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By Bernard Smith - July 2000
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The 1st Call for Proposals in the new Information Society Technologies (IST) programme closed on June 16th 1999. IST is one of 4 new thematic programmes of the 5th Framework Programme (1998-2002) for research and technological development (RTD). In many ways this day represented the end of one era and the opening on another. Let us look at these changes in more detail:-
Focus: In moving from the 4th to the 5th Framework Programmes the Commission wanted to ensure a stronger sense of focus on a limited number of key challenges. One fundamental driver was to concentrate a critical mass of resources on a core set of issues of direct interest to Europe and its citizens. Underachievement in past programmes was felt to have been the results of a lack of real strategic focus and an inability to rapidly adapt to its changing surroundings. This approach resulted in the creation of 4 new thematic programmes and 3 horizontal programmes - the IST programme being one of the thematic programmes. Consolidation went far beyond the level of thematic programmes and resulted in the definition of only 23 Key Actions as compared to more than 70 such research domains in the old 4th Framework Programme.
In many ways the strongest sense of integration can be seen in the IST programme itself. The former Esprit, ACTS (Advanced Communication Technologies and Systems) and Telematics Applications Programme have been brought together to form the largest single thematic programme with a budget of 3.6 billion euro over the 5 year period 1998-2002. The IST programme has taken very seriously the idea that research is not an end in itself but must be directed towards basic socio-economic needs - job creation, economic growth, quality of life, and in support of the policy and goals of the European Union [1].
Content: Within the IST programme there is for the first time a clear place for content. The 3rd Key Action in the programme is entitled "Multimedia Content and Tools" and federates past actions in electronic publishing, cultural heritage, education and training and human language technologies. A substantial budget of 564 Meuro has been allocated to this Key Action. Management of this key action is concentrated within a single Directorate in Luxembourg (Information Society Directorate General - InfoSo D).
Cultural Heritage: For the first time cultural heritage has a permanent home within the European Commissions RTD programmes. Digital heritage and cultural content is now one of the main areas under Key Action III in the IST programme and will certainly benefit from a budget well in excess of 70 Meuro over the lifetime of the programme. The 5th Framework Programme decision is very explicit concerning the task of the RTD actions to be funded - it is to provide “access to scientific and cultural content through the networking of libraries, archives and museums". Clearly the aim must thus be to expand the contribution of libraries, museums and archives in the Information Society and to foster the emergence of a vibrant and dynamic culture economy in Europe. The unit responsible for the day-to-day activities in this domain is InfoSo D2 entitled "Cultural Heritage Applications" [2].
Another point that I feel must be stressed is the international co-operation aspects of the 5th Framework Programme. It is true that one of the horizontal programmes is specifically dedicated to international co-operation. However it is equally true to say that 30-31 States (the 15 EU Member States, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Israel, Switzerland (by 2001) and the 11 accession countries) can participate directly in the programme. There are also many scientific co-operation agreements signed with specific countries around the world (USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, etc) which provide an excellent formal instrument for collaboration on specific global objectives. To take the specific case of digital heritage and cultural content we have now signed a co-operation agreement with the US National Science Foundation (NSF) on Digital Libraries research. This has already been integrated into the 3rd Call and is likely to have a noticeable influence on one action line in the work programme for 2001.
The rest of this article will focus on this new sector of digital heritage and cultural content and its on-going activities in the IST programme.
Our mission is to help create, and make accessible a European cultural information landscape as part of the Information Society. We will do so by stimulating and supporting cultural memory organisations in research and development actions targeting the use of state-of-the-art technologies to provide innovative networked services. This means applying creative technology applications to open Europe's warehouses of cultural content.
This future European cultural information space must be rich in content and sustainable both as an infrastructure and in terms on the underpinning business models. It must be easy to identify, easy to access, and easy to navigate by all European citizens, whoever they maybe, wherever they maybe, and whenever they may require it. We must be aware of the fact that tomorrow's cultural content will be produced both by generating new forms of digital media as well as by implementing new ways to link and view existing cultural content. This includes experimenting with new levels of context and new ways to create personalised cultural information spaces. An inclusive landscape must encompass all cultural, scientific and industrial heritage in Europe.
Our goals are to help define and establish a framework for heritage information comprising agreed infrastructures, standards, methodologies, guidelines and diverse incentives for creating, collecting, linking, exchanging and using cultural and scientific content. Our actions must integrate into and supplement existing national, European and international initiatives. The key participants are Europe's memory institutions, both public and private, and with a particular focus on new alliances between them and with technology and communications providers.
Our first objective must thus be to focus on the core research problems that our cultural and scientific institutions are facing either as professional institutions or as public services. Our second objective must be to enhance the nature, quality and value of European heritage by providing substantial improved access to cultural and scientific resources. Our third objective is to produce a lasting “info-structure” of technologies, test-beds, guidelines, standards, new alliances, human and institutional networks, etc. that are of direct relevance and value to Europe's institutions.
So let us return to the 16th June 1999. At the end of that day 73 proposals had been received for the action line III.2.3 "Access to scientific and cultural heritage". This action line was designed to attract for the first time a collection of RTD proposals covering Europe's museum, libraries and archives collections. Those 73 proposals involved 619 different organisations and institutions asking for 133 Meuro funding.
It should not be forgotten that we are referring to only one action line of a total of 8 that were open in Key Action III in the 1st Call. The Key Action received a total of 578 proposals for a total requested funding of more than 1 billion euro. If we try to class the "hot" domains that emerged from this 1st Call for the entire Key Action III we can see the following:
The digital heritage and cultural content activities fell clearly under the digital libraries applications label. Returning to the results of the specific action line for cultural and scientific heritage, and after concluding the evaluation, selection and negotiation processes this action line has produced 11 RTD projects and 2 support measures. In these projects more than 130 different organisations and institutions are involved and the funding provided by the Commission totals 19.8 Meuro. These projects typically receive an average funding of 1.7 Meuro, include 8 partners and involve a total average effort per project of 310 person-months. It is certainly impressive to note that the results of this call alone is bring more than 320 person-years to bear on a core number of important RTD issues.
The results of this action line concentrate on the development of technologies that support what can be called in the broadest sense 'next generation Digital Libraries applications'. Key issues in the projects launched from the 1st Call are:
Additional information on the projects selected under the 1st Call can be found on the Cordis web site [3].
It is worth mentioning here that one of the two support measures selected from this 1st Call is the Cultivate project. I take this opportunity to wish this journal a successful launch and hope that it can build on the solid foundations laid by the exploit interactive journal [4].
Even before the ink was dry on some of the contracts from the 1st Call we were evaluating the results of the 2nd Call for the IST Programme. This time the focus was action line III.2.4 entitled "Digital preservation of cultural heritage". Our objectives in this 2nd Call were to add to our fledging Digital Library portfolio and to launch some virtual representations experiments. The key issues were:
and lastly
In this 2nd Call, which closed on 17 January 2000, we received another 68 proposals bring together 458 different institutions and organisations. The total cost of these proposals was 179 Meuro, with a requested funding of 114Meuro. The result of the evaluation was the selection of 7 new RTD projects and a small support measure. The total budget allocated for this was a little over 11 Meuro. We are at present closing the negotiations on the selected projects, but we can already indicate the broad area of applications, namely:
Again even before we have concluded the contract negotiations for the projects selected in the 2nd Call we have already concluded the evaluation of the 3rd Call. This 3rd Call is in many ways different from the first two. Firstly it relates to the IST Work Programme for the year 2000, whereas the first calls were for the 1999 Work Programme. Secondly we tried to provide a stronger focus on digital libraries research and at the same time trying to keep intact our focus on Europe's cultural and scientific institutions. Thirdly we wanted to kick-start our co-operation agreement with the NSF in the US.
The stated objective of the action line was "to improve substantially access for citizens and professionals to Europe’s expanding repositories of cultural and scientific knowledge".
For cultural knowledge our focus was on systems integration for advanced digital library applications and test-beds for very large, diverse and highly distributed cultural information and concept spaces. The focus for scientific heritage was on the creation of international science collaboratoria.
We wanted that the work should address global consensus on common specifications and practices for new data models, architectures, benchmarks and metrics, test suites, meta-data directories and trust infrastructures.
We have only very recently completed the evaluation of the 3rd Call and our conclusions are still to be verified and properly documented. However it is already clear that we can point to another success. We received 51 proposals with a requested funding nearing 100 Meuro. I expect that we will fund six or more RTD projects and three new support measures. Overall validation of the selection is still needed from the Member States however there are clearly some interesting trends, namely:
At least two of the six RTD projects have formal relationships with US partners who will submit partner proposals for NSF funding.
In terms of the support measures we can expect to see new networks for the visual arts and Europe's national library infrastructures, as well as extensions to the Cultivate network to cover new countries.
In the Work Programme for the year 2000 two more action lines related to digital heritage and cultural content are still to be issued and evaluated.
Action Line III.1.5 Trials on new access modes to cultural and scientific content
The objective is to foster the adoption and introduction of leading edge technologies for the access to cultural and scientific content. The focus is on trials using state-of-the art technologies for memory organisations (archives, libraries, museums, etc) that add value to collections and associated services. Domains of interest include new navigation tools, wireless access to the Web, improved visualisation of artefacts and collections, community building for thematic collections, etc. In all cases the trials should be driven by an authentic need as expressed by a well-defined user profile.
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IMPORTANT If you are an active small or medium sized cultural institution, or if you work closely with such an institution, then Action Line III.1.5 is SPECIFICALLY designed for you. We have tried to create an easy to use opportunity not to do research but to experiment with new technology. The demands are simplified in many ways, namely:
Check it out and if you have questions contact us on digicult@cec.eu.int
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Just a few hint for those who are interested:
Action Line III.1.6 Virtual representations of cultural and scientific objects
The objective is to explore and experiment with novel ways of creating, manipulating, managing and presenting new classes of intelligent, dynamically adaptive and self-aware digital cultural objects, either held by memory institutions (archives, libraries, museums, etc) or directly involving digitally born objects or art forms.
The focus is user-centred and includes:
User interaction and models for interactivity with high-quality virtual representations of valuable cultural objects, and the creation and navigation of virtual cultural and scientific landscapes.
The work should focus on and result in the sustainable development of valuable digital repositories in Europe’s libraries, museums and archives. This includes models for future virtual collections and guidelines for integrating real and virtual objects and collections. It should provide examples of how dynamic user interaction with the cultural and scientific content can enhance the user experience. It addresses the experiences of learning, exploring and entertaining for the user.
This is much more a traditional RTD action line where there is a well-established body of experience emerging concerning the type of projects likely to be funded. Some hints on this action line are:
Commission services are always available to provide comment
and advice (with the usual disclaimers) on proposal ideas, etc.
Just send your idea either to the IST help desk or better still
to digicult@cec.eu.int
The preparations for the work programme 2001 are currently undertaken. Probably two Action Lines will be open for proposal submissions. One action line could concern advanced digital library applications where the focus will be visual aspects and integrating emerging new visualisation techniques into new Digital Library models. The second action line could focus on a more local or regional approach towards what is called the living record of society and the way people create and interact with their own digital culture.
A final issue could be the development of competence centres for heritage institutions. Topic domains could be visualisation, imaging, ontology development, content analysis, XML/RDF, preservation of the digitally-born, etc.
Over the last two years much progress has been made. A single unique domain for research into digital technologies for cultural and scientific content has been created. Nearly 200 proposals have been received and evaluated for a total requested funding of about 340 Meuro. A total of 26 RTD projects have been selected which bring together more than 250 of Europe's top academics, research organisations, technology companies and above all cultural institutions.
Networks have already been established on awareness building and information provision (Cultivate-EU, Cultivate-CEC), digital library research (DELOS) and training on licensing in Central and Eastern Europe (CELIP). New networks will be developed on a series of conferences on the interface between culture and technology and on the networking of Europe's national library infrastructure. Extensions to the Cultivate network are also expected so that coverage is completed in all countries participating in European research. New networks are expected to focus on local libraries, film and audio-visual archives, and digital preservation issues.
These efforts over the last two years have certainly mobilised in excess of 600 person-years effort. It can be expected that before the end of the programme more than 1000 person-years will have focused on a small number of critical RTD issues. Our next task is to ensure than the results are well disseminated and are in a from that will maximise impact in the cultural sector.
And as a final remark I hope that Cultivate Interactive becomes quickly both a reference publication in its field and an interactive tool of value to the cultural and scientific community. I wish it a safe and profitable trip into the future.
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Bernard Smith
Head of Unit for Cultural Heritage Applications
Directorate General Information Society
bernard.smith@cec.eu.int
Phone: +352 4301 34195
Fax: +352 4301 33530
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For citation purposes:
Smith, B. "Digital Heritage and Cultural Content in the New Information Society Technologies Programme",
Cultivate Interactive, issue 1, 3 July 2000
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue1/ist/>
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