News archive 2008

Wireless VITAE is the first international conference to be held on 17-20 May, 2009, Aalborg Congress and Culture Center, Denmark broadly addressing the wireless developments in the world by fusing the communities from four different IEEE societies. The theme of the first international Wireless VITAE conference is TERRA. Terra (earth) symbolises the trends and developments on seamless, secure, innovative, personalized technologies supporting all areas of a wireless human life towards Tbits/s in wireless communications.

The overall purpose of the conference is to address the trends, challenges and future roadmaps within wireless technologies namely, WiMAX and related technologies, extended wireless (dot-to-dot communication), wireless sensor/actuator networks, dynamic spectrum access and cognitive radio, mobile Television, vehicular wireless networks, wireless connectivity for airplanes, personalized technologies and security, seamless mobility etc.

All interested Korean organisations are warmly invited to participate in the Wireless Vitae international conference.

Important dates Proposals for workshops, panels, tutorials and special sessions:

• January, 2, 2009
• Submission of full papers: January, 2, 2009
• Paper acceptance notification: February 20, 2009
• Camera ready paper submission: March 9, 2009

For further information: www.WirelessVITAE2009.org

The “2nd EU-Korea ICT Cooperation Seminar” was organised in the continuity of the “2nd EU-Korea Cooperation Forum on ICT Research” held on December 1-2, 2008 at the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel (Brussels, Belgium) and under the aegis of the European Commission (EC, DG INFSO) and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of the Republic of Korea (MKE, ROK) with the support of the COJAK FP7/ICT Project.

The objective of this working seminar was to pave the way for a strengthened cooperation between the EU and the ROK on ICT research, particularly under the FP7 research funding programme.

It has been considered as relevant to organise such “EU-Korea ICT Cooperation Seminars” on a regular basis (more or less every 6 months), in order to address the cooperation framework itself, to discuss what could be done to make it more favourable, and to allow a smooth development of the cooperation projects that European and Korean organisations will choose to develop. This second edition will thus be followed in some months from now by a third edition, organised again (as the 1st one) in South Korea.

Among issues that were discussed during this 2nd out of three seminars the following can be listed:

• Information - How can we better improve the information flow between organisations from both regions - among them South Korean Universities and SMEs - interested in cooperation opportunities?
• Funding - What solutions would be appropriate to ensure that an organisation from South Korea participating in a FP7 project - reciprocally a European organisation participating in a Korea-funded project - can be funded?
• Connection - Since cooperation starts with connections, which connection opportunities could be usefully provided to organisations from both sides (forums, focused workshops, online facilities, etc.)?
• Other issues - Are there any other problems related to the cooperation framework that could be usefully tackled?

For any futher information, please contact us.

The “2nd EU-Korea Cooperation Forum on ICT Research” was successfully held last week on Dec. 1-2, 2008 at the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Brussels, Belgium. It was co-organised by the European Commission (EC) (Directorate-General Information Society and Media; DG INFSO) and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) of the Republic of Korea (ROK) with the support of the COJAK FP7/ICT project. The “2nd EU-Korea Cooperation Forum on ICT Research” was the first event of its kind ever organised in Europe and it attracted almost 170 delegates, including about 65 representatives from leading South Korean organisations active in the ICT area and almost 30 representatives of the European Commission (among them 7 Heads of Units).

It has been seen of strategic importance to the EC and MKE to have a follow-up event to the conference that successfully took place last June in Seoul, South Korea, and on the occasion of which several ICT research areas of mutual interest to Europe and Korea have been identified. The main objective of this 2nd Cooperation Forum was thus to further build upon the already reached achievements, the already established relations and to have the opportunity to even more precisely identify emerging EU-ROK collaborative projects on ICT research.

Held only two weeks after the launch of an important FP7 call for proposals related to the ICT theme (Call 4), this Forum particularly aimed at thoroughly discussing opportunities of strategic cooperation between the EU and the ROK in the perspective of the FP7/ICT Call 4. This is why the event structure included a number of parallel thematic sessions allowing participants to discuss potential cooperation in each thematic area. This is also the reason why ample time was left during the two days to facilitate networking between participants. The 2-day event was structured into parallel thematic sessions, each of them devoted to a specific theme (such as Sustainable & Personalised Healthcare, Future & Emerging Technology, Future Internet, Microsystems & Flexible Organic & Large Area Electronics, Security & Trust in Networks and Services, Networked Media Systems, Embedded Systems Computing & Control, Internet of Things, ICT for Sustainable Growth, Einfrastructures, as well as a special emphasis on Digital Content & Gaming, and an open thematic session.

These parallel sessions allowed participants to better understand the research status and perspectives on the different themes in Europe and in South Korea, and to more precisely evaluate the potential for future cooperation in each area, in particular under the European 7th Research Programme (FP7).

Please refer to the event report for any additional information or contact us.

Organised on January 22, 2009 by the European Commission's Information Society and Media Directorate-General in cooperation with the Hungarian National Office for Research and Technology, ICT Proposers' Day 2009 (ppt downloadable here) is a one day event aiming at providing already existing and future project participants with a unique opportunity to familiarise themselves with the research challenges and objectives of ICT Work Programme 2009-2010, and to form project consortia for participating in calls for proposals. The event, in which over 2000 delegates are expected to participate, will take place at Hungexpo, in Budapest, Hungary, and should be the occasion to strengthen or identify proposals with South Korean participation to be submitted at ICT Call 4. For further information, please visit the event web site.

The COJAK FP7/ICT project benefited from a high visibility at the ICT 2008 EVENT - Europe biggest ICT research event - that took place in Lyon (France) this week (25-27 Nov. 2008).

More than 4,500 delegates attended the 2008 edition of the major conference and exhibition organised every two years by the European Commission’s DG Information Society and Media, making Lyon one of the best-attended ICT Events ever. The event presented Europe's priorities for ICT research, development and funding. Leading personalities in the ICT sector from all around the world looked at how Europe can lead the ICT agenda for the next decade. The COJAK FP7/ICT project hosted an exhibition booth in the International Village that welcomed a wide range of visitors as well as many questions from international event participants interested in preparing proposals in response to FP7 ICT Calls including partners from South Korea/Japan. Information on the project was distributed to visitors including information on the upcoming "2nd EU-Korea Cooperation Forum on ICT Research" co-organised by the European Commission and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE), ROK to be held next week on Dec. 1 & 2, 2008 in Brussels, Belgium. A networking session was also organised on 27 November within the COJAK FP7/ICT project devoted to strategic cooperation opportunities in ICT research with Japan and South Korea. Chaired by Karine Valin, COJAK FP7/ICT Project Coordinator, this session welcomed presentations from Tabea Lumpp - COJAK project manager - on the objectives and activities within COJAK, Alvis Ancans - COJAK project officer - International Relations Unit, Directorate - General Information Society and Media (DG Infso), European Commission on "the Status & perspective of cooperation on ICT research between Europe and Japan / South Korea under FP7", as well as Seitaro Fujita – Director of the Europe representative office of the National  Institute of Information & Communications Technology (NICT) in Paris  on "ICT Research and Development at NICT of Japan". These introductory addresses  were rounded up by a video message from Sung-ok Lee – President of the Institute for Information Technology Advancement (IITA), South Korea and followed by three success stories from ongoing EU-funded projects with the participation of a Korean and/or Japanese organisations:

Dr. Werner Mohr – FUTON Project Coordinator (fibre optic networks for distributed and extendible heterogeneous radio architectures - collaborative project with the participation of a Japanese organisation)

Prof. Dr. Frank van Harmelen – LARKC Scientific Project Director (large scale semantic computing semantic Web technologies distributed reasoning probabilistic reasoning web-scale inference information retrieval - collaborative project with the participation of a South Korean organisation) 

Prof. Anthony Furness – CASAGRAS Technical Coordinator (Coordination and support action for global RFID-related activities and standardisation - coordination and support action with the participation of a Japanese and a South Korean organisation) 

Well attended, this session ended with fruitful and very enriching discussions between European and Japanese/South Korean stakeholders.

The Networking session agenda can be downloaded here.

For any further information, please contact us.

The Europe's biggest research event for ICT will be held on 25-27 November 2008 in Lyon, France. At ICT2008, the COJAK FP7/ICT project will contribute to the strengthening and support of ICT research strategic cooperation between Europe and Japan as well as Europe and South Korea through

• a dedicated Networking Sessions (Strategic cooperation opportunities with Japan and Korea) featuring high-profile experts from South Korea and Japan. Talks will be followed by a Q&A session and in-depth discussions. Please click here to download the Networking session agenda
• an Exhibition Stand (D18) in the International Village featuring material from the COJAK Project / material from EU-funded projects involving Japanese and South Korean partners / documents (as electronic formats) addressing ICT research cooperation with Japan and South Korea / networking opportunities with key stakeholders in the field. Contact us urgently should you wish to display any relevant marketing material.

For more information about ICT2008, please visit the or contact us directly.

On the 24 September 2008, the European Commission called on governments to jointly develop a strategy for international cooperation in science and technology. It proposed a strategic framework for jointly strengthening science and technology cooperation with non-EU countries, notably in the field of Information and Communication Technologies where Europe is a strong exporter. The Commission's objective is to contribute to sustainable development worldwide while at the same time improving Europe’s competitiveness in science and technology. The Commission invites Member States to define together, rather than in isolation, priority research and technology areas where a coherent EU effort would have more impact.

The full text of the Communication of the European Commission can be downloaded here as a pdf file.

In search of the best strategies to boost Europe's leadership in ICT (Information and Communications Technology) research and innovation in the next decade, the European Commission today launched a public consultation. Contributions from industry, ICT experts, policy-makers and the wider public will be fed into a new strategy for ICT research and innovation, to be unveiled next year. The aim is to put European ICT industry, especially SMEs, to the fore of the race for global competitiveness. The public consultation is open until 7 November 2008.

The Commission's public consultation document can be accessed here while the corresponding press release can be downloaded here.

Today, a call targeting South Korea as country was opened under the international cooperation area of the FP7 Capacities programme covering the following activities:

• Supporting the EU access to third country programmes

The Commission’s proposals for the FP7 Capacities programme aim to enhance research and innovation capacities throughout Europe and ensure their optimal use. The Capacities programme is provided with a budget of EUR 4 097 million to operate in seven broad areas:

• Research infrastructures
• Research for the benefit of SMEs
• Regions of knowledge and support for regional research-driven clusters
• Research potential of Convergence Regions
• Science in society
• Support to the coherent development of research policies
• International cooperation

Objective of the international cooperation under the FP7 Capacities programme

To become more competitive and play a leading role globally, the European Community needs a strong and coherent international science and technology (S&T) policy with three objectives:

• support European competitiveness through strategic partnerships with non-EU countries in selected fields of science and by engaging the best scientists from such countries to work with and in Europe;
• enhance the production of knowledge and scientific excellence by enabling European universities, research institutions and firms to establish contacts with their partners in such third countries, thereby facilitating access to research environments outside Europe and promoting synergies on a global scale;
• address specific problems that third countries face, or that have a global character, on the basis of mutual interest and mutual benefit.

Please click here to access the latest published calls.

Call Fiche: Activities of International Cooperation - ACCESS4EU
Work Programme Capacities – Part 7 – Activities of International cooperation

The “2nd EU-Korea Cooperation Forum on ICT” will be held on December 1 & 2, 2008 at the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Brussels, Belgium.

This second Forum is a follow-up event to the one held in Seoul, South Korea in June 2008 and is organised under the aegis of the European Commission (Directorate General Information Society and Media) and the Korean authorities.

The Forum will take place the week after the ICT 2008 event, the biggest ICT event in Europe, that will be held from November 25-27, 2008 in Lyon, France to allow South Korean delegates coming to Europe to make the best out of their trip while attending two unique events in the ICT field in Europe.

More information will be unveiled soon on this website - mark your calendar and stay tuned!

An “International Symposium on ICT R&D 2008” will be organised on Oct. 27, 2008 at the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Seoul, Souht Korea. This 1-day conference is hosted by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Korea (MKE) and organised by the Institute for Information Technology Advancement (IITA).

The expected outcomes of this 1-day Symposium (free of charge) are: to establish a Global Research Cooperation Network, the possibility to introduce ones organisation to Korean and international Symposium participants and to learn about advanced IT R&D policy and direction

An optional visit to leading Korean research institute in Daejeon is also organised for Symposium attendees on Oct. 29, 2008.

A first, preliminary Symposium program can be downloaded here.

For any further information, please contact Mrs. Garam Park (Researcher, International Cooperation Team, IITA), Tel: 82-42-710-1244, Fax: 82-42-710-1249.

The newly created EuroSouthKorea-ICT Community, that aims at efficiently and actively contributing to the further development of S&T cooperation between Europe and South Korea in the ICT field, was put online today.

This community section has been created in order to support the efforts of the community of European and South Korean organisations (companies, research institutes, universities, etc.) involved in, or interested in the development of joint R&D projects.

It is a restricted area where short profiles, ID pictures and contact information (email addresses) of representatives from European and South Korean organisations willing to benefit from a very targeted contact network, are listed.

Other functionalities will be progressively added to this Community area, such as online discussion forums or collaborative work tools, so that the “Community of interest” constituted in a first step can evolve towards a true “Community of practice”. This evolution will be driven by the suggestions of the members of the Community of interest, with the sole objective to better serve their interests.

If you wish to get a member of this Community and in order to have access to the complete list of the community members, just fill-in the application form.

For any further information you might need, feel free to contact us.

The 1st Korea-EU Cooperation ICT workshop organised in the framework of the COJAK project has been kindly hosted today, under the form of a working lunch, by the Institute for Information Technology Advancement (IITA) in Daejeon. For the sake of efficiency, only 25 delegates had been invited to participate in this workshop, all with some good experience of EU-Korea cooperation on ICT research, in particular through FP6-FP7 projects, representing Korean organisations (industries and academies) and European ones (based in Europe or in Korea).

The following issues were discussed during this workshop:

• the ways to improve the EU-Korea cooperation framework so that projects can develop more smoothly and in greatest numbers,
• the solutions to make the FP7 processes even more understandable to the Korean side,
• the means to more efficiently connect Korean organisations to the European ones,
• IPR issues, reciprocity aspects (access of European organisations to Korean programmes), the role of NCPs, funding issues, etc.

Concerning the 2nd edition of the EU-Korea Cooperation Forum on ICT (building on the results of the one of June 16-17 in Seoul), both sides have recommended it could take place in Brussels before the launch of Call 4, possibly just before (or after) the ICT event in Lyon, so that Korean delegates can make the most of their trip to Europe.
This workshop was combined with Technical Visits to leading Korean research institutes in Daejeon: IITA, KAIST and ETRI.

For any further information, please contact us.

The Korea-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT was successfully held yesterday and today at the COEX (Convention and Exhibition Center) in Seoul. It was co-organised by the European Commission (DG Information Society and Media), and of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), as well as of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE), Korea.

A total of 310 delegates attended this 2-day conference, among them 60 Europeans (either based in Korea or in Europe) coming from 13 European countries, representing the industry (around 25%), the academic world (35%) and institutions (40%).

The conference opening session, jointly co-chaired by Dr. Jung, Yong-nam - Director, Strategic Planning Division of the Institute for Information Technology Advancement, and by Mr. Jean-François Soupizet – Head of the International Relations Unit, European Commission - included addresses from H.E. Choi, See-joong – Chairman of the Korea Communications Commisson, Commissioner Viviane Reding – Commissioner for Information Society and Media, European Commission as well as Mr. Lee, Sung-ok – President of the Institute for Information Technology Advancement, Korea.

Then, another plenary session, co-chaired by Dr. Jung, Yong-nam and by Dr. Stephan Pascall – Adviser, Directorate Components & Systems, DG Information Society and Media, European Commission, was devoted to keynote addresses from representatives of the European and Korean industry and academic world: Dr. Choi, Mun-kee – President of Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Dr. Matthias Ludwig – Managing Director of Infineon Technologies Korea, Dr. Kang, Uchoon – President of Nokia, Korea and Dr. Marianne Noel – Attachée for Science and Technology, French Embassy.

The 2-day event was structured into parallel thematic sessions, each of them devoted to a specific theme: Future & Emerging Technology, u-Computing & Robots (Networked Embedded & Control Systems - Robotics), Broadcasting Technology, Future Networks, Convergence Technology, Embedded Systems - Open Source Software and Design, Architectures and Tools - Networked Embedded and Control Systems), Microsystems (Internet of Things - Intelligent Microsystems for Biomedical applications - Energy efficiency), Secure Communications, Online contents/Gaming, and an Open Session.

These parallel sessions allowed participants to better understand the research status and perspectives on the different themes in Europe and in Korea, and to more precisely evaluate the potential for future cooperation in each area, in particular under the European 7th Research Programme (FP7), introduced in detail by Mr. Per Blixt – Head of the New Infrastructure Paradigms & Experimental Facilities Unit, DG Information Society and Media, European Commission, during the specific plenary session that took place after the keynote addresses on the first day.

The closing session, chaired by Dr. Stephan Pascall, allowed the Chairmen of the parallel sessions to present overviews of the discussions and conclusions related to their sessions. The closing session led indeed to truly take stock of the two days and to highlight an important potential for the future, which planned dialogues and events in the next months should contribute transforming into concrete projects.

The detailed conference agenda, allowing to download all presentations made during the two days, the attendee list as well as a selection of pictures taken during the event can be accessed at the event section.

For any further information, please contact us.

In the framework of the COJAK project (Further developing strategic cooperation with Japan and South Korea on ICT), a successfully selected project at Call 1 under FP7, a “1st Korea-EU Cooperation ICT Seminar” will be organised in the afternoon on June 18, 2008 in Daejeon in the premises of the Institute of Information Technology Advancement (IITA).

The objectives of this 1/2-day workshop are amongst others to:

• continue the dialogue established
• better prepare the “2nd Korea-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT Research”, which will take place in Europe (date still to be determined)
• discuss about the problems and potential solutions to really make happen S&T cooperation between Europe and South Korea

Potential questions to be raised during the workshop could be for instance:

• What are the problems the institutes/universities/research labs face and hinder them to really make cooperation in the ICT field with their European/South Korean counterparts?
• Is there a lack of information (missing information for Korean organisations) with regard to FP7?
• Would it be appropriate that each government guarantees the funding of one of each of its organisations involved in a consortium selected by the other government ?
• The perspective of coordinated - if not joint - calls, the reciprocity issues (participation of European organisations in Korean funded research projects), etc.

The opinion/point of view of European and Korean organisations active in the ICT field on the reasons, why the real number of EU-Korean cooperation projects under FP7 for instance is still so low despite its high potential, is in the center of this workshop.

For the sake of efficiency, and for really enabling a fruitful discussion/round table, the number of workshop participants is limited to 20-25 persons. Thus, if you are interested, please make sure that you register soon. (Registration is free of charge).

Please feel free to contact us for any question you might have.

Two articles, one about the ASIACOOP project (IST-3-15695-SSA), the other one about its follow-up project called COJAK (ICT-216949), have been put on the English version of the collaborative free encyclopedia Wikipedia this week.

Both projects are so-called Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) submitted under the European Commission’s Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6 and FP7) and focusing on developing and strengthening EU-Korean as well as EU-Japan S&T cooperation in the ICT field.

The ASIACOOP article can be accessed by clicking here, whereas the COJAK contribution can be looked up while clicking here. The EU-Korean ICT community is welcomed to add any additional relevant information on EU-Korea ICT cooperation projects.

A group of representatives of the Institute for Information Technology Advancement (IITA) has been welcomed last week in the Orionis premises in Sophia Antipolis, France for a working meeting on the organisation of the “Korea-EU Cooperation Forum on ICT”. IITA has been nominated by the former Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) to be in charge of the event organisation on the Korean side.

During the meeting various different aspects (logistics, proceedings, conference programme, Technical Visits, etc.) have been discussed and agreed on. The selection of appropriate speakers on both sides started already. High-level profiles from industry, SME, research laboratories and academia can be expected.

A Gala Dinner will also be organised for all event participants in the evening of June 16 representing another possibility for networking, but also simply to spend some pleasant moments together in a nice atmosphere. Pre-registration is mandatory! The preliminary programme for the Technical Visits (exclusively for Europeans) to leading research laboratories in Daejeon on June 18 has been discussed, too: It is planned to visit the IITA premises, followed by a visit to Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Please note: subject to alterations! Interested parties should register soon on this website, as the number of participants for the Technical Visits will be limited. More detailed information will be soon available on this website.

For any further information, please contact us or stay tuned with the regularly updated EuroSouthKorea-ICT.org website!

We are looking forward to meeting you soon in Seoul!

Yesterday, the President of the Institute for Information Technology Advancement (IITA), Mr. Sung-Ok Lee and Mr. Roger Torrenti, CEO of Orionis, jointly signed a Letter of Intent representing a first step towards a dynamic joint Korea-EU Cooperation Center in the ICT field.

This Korea-EU R&D Cooperation Center functions as a contact point and information window for any aspect in terms of S&T cooperation and ICT evolutions between Europe and Korea. Both parties will cooperate in the exchange of information on the evolution of technology development pathways and exchange of understanding of market demands to support research planning and project selection in an effort to enhance the growth of ICT business in Europe and Korea. This Cooperation Center also represents an opportunity for any staff exchange for the purpose of knowledge learning and sharing

The final statistics of the two first FP7 Calls related to the ICT theme (Call 1 deadline: May 8, 2007; Call 2 deadline: Oct. 9, 2007) are now available. A total of 13 participations of Korean organisations in proposals submitted in response to these Calls have been recorded (11 for Call1, 2 for Call2), which, after the proposal evaluation process, became 3 projects (all retained proposals in Call 1). Among these 3 retained projects are: GRIFS (The Global RFID Interoperability Forum for Standards), CASAGRAS (Coordination and Support Action for Global RFID-related Activities and Standardisation), and LarKC (The large Knowledge Collider). Full details on these projects can be found on the Cordis web site.

These results unfortunately show the current low level of participation of Korean organisations in submitted and retained proposals despite the high potential of mutually beneficial S&T cooperation between Europe and Korea.

It is the objective of the actual ongoing ASIACOOP initiative, but also the newly launched COJAK project (fact sheet), representing a follow-up project of the ASIACOOP initiative, to fully contribute to significantly increase the participation of Korean organisation in FP7.

The ICT event 2008 will take place in Lyon, France from Nov. 25 to 27. This conference-exhibition, organised by the European Commission's DG Information Society and Media, is the Europe's biggest research event devoted to Information and Communication Technologies. The previous one was held in November 2006 in Helsinki. The 2008 edition, entitled “I's to the future - Invention, Innovation, Impact”, will provide delegates from all over the world (researchers, innovators, engineers, policy and business decision-makers, etc.) with a key opportunity to access and exchange information, and network. Over 4000 participants are expected. Full details can be found on the event web site.