FP7-BG-Info

NESSI is the European Technology Platform on Software and Services – the Networked European Software and Services Initiative. 

Launched in September 2005 by 13 partners and enlarged in June 2006 to 22 partners and over 200 members, NESSI aims to address the major changes that are driving the IT services marketplace. Indeed, today this marketplace is changing dramatically, due to a series of factors:

•  Businesses and the Public Sector, which require flexibility to keep up with the ever increasing pace of change caused by globalisation and technological innovation.
• A continuing shift toward increasingly made-to-order solutions, which changes the balance of demand from products to services and from monolithic do-it-all applications to ad hoc service components and customised software solutions.
• The clear emergence of Open Source Software, which nourishes the dynamics of the ICT marketplace and creates an “eco-system” that fosters opportunities by: increasing options and competition, aligning to open standards objectives, positioning software as a public good, improving technological self-reliance, increasing transparency, minimising security risk while optimising costs.
• The broader uptake by end-users, which is gaining momentum, leads to new needs such as ubiquitous access, ease of use, personalisation and trusted transactional capabilities on all types of platforms, from embedded systems to distributed environments.

New on the ERA-Link Website:

Fellowships and Grants

European Fellowships and Grants: Calls for proposals currently open

The ERA-Link website has details and links to application procedures for the currently open calls for proposals:

Intra-European fellowships for career development (published 28 February 2007):  to support researchers in attaining and/or strengthening a leading independent position, e.g. principal investigator, professor or other senior position in education or enterprise. These fellowships are also available to European researchers who have legally resided and have had their principal activity (work, studies, etc) in a non-EU country (e.g. the USA) for at least three out of the previous four years. Such candidates may apply to return to any European country, including their country of origin.  Deadline: 14 August 2007

Also of interest for your non-European colleagues: