6546 The European Commission, Call for proposals under the FP7 SME Initiative on Digital Content and Languages

Call for proposals under the FP7 SME Initiative on Digital Content and Languages

The European Commission has published a call for proposals under the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Initiative on Digital Content and Languages of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

The deadline for submission of the short proposals (Stage 1) is on the 28 of April 2011 at 17:00 Brussels local time, and28 September 2011 at 17:00 Brussels local time for the submission of the full proposals – Stage 2 (only for proposals retained at stage 1). Further details of the call are provided in the Work Programme 2011-2012 and on the following pages:http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/content-knowledge/fp7-callsme_en.html

Official call-page: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.CooperationDetailsCallPage&call_id=392%20

SMEs have ideas that sometimes cannot be implemented because they depend on the availability of data resources or specialised tools that are too expensive to obtain and maintain.

In some areas, data pooling, sharing and reuse are further complicated by Europe’s many languages. Actions under this objective aim to make it easier for innovative players, especially SMEs, to exploit and contribute to large digital resource pools. User-centred experimentation will be supported as well, with the aim of demonstrating the integration of data-intensive technologies within innovative solutions and processes.

The call has expected outcomes in four target areas: bootstrapping a data economy, community building and best practices, sharing language resources, and building consensus and common services.

In ‘bootstrapping a data economy’, the aim is to lower the barrier to entry in providing advanced services over linked digital resources, including both data analytics and reuse of creative content.

For ‘community building and best practices’, projects should produce rigorous studies on the actual or predicted economic impact of digital resources pooling and use the results of such studies to set up data exchange facilities, disseminate best practices and increase awareness of short term existing opportunities.

Projects in the ‘sharing language resources’ area should make use of digital pools of language data, metadata and tools to develop advanced technologies and services.

Under ‘building consensus and common services’, initiatives should bring together to establish mechanisms, forums and support services to coordinate efforts, reach consensus, mobilise the communities at large, and set up and manage the aforementioned facilities.