1. eContentplus Programme (2005 – 2008)
Meeting of the Working Party
"Geographical Information Systems for Statistics“
Krister Olson
Based on the draft eContenplus Work Programme for 2006

2. Context i2010 Research Directorate activities
Objective 1: A Single European Information Space offering affordable and secure high bandwidth communications, rich and diverse content and digital services.
Research
IST
Directorate activities
eContent
GI related within a PSI context
Background and rationale

3. Work Programme
DECISION NO 456/2005/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 9 March 2005 establishing a multiannual Community programme to make digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable.

4. Orientations
Overall objective:
improve accessibility and usability of of European digital content
promote take-up of leading-edge technical solutions
promote multicultural and multilingual European digital content
Focus:
on domains where market forces are not sufficient to stimulate the availability of digital content and services
on end user (individuals and organizations)

5. Target areas
Geographic information (as a key constituent of Public Sector Information)
Educational content
Cultural and scientific/scholarly content (Digital libraries)

6. Budget Total programme budget 2005 - 2008 149 m. €
2005 indicative budget 26.6 m. €
2006 indicative budget 27.2 m. €
Distribution:
Geographic Information %
Educational content %
Digital libraries/Cultural & scientific/scholarly content 40%
Reinforcing cooperation between digital content stakeholders 5%

7. Project size Typical duration Typical EU contribution
Typical country coverage
Targeted projects
Up to 30 months
1 – 3 MEUR.
5 – 10
Thematic networks
Up to 36 months
MEUR.
8 - 15

8. Actions Promoting the enabling infrastructure - Targeted Projects
Stimulating content enrichment – A Thematic Network

9. Actions open 2006 (indic.) Geographic information Educational content
3.1 Targeted Projects
3.2 A Thematic Network
Educational content
4.1 Targeted Projects
4.2 A Thematic Network
Digital Libraries / Cultural content
5.1 Targeted Projects for Digital Libraries
5.2 A Thematic Network on cultural content
Reinforcing cooperation between digital content stakeholders
6.1 A Thematic Network on public domain
6.2 Public procurement –studies

10. Geographic information
What is it?
all information that can be related to a specific location on earth.
Why?
To achieve interoperability and harmonization at European level between data produced by national organizations
Spatial information available at local and regional level is difficult to exploit in a broader context since the description of the data is often incomplete.

11. Activities – Targeted Projects
Promoting the enabling infrastructure
Increase the cross-border, interoperable and/or seamless geographic data
Increase availability, accessibility and re-usability
Create a critical mass
Address multilingual aspects
Scope
Aggregate geographic data across borders
Lead to results which will significantly increase the use of existing data

12. Activities – Targeted Projects
A problem-oriented approach, tackling issues with cross-border relevance
Address specific issues to enable access to or use of digital content
Result in a significant increase in the actual access to and the use of the underlying digital material
Aggregate geographic data across borders
Create a critical mass
Address multilingual aspects

13. Activities –Thematic Networks
Carry out awareness activities addressing stakeholders on the benefits demonstrated by best practices on how to enrich digital content with semantically well defined metadata.
Promote dialogue and exchange of information between stakeholders.
Support coordination of Content Enrichment Projects.

14. Award criteria – TP 1. Relevance, impact and European dimension (35%)
Contribution to the objectives of the programme; impact; sustainability; critical mass; European dimension etc.
2. Content and additional conditions (25%)
Availability, quality and quantity of the content; synergies with other initiatives etc.
3. Quality of the technical part of the proposal (20%)
Adequacy of the approach, methodology, work plan etc.
4. Resources and management (20%)
Relevance, competencies, combination of expertise etc.
Management, working arrangements, co-ordination dissemination etc.

15. Award criteria – TN 1. Relevance, impact and European dimension (40%)
Contribution to the objectives of the programme; impact; European dimension etc.
2. Quality of the technical part of the proposal (20%)
Adequacy of the approach, methodology, work plan etc.
3. Resources and management (40%)
Relevance, competencies, combination of expertise etc.
Management, working arrangements, co-ordination dissemination etc.

16. 2005 Call for Proposals Evaluation

17. Distribution of Proposals
No. prop. Totals
Geographic information
3.1.1 Promoting the enabling infrastructure - Targeted Projects 29
3.2.2 Stimulating content enrichment - A Thematic Network
Educational content
Cultural and scientific/scholarly content
Public Sector Information - A Thematic Network
TOTAL

18. Results of evaluation Geographic information
Selected proposals
Geographic information
3.1.1 Promoting the enabling infrastructure - Targeted Projects 3
3.2.2 Stimulating content enrichment - A Thematic Network 0
Educational content
Cultural and scientific/scholarly content
Public Sector Information - A Thematic Network 1

19. Work Programme 2006
Definitive versions of the Work Programme, the call for proposals 2006 and the Guide for Proposers will be made available on the eContentplus website after completion of the internal procedures required for the adoption of these documents by the Commission.

20. Further Information Background documentation
General queries about eContentplus
Queries about call for proposals