Abstract
FET Flagships
Future and Emerging Technology (FET) Flagships are ambitious, large-scale, science-driven research initiatives (
As recently noted by Neele Kroes, EU Commission Vice-President for the digital agenda, Europe needs to work together in the face of global competition: “Europe has some of the world's brightest researchers in its labs. We need to make the most of their talents. The Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) flagships can help us do exactly that by giving Europe's best scientists the opportunity to deliver major breakthroughs and have an impact on the way our lives will look in the future.”
Ambitious Goals Require Extensive Cooperation
Certain research goals are so ambitious that they are beyond the reach of any single national or EU funded research initiative. Only by mobilizing the best researchers Europe-wide via a shared vision toward a clearly defined unifying goal, and by supporting them over a long period, can such objectives be reached.
A recognized need
The objective of reinforcing research in FET was expressed in the EC communication COM (2009) 184 “Moving the ICT frontiers,” and was endorsed by the Competitiveness Council in early December 2009. The Communication highlights as one key action the launch of at least two FET Flagship Initiatives by 2013.
Facing great scientific challenges together
Research activities of European and national programs would be aligned and work together to meet a common scientific challenge, in pursuit of a unifying goal. As new public–public partnerships, FET Flagships would represent a powerful new instrument in shaping and building the European Research Area.
Federated effort for breakthrough magnitude
To provide lasting support at a level that allows a concerted effort toward fulfilling a grand ambition, FET Flagships are envisioned to run for at least 10 years, with a budget of up to 100 M€ per year, per initiative. This scale can only be achieved through cooperation between the European Framework and national research programs. The overarching nature and magnitude of these initiatives implies that they can only be realized through the federated effort of the European research community and institutions, national and regional funding agencies, and where appropriate, with the participation of global partners and industry.
The time for action is now
To implement a joint effort on such a grand scale requires a great amount of preparation in terms of developing key ideas by the scientific community, devising operational mechanisms, defining and implementing a legal framework, and, most of all, establishing the political and financial support of stakeholders. The EC is fostering coordinated progress in each of these areas.