Oracle Increases Involvement in EU-Funded Research and Innovation

In its 2002 Lisbon Agenda the European Union set out its goal of making Europe "the most dynamic competitive knowledge-based economy in the world". Oracle is deeply committed to supporting this goal, reflected in its significant and widespread contributions to the EU’s new Seventh Framework Programme initiatives .

As a major industry player and employer in Europe, Oracle has always been committed to helping the EU achieve its stated goal of making Europe the most dynamic, competitive, knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010.

Now, Oracle is deepening its commitment still further by taking on important roles in a number of key projects within the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7).

Oracle already has a strong record of fostering IT innovation and economic growth within Europe - through its own Centres of Excellence, its Oracle PartnerNetwork and Oracle Innovation Network programs, the Oracle Academy, and its strong local presence in all EU member states.

Oracle is also closely involved in collaborative EU initiatives such as CoreGRID, NESSI, ISI and Challengers, and has developed long-lasting and productive partnerships with pan-European research organizations. In 2008, Oracle’s involvement in FP7 will increase its contribution to European research and innovation still further.

Launched in 2007, FP7 benefits from €50bn of EU co-funding and brings all research-related EU initiatives together under one common framework in support of the goals of growth, competitiveness and high employment.

Numerous individual projects involving key players from government, industry, academia and the scientific community have already successfully passed the first two FP7 Calls. Oracle will play a key role in some of these projects across different domains: EURIDICE on trans-European freight transportation; i-Travel on intelligent travel and transport services; PSIP on on Patient Safety in the medical sector; and PRECIOSA and TAS3 on privacy.

The European Commission considers EURIDICE the “lighthouse of EC activity in ICT for logistics and transportation in the next years.” The project will revolve around the concept of Intelligent Cargo – context-aware goods that allow every aspect of their passage through the EU freight corridors to be tracked in real time and 'on the fly'. Drawing on Oracle's expertise in distributed grid computing and service-oriented architectures, the aim is to create the necessary concepts, technological solutions, and business models to establish advanced information systems for freight transportation across Europe. (Read more about Oracle’s involvement in EURIDICE.)

I-Travel, or Service Platform for the Connected Traveller, aims to develop a “virtual travel assistant” service for travellers before and during each journey by providing personalized and context-aware travel services and information. It will be integrated with a B2B e-marketplace in the travel and information services sector, supported by a wider community of competing content and service suppliers.

Patient Safety through Intelligent Procedures in Medication focuses on gathering and analysing data on Adverse Drug Events and developing a knowledge base of local risk parameters to advise and assist healthcare professionals in their prevention. The Oracle EMEA Healthcare organization will join with 13 other partners to develop a supporting technology infrastructure.

The Trusted Architecture for Securely Shared Services project seeks to develop and implement a technology architecture that can enable the secure management and processing of distributed personal information, such as career or health records. Oracle will help to create an architecture that is robust, cost-effective, standards-based and applicable across different domains.

PRECIOSA

The participants in the PRECIOSA project have been tasked with producing an innovative example application to demonstrate that co-operative systems, systems where vehicles and infrastructure cooperate in a number of advanced traffic management and safety applications, can protect the privacy of location-related data and comply with future privacy regulations.

Furthering innovation and socio-economic development

“The projects promise to ensure the EU remains a safe, efficient and dynamic place to live, work and do business,” said Oracle EMEA Executive Vice-President, Sergio Giacoletto. “By participating in FP7, Oracle continues to support innovation in Europe. As an integral player in Europe's ICT fabric, Oracle is contributing to the region's continuing socio-economic advancement. It is an honour and a major endorsement for Oracle’s technologies and expertise to be selected to participate in so many ground-breaking projects."