EC Announces €6.4 billion Tech Stimulus Plan

The European Commission has announced what it claims is its biggest ever investment in research and development including around €1.2 billion in IT.

The EC said this week that the investment is an “economic stimulus’ designed to boost innovation and business development in the region.

Broadband Roll-out

The cash set aside for IT specifically is supposed to help deliver on the EC’s Digital Agenda For Europe announced earlier this year. 

”Investment in research and innovation is the only smart and lasting way out of crisis and towards sustainable and socially equitable growth,” said Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn (left). “We are offering researchers and innovators €6.4 billion for cutting-edge projects focusing on big economic and societal challenges: climate change, energy and food security, health and an ageing population. This is a huge and efficient economic stimulus and an investment in our future.”

The EC said that around €90 million will be made available for investing in Public Private Partnerships to help improve the roll-out of broadband infrastructure and online services throughout the region – something the EC described as the “Future Internet”. A further €210 million will be put into this area over the next three years with industry expected to match the investment.

The EC said it is also keen to push low-carbon and even “carbon-free” ICT projects and has allocated around  €56 million to this area to made available in 2011. 

Research into nanotechnologies will also receive around €270 million with the EC saying it would back ideas that could be patented and commercialised. However, the announcement on the funding follows an earlier advisory from the European Parliament that certain nanotechnologies could be outlawed because of environmental and health concerns.

Carbon-free Tech

Last week, the EC said that funding for innovative tech businesses in Europe is still woefully behind the US and needs to be improved. “Facing a fragmented venture capital market and risk-averse public procurement policies means that finance is often ‘missing in action’ when you need it,” said EC digital commissioner for the digital agenda Neelie Kroes. 

Despite pointing out the lack of financing for start-ups, Kroes said that some funding was available from the commission. Kroes explained that the EC already invests about €10 billion a year in research and development and innovation, with about €2 billion going to ICT-related work.

The EC announced its Digital Agenda in May which includes plans to target broadband internet speeds of 30 Mbps or above for all European citizens by 2020, with half of European households subscribing to connections of 100Mbps or higher. By contrast, the EC said only one percent of Europeans have a fast fibre-based internet connection, compared to 12 percent of Japanese and 15 percent of South Koreans.