The Commission is about to launch 276 new research projects in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) worth 1 billion Euro in EU funding. This is the result of the fourth Information Society Technology Call for Proposals under the EU’s Sixth Research Framework Programme. This EU contribution is one of the largest totals awarded as the result of a single Call for Proposals in the history of EU research.

“Investment into research in Information and Communication Technologies is our best-bet contribution to growth and jobs”, said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. “However, Europe continues to under-invest considerably into ICT research for lack of sufficient resources both at EU level and at national level. Today, half the ICT research projects proposed for EU funding have had to be turned down, despite meeting all the requisite quality criteria. If Europe wants to be part of the game of global competition for better ICT services, we need to step up our resources considerably.”