The
European Commission today boosted funds for research and
development in information and communications technology to €1.7bn,
and called on members to double it.
This increased the R&D kitty from €1.1bn in 2010 to €1.7bn
in 2013. The commission wants member states to provide matching
funds.
Making the call, Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information
Society and Media, said target projects were the future internet,
web-based services and nanoelectronics.
She said Europe was 34% of the global IT market, and was growing
by 4% a year. But the added value was only 23% of the total,
because Europe's market and research efforts were fragmented.
European public and private investment in IT research was less
than half what the US spent, and the EU IT sector attracted
one-fifth of the venture capital that the US did, she said.
IT created 12 million jobs in Europe and the IT sector
represented 6% of EU GDP. "The sector is driving innovation and
competitiveness in all sectors of the economy. But there is an
important gap between what Europe produces and what it consumes in
this knowledge-intensive field," she said.