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New CHOICE project on Strengthening Chinese Collaboration on ICT R&D with Europe

Apr 11 2014

A new EU-China cooperation project has been launched last January 2014 aiming to provide continuity and progress in supporting and strengthening China Collaboration on ICT research with Europe.

The CHOICE project is funded by the European Commission DG CONNECT through its 7th Framework Programme and comprises Chinese and European partners, involved in previous and on-going EU-China collaboration projects, that will ensure all the valuable outputs of previous projects will be fully exploited and that synergies with relevant projects will be developed.

During its two-year duration, the CHOICE project emphasis will be put on:
·       Identifying obstacles to reciprocity and encouraging a more balanced relationship with China based on reciprocity, especially supporting European nationals, companies and organisations willing to access Chinese research programmes;
·       Highlighting and showcasing both EU and Chinese excellence in ICT R&D;
·       Strengthening EU-China industrial ICT R&D cooperation, also with the view of preparing the ground for new upcoming rules governing EU-China ICT R&D cooperation under Horizon 2020 (H2020).

Thanks to this approach, the CHOICE project will create a bridge towards H2020 and capitalize on the timely conjunction of H2020 shift away from technology driven towards innovation driven ICT R&D based on societal needs and consumer aspirations, with the Chinese Government’s firm commitment to growing domestic demand, thus emphasizing opportunities in China for the exploitation of H2020 and in particular its potential for contributing to increasing Chinese domestic demand.

For more information, visit: http://www.euchina-ict.eu, follow the project on Twitter: @EUChinaICT and the discussions on LinkedIn: EU-China Cooperation on ICT research !

New initiatives launched in November-December 2013

Dec 16 2013

China-Finland ICT Alliance November – December 2013 Update

China-Finland ICT Alliance November – December 2013 Update 482.73 KB

Click to download China -Finland ICT Alliance November - December 2013 Update.pdf

ICT Alliance as a Showcase in the OpenChina-ICT Final Conference on Strengthening Cooperation in ICT Research between Europe and China

The OpenChina-ICT project, supported by the European Commission, aimed at contributing to the facilitation of ICT related research cooperation between Europe and China, and its partners include Fraunhofer (Germany) and Sigma Orionis, BSEAC (China), CATR (China) and CECO/CSTEC (China). The final project conference was held in Vilnius on 5 November 2013. China-Finland ICT Alliance was invited to be presented as a R&D&I showcase in China cooperation and to present its future initiatives and cooperation priorities, as well to be a participant in the concluding expert panel. Mr. Jani Kaarlejärvi has been a Member of the Advisory Board of the OpenChina-ICT project. Keynote speeches were delivered by, for example, Mr. Xing Jijun, Deputy Director-General, China Science and Technology Exchange Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China, Mr. Antonio Graziano, Vice President of EU Public Affairs, Huawei European Research Center, Mr. Cao Jiguang, Vice Chief Engineer, Communications Standards Research Institute, China Academy of Telecommunication Research (CATR) of the Ministry of Industry and Industrial Technology (MIIT) of China, and Mr. Morten Moller, Head of Unit, Programme Coordination, DG CONNECT, European Commission. Mr. Xing, in his keynote speech, highlighted positive developments in European-Chinese cooperation, and especially the China-Finland bilateral R&D&I cooperation that has proceeded very well since the EU-China-Finland Summit in Helsinki in 2012 organised by DIGILE/China-Finland ICT Alliance.

The conference gathered about 100 experts from industry, business and research both from China and Europe. Its first session was on EU-China collaboration perspectives, second session was on cooperation priorities in ICT among the two regions, and third session provided recommendations and suggestions for EU-China successful ICT research cooperation. Key discussion topics focused on:

what will be the impact of Europe’s financial pressure on European funded international research?
what Horizon 2020 will mean for Europe-China R&D&I cooperation?
what are concrete perspectives for cooperation on ICT research under Horizon 2020?
what way global grand challenges that both regional areas face can be tackled via joint R&D&I activities?
should the European Commission have a stronger role in the coordination of bilateral cooperation activities of European Member States?
should Chinese-European ICT research concentrate even more on actual industry needs and mutual market access of Chinese and European value chains?

One of the main objectives of the conference was to discuss and reflect on the findings of the final report on “EU-China ICT Cooperation Plan” for the Horizon 2020 era. The final OpenChina‐ICT recommendations highlighted six optional and complementary routes for future cooperation between Europe and China: communication, bilateral vs. European level cooperation, researcher and student exchanges, cooperation on R&D projects, research support for industry, and dialogue. The final report summarises most potential thematic cooperation areas: “There is evidence that the key directions of the China‐EU cooperation in ICT in the next eight years will mainly include: the next‐generation internet, broadband mobile communication, the mobile internet, the convergence of three networks, Internet of Things, cloud computing, network and information security, integrated circuits, electronic components, and computer and software.”

ICT Alliance in the Horizon 2020 ICT Work Programme Kick-off Conference

With more than 5300 registered participants in Vilnius on 6-8 November 2013, the ICT 2013 conference was the launch of the Horizon 2020 ICT work programme, and a key event of the Lithuanian EU Presidency. This year’s conference theme was “Create, Connect and Grow”. Speakers represented ICT experts from policy-making, industry, academia, and research centers covering the main ICT sectors from Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, broadband, and ICT infrastructures to ICT skills. One of the key speakers was Vice-President and European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Mrs. Neelie Kroes. In different sessions to question of how to participate in the next EU’s Research Programme – Horizon 2020 was discussed. The objective for joining the conference was that this event gave an excellent opportunity for ICT Alliance to network and discuss new potential partnerships as well as plan concrete ways forward towards joint Finland-EU-China R&D&I projects under Horizon 2020. Key thematic topics discussed in the conference were:

ICT work programme for 2014;
Investing in key enabling technologies;
ICT applied to social innovations;
Women in ICT business;
Open data and digital content;
Smart home and smart living;
Cloud computing; and
Future Internet.

Some of the most interesting calls in the ICT Work Programme 2014-2015 from the point of view of EU cooperation will be:

Call 7: Advanced Cloud infrastructures and services;
Call 8: Boosting public sector productivity and innovation through Cloud computing services;
Call 13: Web entrepreneurship;
Call 14: Advanced 5G network infrastructure for the future Internet;
Call 15: Big data and open data innovation and take-up; and
Call 16: Big data – research.

Horizon 2020 ICT Work Programme Kick-off conference proved to be highly relevant event for assessing the current status and the new initiatives of China-Finland ICT Alliance. The on-going ICT Alliance projects and the new initiatives match Horizon 2020 ICT Work Programme and the broader EU-China collaboration objectives well. Likewise, the OpenChina‐ICT recommendations of the six optional and complementary routes for future cooperation between Europe and China are taken into use in ICT Alliance as it carries out jointly defined cooperation in R&D projects that involve researcher and student exchanges and are industry-driven – involving also SMEs and innovative start-ups. It provides input both to bilateral and EU level dialogue and is involved in City level collaboration when addressing challenges facing urban societies. Some of the key thematic topics and forthcoming calls are highlighted below.

The key thematic topics discussed in the Kick-off conference are active in the ICT Alliance cooperation. Examples include Smart home and smart living; Cloud computing; and Future Internet. Open data is also gaining attention in particular at City levels for enabling citizen-driven and third party service innovation. Smart home and smart living topics have been on the agenda in ICT Alliance since 2012. For example, the “active life home” services have also been developed and jointly piloted for example in Beijing and Shanghai, and an ecosystem activity on elderly care and active life (ECAL) has been launched by DIGILE. Also, the work in preparing an open mobile and embedded ecosystem (OMECO) aiming at developing open software and open hardware platforms that would help linking “everyday sensing” and common consumer platforms to create highly scalable horizontal solutions has selected “Smart Home” as one of the first potential application areas. The “everyday life” data collection also plays an important role in these activities.

In the Future Internet area, cooperation that was launched at the Nanjing Forum on Future Networking and Innovation in December 2012 with a Memorandum of Understanding between Industry Innovation Center for Future Network, China (IICFNC), now Jiangsu Future Networks Innovation Institute (FNII), and China-Finland ICT Alliance / DIGILE – The Finnish Strategic Center for Science, Technology and Innovation in Digital Business, has moved forward to be a relevant candidate for Horizon 2020 activities in this area. FNII plays an important role in the Future Network Industry Alliance (FNIA) of China. Topics suggested for joint China-Finland projects include development of platforms for collecting and analysing network traffic in China and Europe for new network architecture design and network topology. Based on the on-going cooperation Finland is suggested to be a hub to facilitate development and implementation of open source based and transparent data collection. Chinese partners have developed expertise in new data-driven design philosophy based on fundamental research on data collection and mining to create next-generation CDNs that would complement the work of many expert teams in Europe including Finnish, German and British teams, as well as other international teams.

Calls in the ICT Work Programme 2014-2015 include areas where, in the ICT Alliance context, there is a track record of active joint work as well as newly launched projects between China and Finland and with other EU countries being linked. These projects relate among other things to:

Call 7: Advanced Cloud infrastructures and services where current projects e.g. “Everyday Sensing” have activities.
Call 8: Boosting public sector productivity and innovation through Cloud computing services, where a new initiative is being prepared, involving also ICT Alliance, for launching a large scale real-life experimentation environment for development of future public digital services across Europe that are well trusted by citizens as well as by public and private service providers and that enable service roaming.
Call 14: Advanced 5G network infrastructure for Future Internet, opportunity for a joint proposal is being studied. A strong proposal and consortium can be built on the several years of joint research partnerships in ICT Alliance in wireless access and energy efficient networking projects since 2009. From the Chinese side active parties involve e.g. WiCo (the Coordinator of ICT Alliance China side), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) and other key universities, with positive feedback also from the NSFC. The Finnish active research partners include VTT, University of Oulu, Aalto University, and Tampere University of Technology. A preparatory joint China-Finland/EU workshop has been proposed for Q1/2014 in Beijing with ICT Alliance involvement on Advanced 5G.
Call 15: Big data and open data innovation and take-up; and
Call 16: Big data – research, relate to ICT Alliance Phase II projects, like “Everyday Sensing”, “Sensing City Traffic”, and are focal areas in the enterprise cooperation discussions with entities like Z-Park / Zhongguancun Science Park. Open data plays particularly important role in the citizen and 3rd party driven innovation of public services as mentioned above. ICT Alliance is active in jointly identified services area with entities developing services for Cities like Beijing and Shanghai. New initiatives in real-time economy and novel financial services to boost innovation are in preparation phase in the ICT Alliance, and will be making extensive use of the big data approach. Likewise, in the various areas of everyday sensing and demand responsive (services for) cities these techniques will be developed further and employed.

ICT Alliance cooperation activities have been developed in areas such as open mobile and embedded software and hardware platforms and tools. The “City-on-Demand ” concept is being developed to introduce service architecture thinking that includes both design of the physical urban environment and the digital service environment for creation of demand driven service solutions. Examples include mobility in urban areas, configurable spaces and access flow, and other services enabling better resource sharing and sustainable solutions. Complementing the activities in specific technology and application areas the ICT Alliance has taken active role in developing R&D&I cooperation in the horizontal area of education and training. The work covers new technology enabled solutions and ”Education-as-a-Service” concept. These are being developed, among other, by launching EDUTECH ecosystem activity (prepared and coordinated by DIGILE) to support the Sino- Finnish Learning Factory cooperation launched in 2013 by Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture working in cooperation with the Chinese Ministry of Education, and with the key academic, public and industry entities in both countries. Following the open international approach of ICT Alliance the above areas are open for cooperation not only for Finnish and Chinese partners but also for involving the relevant and interested international partners in Europe – and elsewhere.

In summary, during 2013 China-Finland ICT Alliance has taken steps to become a recognised open platform for business-oriented R&D&I also including pre-market pilots and experiments. Simultaneously, important dialogues with actors more oriented towards basic research, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), has developed to a level where potential areas for international bilateral and multiparty collaboration have been identified, and events such as workshops are planned for 2014.

In addition to research activities, ICT Alliance has been recognised for its potential role in contributing to the creation of new comprehensive solutions that go beyond specific technologies. This is now taking place in the preparation of so called “business ecosystems” as well as in cross-sector initiatives involving Finnish and Chinese parties. The creation of business ecosystems, like those coordinated in Finland by DIGILE, can be a viable approach for involving Finnish and Chinese companies and other entities as partners and/or business pilot owners for creating relevant solutions with adequate momentum and access to (piloting in) the market. The ecosystems are open for other interested and contributing international partners as in general in all ICT Alliance activities.

Horizon 2020 is a timely and prominent framework for supporting EU-China R&D&I cooperation and there is a strong interest from Chinese partners to launch joint projects although funding for Chinese partners is not at the moment provided by Horizon 2020. Chinese partners are positioned today also to take active role as key contributors reflecting China’s interest in open international R&D&I while simultaneously ensuring boosting its own innovation and design capabilities.

In December ICT Alliance was one of the key topics when the DIGILE management visited several EU Cabinets including Research, Innovation and Science, and the Digital Agenda. The China-Finland ICT Alliance, recognised in the OpenChina-ICT and other international cooperation forums, is ready to take an active role in helping to create some of the strong and high impact joint EU-China research proposals – for “Co-creating the Future”.

Visit of Ms. Pia Viitanen, Minister of Housing and Communications, to China in November

China-Finland ICT Alliance co-organised China-Finland Business Networking Event: Co-creating Future Digital Business: Communication and Media Focus on 13 November 2013 at Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai. The participants from Chinese side include e.g. BesTV, NERC- DTV, Haier, Baosight/Baosteel, and experts from universities to discuss concrete business-oriented R&D&I and ecosystem cooperation.

As the Finnish coordinator of ICT Alliance, Matti Hämäläinen participated some of Minister Viitanen’s business delegation meetings in Beijing and Shanghai, including meetings at Zhongguancun High-tech park, with whom China-Finland cooperation is in progress, Zhangjiang High-tech Park, with whom Golden Bridge and the City Espoo recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding, and BesTV. Topics in joint discussions include Smart Home – Smart Life and potential role of Finland as a ”hub” for global digital businesses as the relevant infrastructure decisions and investments are now being made. As a result, these topics are now being jointly examined as potential initiatives in the ICT Alliance cooperation context. In addition, the possibility of developing a ”virtual science park” by Finnish and Chinese innovation system actors was suggested (by Reijo Paajanen, DIGILE) and is to be investigated at the moment.

Visit of Ms. Krista Kiuru, Minister of Education and Science, to China in November

ICT Alliance, represented by Matti Hämäläinen, and working in close cooperation with the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, the Embassy of Finland in Beijing, Finpro and Future Learning Finland, participated actively by giving talks and chairing sessions in education technology and services during the government and academic meetings in Beijing (Finnish Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University). ICT Alliance co-organised a business networking event, Sino-Finnish Learning Factory Goes Design Factory: Co-creating Future Digital Learning Solutions and Business Opportunities, at the Sino-Finnish Centre in Shanghai to promote EDUTECH business ecosystem cooperation. Education has been on the ICT Alliance agenda for past two years and it has now become reality and in action together with actors in education technology and services research who are planning pilots with the Finnish Ministry of Education, with Cities (e.g. Espoo-Shanghai), and with relevant Chinese and Finnish academic and business actors.

4th Sino-Finnish eBusiness Education and Research & Collaborative Innovation Forum 6-7 November 2013, Haikou, Hainan

ICT Alliance (represented by Matti Hämäläinen) was invited to present the development prospects and e-services opportunities in a meeting on planning services research cooperation in the context of the Sino- European eBEREA network, including the EU FP7 IRSES funded eBEREA researcher mobility programme. All the partner institutions from China and Finland were present, including Xi’an Jiaotong University, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Renmin University of China, Zhejiang University, Xiamen University, Central China Normal University, Hainan Normal University and Harbin Institute of Technology, and Aalto University, University of Jyväskylä, Åbo Akademi and University of Turku.

In December 2013, the network covers many of the prominent services and e-business research institutions in China, and it also has active cooperation via its expert network with other key partners such as Tsinghua University and Tongji University. As Hainan is a nationally recognised tourism industry region in China a special summit during the Forum was organised by Hainan Normal University involving local industry on ubiquitous services and e-tourism. For example, a Sino- Finnish project is under planning for 2014 for developing cruise ship related technologies and services. The e-tourism area is also seen as a potential area of wider EU-cooperation, in particular as the European eBEREA partners include Italy (Trento) and the Netherlands (TU Delft). This preparation is, at the Finnish side, driven by University of Turku and Åbo Akademi.

More Information on China-Finland ICT Alliance and DIGILE
For more information, please visit the China-Finland ICT Alliance website www.ictalliance.org, DIGILE website www.digile.fi or contact Mr. Matti Hämäläinen and Mr. Jani Kaarlejärvi (firstname.lastname(at)digile.fi).