Basic Research
Introduction
Innovation is the lifeblood of industrial development and particularly so in the
case of Information Technology. Technical innovation can only come about through
investment in research and development (R&D). Basic research is an essential
element in any R&D programme since it aims to generate the ideas and concepts and
unleash the knowledge ultimately needed for technological innovation. On the
European plane, ESPRIT Basic Research maintains its decisive role in providing the
underlying knowledge and expertise vital to the creation of opportunities for
breakthroughs in European technology.
The main objectives of ESPRIT Basic Research are to replenish the reservoir of
new knowledge and expertise from which industrial research can draw to ensure
tomorrow's innovation, and to secure the environment for training tomorrow's
researchers through research itself. From the perspective of ESPRIT as a whole,
Basic Research is an "upstream" activity, whose results feed into several of
the more industrially oriented (downstream) sectors of the programme. Basic
Research contributes to the building of a solid research infrastructure
throughout Europe, which underpins a strategy to help European industries
retain their competitivity in global markets.
Three distinct types of activity are sponsored by Basic Research: Projects,
Working Groups and Networks of Excellence. These activities have different
but complementary roles in fostering the growth of a research community in
Europe. Projects involve collaborative teams (or consortia) to carry out and
achieve results on a specific research topic. Working Groups aim at improving
the systematic exchange of information between teams working in a common field,
through travel, workshops and conferences. Networks of Excellence are groupings
of research teams sharing common long-term technological goals that closely
coordinate their research and training activities.
In 1993 an important stage in the evolution of ESPRIT was reached with the
third and final call for proposals of the 3rd Framework Programme. The 1993-94
ESPRIT Basic Research workprogramme on which this call was based, focused on
a small number of priority themes, either reinforcing areas already established
at previous calls or addressing newly identified areas such as "multimedia",
"virtual reality" and "ultimate miniaturisation". The priority themes were
designed to meet the future challenges of industrial research and were decided
through consultation with experts from academia and industry.
The response to the third call was very encouraging. The proposals included
many top-ranking European research teams attracting a significant number of
newcomers, particularly in the new priority themes, such as microsystems.
This once more demonstrates the role of Basic Research as a bridge between
academia and industry, since most of these newcomers would be likely to move
into pre-competitive industrial projects. Some 250 proposals were received
from the call and of these 27 projects, 15, working groups and 4 Networks
of Excellence were accepted for funding after evaluation. A noteworthy
fact is the increasing participation of industry, which has grown from
levels established at previous calls to now stand at 13.5%. This steady
growth reflects the relevance of the topics included within the focus of
the call, and testifies to a successful track record in attracting industry
to this part of the ESPRIT Programme.
The synopses provide information on all the activities being launched as a
result of the third call. In addition, the synopses provide an opportunity
to view the progress and evolution of activities selected in the 1991 call,
which show good progress in achieving their objectives.
International Cooperation
Measures to encourage international cooperation on Information Technologies
play an increasingly significant role to complement traditional ESPRIT
activities. A number of joint activities have been launched in the recent
past with the objective of setting up stronger R&D links between the EU and
other nations so as to pave the way for more extensive cooperation in the
future. Cooperation now spans all quarters of the globe from the major
industrialised countries, central and Eastern European Countries, the former
Soviet Union, to South America and beyond. A substantial number of these
activities have direct links or complementary overlap with existing ESPRIT
BR projects. Cooperation with the USA, for instance, has resulted in a
number of activities being decided within an ESPRIT-NSF framework agreement,
many of which have interests which are well matched to the aims of certain
BR projects. In addition, some researchers involved in existing Projects,
Working Groups and Networks of Excellence have extended the possiblity of
cooperation to research teams based in the Central and Eastern European
countries.
VLSI Design Training Action (EUROCHIP)
The purpose of EUROCHIP is to provide academic institutions with access to
industrial training facilities so as to increase the number of trained VLSI
engineers. The second phase of EUROCHIP is now well underway and involvement
has been extended to include universities and polytechnics from the EU,
EFTA and central and eastern Europe. At the end of the academic year 92/93
more than 10,000 students have been trained in VLSI skills. At present there
is an initiative to try to combine EUROCHIP and other related activities
(ROC, MEDCHIP, CHIPSHOP) together into one integrated strategy.
Networks of Excellence
Networks of Excellence aim at the achievement of definable technological
goals by the coordination of the R&D, technology transfer, training and
infrastructure activities for those members of the R&D community who
subscribe to them. Networks of Excellence have now become well established
since the early pilot schemes started in 1991 and there are now a total
of 9 fully operational Networks, covering domains such as multimedia systems,
organic materials for electronics, and multifunctional microsystems. From
the latest Call four new Networks were recommended for funding, bringing
the total number to 13. The latest to be set up cover computer vision,
neural networks, high performance computing and computer integrated
manufacturing.
The Future: FOURTH Framework Programme
The proposals put into effect as a result of the 1993 call bring the ESPRIT
programme in its current form to a close. In the future, activities will be
run under the specific IT programme of the Fourth Framework Programme. It
is envisioned that basic research will be commissioned either as long term
research projects, characterised by their potential to produce breakthroughs
in the long term but with clear industrial implications; or advanced research
projects involving a high but assessable technological risk whose success
would have a direct impact on industrial competitiveness. Accompanying
measures will include an expansion of the Networks of Excellence as a major
contribution to available research infrastructure. The new approaches and
orientations are designed to meet the priorities forseen for the 1990s
whilst building on and consolidating the achievements of the ESPRIT
programme.
The Priority Themes of the 1993 Call
Proposals were invited under seven priority themes aimed at key topics in
industrial R&D from an upstream perspective: software best practice,
high-performance computing and networking, image processing, multimedia,
advanced microelectronic technologies, and microsystems. The proposals
actually recommended for funding represent research which complements and
underpins the mainstream R&D part of the ESPRIT programme, and reinforces
those projects, working groups and networks of excellence launched at the
previous 1991 call. As then, most projects recommended are highly
interdisciplinary addressing problems with the potential to bring about
significant advances in several industrial areas.
Theory and Models for the Design of Heterogeneous Systems
Advances in information technologies increasingly rely on research aimed
at the integration of a large variety of components into heterogeneous and
evolutionary systems. Work in this area is highly dependent on the quality
of system specification, and the definition of the interface between
elements of dissimilar nature; for example hardware/software components,
discrete/continuous behaviours, multiparadigm, multilanguage software
components, or multifunctional microsystems. This priority theme is
therefore concerned with advanced theories and models for the design of
such heterogeneous systems.
Basic Aspects of Multiple Computing Agents
Multiple and co-operative computing agents in Information Technology have
many problems and approaches for eventual solutions in common. The growing
interest in relevant, but different, research areas is advancing in two
important directions: the trend towards resource distribution and down-sizing;
and the development of new processing tools such as Massively Parallel
machines or Neural networks. All of these show a wide range of potential
applications. Complex problems have already been identified, eg resource
sharing and allocation in distributed and parallel processing or routing
techniques in networks.
Foundations of Visualisation and Multi-Modal Interfaces
The core areas of this theme are visualisation, graphics simulation, virtual
reality (VR), and multimodel interfaces. Visualisation involves the creation
of visual tools to assist with data interpretation, eg in analysing large
and complex data sets. Graphics simulation develops models in order to
generate realistic visual images such as in a flight simulator. Virtual
reality (VR) deals with immersive environments that support real-time 3D
interaction, enabling more direct input from and feedback to the user
(eg surgery assistance via telepresence). Multimodal interfaces aim to
enhance user interaction through gesture, lip movement, speech or animation.
Basic Approaches to Multimedia Data Representation
People are capable of capturing, storing, manipulating and actively using
information of a variety of types (corresponding to the five senses) in a
variety of ways. In order to be able to build the corresponding products,
there is a need to develop theories and models of the way in which overtly
intelligent multimedia systems should appear externally, and of their
internal structure and organisation.During the early part of the next
century the information revolution is expected to reach society at large
on a massively exploitable industrial scale, requiring products which
can interact with untrained users in a flexible, indeed, human-like way.
Ultimate Miniaturisation
Miniaturisation is vital to microelectronics and high-density information
storage. In semiconductor and metal structures it has major implications
for ultra-large scale integration. Single-electron effects at room
temperature require critical dimensions below 10 nm, the effective limit
of today's fabrication techniques. Reaching below this limit can be
achieved either by direct manipulation of atoms and molecules using
scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and its variants, or by substantial
improvements in lithographic methods that are based on e-beams, ion
beams or X-rays. Useful spinoff effects such as quantum confinement can
produce electronic and optoelectronic properties that can lead to
substantial improvements for light emitting and detecting semiconductor
devices.
Advanced Issues in Device Performance
This theme was concerned with the achievement of ultimate device performance,
with regard to speed, reliability and storage density. Proposals were
specifically invited in the areas of new materials for light emission
and display, optically-assisted computing and single electron electronics.
New Concepts for Top-down Microsystem Design and the Simulation of Microsystem Performance
Microsystems are a miniaturised integration of sensors and actuators with
information processing. They combine electronic, mechanical, optical and
other functions to achieve high performance capabilities, including
intelligence. Microsystems offer significant advantages compared to
conventional solutions in terms of cost, low weight, energy consumption,
reliability. Emerging microsystems technologies are expected to trigger a
new cycle of innovation in markets such as telecommunications, environmental
control and medical engineering.
The Synopses
The main section of this volume gives the synopses of all Basic Research
Projects, Working Groups and Networks of Excellence. There are two parts, the
first describing the research work that continues from the second call
(numbers 6017 to 7401); and the second, research work from the third call
(8010 to 9251). Synopses are in numerical order, list the partners involved
and give contact point addresses. Indexes by number, acronym and keyword are
also supplied.
Sven Mü├čig, (14-dec-94). Your feedback is welcome.