What I take from that

• Based on an OECD analysis, two sectors merit investment (for future prospects): “green, low carbon economy” and the “networked economy”
• Why is ICT important for recovery? Because there is a direct link between investment in IT and economic performance; because IT is a key driver for efficiency (and effectiveness)
• The PP Partnerships will be cross-thematic involving five FP7 themes (energy, environment, nmp, transport and ICT)
• Three PPPs will be directly supported by ICT: factories of the future; energy-efficient buildings; and green cars
• Finally: there is a definition of “Future Internet”: the Future Internet will feature almost unlimited bandwidth capacity, wireless access everywhere, potentially trillions of devices interconnected, integrated security and trust for all parties, and adaptive and personalised services and tools. It will open the door to a wide range of new business opportunities and will help us address even better our key societal challenges.

Overall: good to see that Europe (and its politicians) are investing heavily in ICT!

1. One was in “Financial Times Deutschland” (FTD) on “Research in Austria” (Oct. 21, 2008 – also available as http://www.ftd.de/forschung_bildung/forschung/:Forschung-in-%D6sterreich-Jeder-freie-Cent-flie%DFt-in-die-Labore/435388.html?nv=cd-rss900).
2. The other one was in “research eu” (No. 56, June 2008) on the “Finnish model tops the ranking”.

The first article argues that Austria has substantially intensified its research activities and has come from an innovation follower to the position of an innovation leader. The research quote was increased form 1,7 % (in 1997) to 2,63 % in 2008. The increase has been achieved by more spending from the public as well as from industry (fostered by tax incentives and programmes).

The second article argues in a similar fashion about Finland (albeit with a longer historical perspective).

The interesting thing to me is, that in a short period – we are only talking about 10+ years in both cases – a country can be reshaped concerning its FTI-policy. I think this is amazing, I would not have thought that this is possible in such short timeframes (even one might argue that for a sustainable impact including a change of culture this will take at least 25 years …).

Basically, any funding in research (fundamental as well as applied) will help in achieving the Lisbon objective and will make Europe more competive. Hower, I am not convinced whether EIT will have impact (in a broad sense on the community) and/or how it will be sustainable.