the €780m fund has already been broken down by the Commission into different project strands. Of the fund, €120m has been set aside for proposals involving networking, digital meda and service infrastructure for the future internet, of which €100m has been assigned to the Future Internet Public Private Partnership. A further €200m has been allocated for photonics and associated electronic systems research. Health and ageing research will receive €200m, while €135m has been reserved for energy efficiency in buildings, transport and logistics.

The funding has been made available via the Seventh Framework Programme, a budget allocation programme that has previously supplied funds to counter-terrorism technology development and to the Woundmonitor, a device designed to identify the bacteria responsible for infecting burn victims' wounds.