Brussels, 25/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 22 February, the European Commission launched two major research programmes: Artemis, with an envelope of 2.5 billion EUR and concerning embedded information technology systems, and Eniac, which will invest 3 billion EUR in nano-electrics. The boards of directors of Artemis and Eniac, in which the public and private partners will take decisions together, met in Brussels on Friday for the first time. These joint technology initiatives (JTI) were approved by the Council of the EU and the Parliament in late 2007.
Artemis aims to encourage economies of scale, the reduction of costs and a faster commercialisation of products based on technologies using embedded information systems. Today, all sorts of everyday equipment use computerised elements, from mobile phones and bank cards to cars and aeroplanes, and even buildings such as houses, offices and factories, to the extent that currently 98% of all computers are embedded in other appliances. According to estimates, there will be more than 16 billion embedded computers in 2010 and more than 40 billion in 2020. It is this market which is targeted by the 2.5 billion EUR invested in research over the next 10 years. By then, embedded systems are set to represent an ever greater share of the value of finished products in key sectors of industry. By way of example, between now and 2010, embedded electronics will represent more than 35% of the value of a car, the Commission states in a press release. At the same time, the European Commission has announced that it is to invest 3 billion EUR in nano-electronics over the next 10 years, by means of the launch of the technological platform Eniac. Nano-electronic and computer technologies encourage innovation in many industrial and socio-economic sectors, particularly telecommunications, transport, consumer goods, the manufacturing industry, healthcare and energy. Eniac represents a strong boost in favour of long-term innovations based on nano-electronics, which, over the same period of time, will increasingly be used as a substitute for the micro-electronic appliances of this generation, according to the Commission. (B.C.)