The Eureka High Level Group approved the new Eureka Clusters Programme (ECP) and the participation of ITEA 4. The ECP, which will start on 1 July 2021, has been established to give the Eureka Clusters a new boost and to strengthen collaboration and dialogue with all stakeholders.
Intensifying the collaboration - within Eureka and the Eureka Clusters, and between the Clusters and the Public Authorities - is one of the focus points of the new ECP to improve international collaboration opportunities and impact. This had already been initiated before the start of the ECP, for example by setting up the joint Eureka Clusters Calls for AI in 2020 and 2021 with available funding from fourteen countries.
Frans Verkaart, current Eureka Chief Operations Officer explains:"ITEA is a very good example of a Community with a strong industrial base whose collaboration is founded on trust and visionary research. This is all facilitated by a network that enables people to find each other and work together - and is well supported by the ITEA Office. Such elements are and remain valuable. They are the essence of a Cluster Community. And the Community is part of a broader Eureka whole, working together with other Communities and with the Public Authorities. And it's this link that is vital and lies at the root of the Eureka Clusters Programme.”
Within the ECP, ITEA will continue to stimulate software innovation, the digital transition and sustainable growth. ITEA's mission is to spawn innovative, funded projects of high quality that, catalysed by the ITEA label and coaching, deliver game-changing solutions through software innovation and ensure the fast as well as long-term exploitation of results.
"ITEA has a proven track of success with impactful research projects with concrete results for industry, economy and countries such as worldwide standards, new products that ease human life in healthcare or new services that shorten the lifecycle of productisation in industry," emphasises ITEA Chairwoman Zeynep Sarılar. "All these success stories are built by the ITEA Community with their ambition to research in order to build a better world and contribute to a better life by trusting in the value of collaboration."
For more information visit the ITEA4 website.