Back in 2010, I had a vision to build an information system that would advance the pace of delivering quality healthcare and challenge the perception that public institutions are slow moving.

Imagine a world where a handheld mobile device helps you to navigate an area destroyed by a natural disaster to free a trapped victim from the rubble. Or a world where gaming technology helps to rehabilitate a child suffering from a crippling disease. Believe it or not, thanks to some very talented young minds from Central and Eastern Europe, that world already exists. It might seem trite to talk about hope...

“The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas!” is how the saying goes. That is precisely the enthused response that Innovate4Good drew in Brussels where I just spent the day with 150 amazing young people from around Europe . Powered by the thinking of these individuals from 30 countries from the Aegean in the south all the way up to the North Sea, Innovate4Good generated an...

Small businesses can provide valuable solutions to the Public Sector, as Portuguese SME CaveDigital has demonstrated since 2005. Its 8 employees are committed to increasing the value of their clients’ technological investments by offering cloud-based solutions. Based in Portugal, their operations have extended across Europe, and North and Latin America since they formed 12 years. CaveDigital reaches...

Innovate4Good@Microsoft in Brussels will bring together over 120 young Europeans in interactive workshops and activities to discuss how they can imagine and realise leadership in today’s technology driven economy.

Innovative teachers + technology + smart policies = the active learning and collaborative skills required for the 21st century.

A start-up created by two British medics combines social networks and cloud computing to make hospital staffing more efficient.

Faced with economic malaise, Europe needs to fully harness all of its natural resources. One vital and valuable resource that remains underused is TV-band and other spectrum.

In the next 10 years, Europe’s demographic landscape will change dramatically with the population aged 65 years and over reaching 148 million, which is double the figure in 2010. This change will increase the burden on economies, increase the cost of healthcare expenditure, strain pensions and reduce the quality of life of citizens, as noted by Commissioner Kroes on her speech on Active and health...

Ubiquitous or pervasive computing refers to the use of increasingly prevalent and progressively user centric technologies in our living and working environments.  Instead of users adapting and learning to use technologies, ubiquitous computing introduces a new use paradigm where computing becomes invisible, and technologies deployed pervasively can seamlessly collaborate and act in concert to learn and...

Looking back at his three-year term as chairman of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), Martin Schuurmans has mixed feelings. While he is proud of the three Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) that are now up and running, he feels that they could have been set up faster and have achieved more.

As mentioned many times before, at Microsoft, we are committed to software and technology innovations that help people and organizations around the world improve the environment. Our goal is to reduce the impact of our operations and products and to demonstrate responsible environmental leadership. We believe that technology and ICT plays a massive role in helping organizations, government, companies and...

NetIntegrate is a Swedish IAMCP partner (International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners) that provides cloud based solutions for SMEs. The 2 employees of NetIntegrate are committed to providing customers the piece of the digital communications puzzle that allows them to shift focus from ICT maintenance to business processes, thereby increasing levels of productivity.

IBOR (Intergraal Beheer Publieke Ruimte) is an innovative smart control and management system for public areas. By remotely maintaining and controlling public infrastructure such as street lights, IBOR helps to save energy, decrease maintenance costs and reduce CO2 emissions. Delivered through the cloud, the tool is expected to help reduce urban area energy use by 25 to 40 per cent.

The Citizen Interaction Solution (CIS) is a case management tool for customer services on a multi-channel basis including in person, web, phone, email/facsimile and SMS. The solution is centered on the relationship between the organisation and its clients, being the front-end for the customer service and customer support. CIS targets the specific market set of Public Sector eGovernment multi-channel citizen...

Atomblock’s solution is designed to take away all the hard work involved in publishing and selling content  - such as video games – online.  With Atomblock, companies can become e-retailers in less than a week, complete with links to social media.  It is ideal for retailers who want to create online stores, but do not want invest in the time, cost and expertise themselves.

In terms of modernising educational systems, Commissioner Vassiliou says, “We have a long way to go” As an 18-year-old, Androulla Vassiliou had her heart set on studying fashion design in London, but her parents insisted she read law instead. Later, as Vassiliou’s legal career took off, she hoped to become a judge. But the judiciary system in her home country, Cyprus, wasn’t ready...

Ubiquitous Computing Building on the success of last year’s Digital Values series, Microsoft is introducing a new speakers’ series called TRANSFORMATIVE CONSUMER TECHNOLOGIES. This speaker series focuses on a specific technology trend and how innovative minds are turning it into something beyond its main purpose.

No need to say more. The consumer preview of Windows 8 is available for download now. But before you do so, be sure to read the Introducing Windows 8 Consumer Preview post. This post gives a great overview of the benefits of Windows 8 for consumers and of the novelties we have introduced.

French company and IAMCP (International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners) member, ASCOT, demonstrates the potential for a small company to tailor cloud computing services for particular sectors: in this instance, the hotel business.

In the thousands of apps available for download on our phones, most of which used for entertainment or enhancing productivity, it is sometimes difficult to find those that serve as tools for us to contribute to our environment, and live more sustainable lifestyles. We’ve selected 5 of the best apps available today in the EU, and what’s more, they are all free for download on the Windows Phone...

  David Osimo from Tech4i2 Paul Steckler with So.cl David Raskino explaining So.cl Following on from a previous event on  Natural Computing,  we recently hosted an event on Social Computing, and how innovative minds are developing different avenues for people to share and exchange information...

With an uncertain economic forecast and a decrease in budgets, governments must reduce their spending while, at the same time, continue to deliver the quality services demanded by citizens. Government agencies now need to innovate and focus on creating efficient and affordable ways to make a real impact on the people they are there to serve. It’s about gaining efficiencies, meeting constituent...

The North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) Police is the largest police force in Germany with 50,000 police officers serving about 19 million people. The NRW Police uses technologies that benefit their constituents, and mobile technology is one of them.

I had the pleasure to attend TEDx in Athens, Greece, and present a topic that is dear to my heart; disruptive innovation.

The first Innovation Convention and the publication of Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation – last December were an essential part of the Innovation Union flagship initiative, as well as an important milestone in the development of the Europe 2020 strategy. The Innovation Convention brought new energy to the discussion of how Europe can become even more...

If doctors could use natural user interfaces, like gestures, surgery could be quicker and safer.

Our January European Cloud SME of the Month is Link, a Portuguese company that provides businesses with innovative consulting, management solutions, and specialized services. Link helps their customers to streamline business operations and achieve their goals without having to maintain cumbersome processes. Cloud computing platforms are now enabling Link to provide these services more effectively.

Look at the glass – what do you see?  Is it half full?  Is it half empty?  To a lot of start-ups, neither matter because they see a third way. Maybe they can do something totally different with the glass and on a big scale.  And it is this ‘out of the box’ thinking that is behind a whole new generation of start-ups, who if we give them a chance, could bring revenue into...

Today, citizens in developed countries look for increased engagement and efficient services; they want more responsiveness and collaboration with Public Sector entities similar to the experience they have as consumers with industry and businesses. Governments need to adapt to these needs while working hard to build economic growth and prosperity in their countries. There is a need to look for approaches to...

It’s hard to believe that the well-known term ‘BRIC’ has now been in use for a decade, yet November 2011 marked the ten year anniversary since Goldman Sachs analyst Jim O'Neill established the phrase grouping Brazil, Russia, India and China together as ‘emerging markets to watch’. Aside from this anniversary reminding us all how fast a decade can pass, it’s remarkable to...

Efficiency and Opportunity: How Cloud and Technology Innovations are Powering Digital Public Services

2011 was a year dominated by discussions around the debt crisis, but from a technology point of view Europe saw its fair share of milestones and breakthroughs which can greatly contribute to the economy.  Among others, Vice-President Kroes, endorsed the adoption of cloud computing, a technology solution that gives everyone access to scalable computing power and resources, by promising to make Europe...

Social Computing Building on the success of last year’s Digital Values series, Microsoft is introducing a new speakers’ series called TRANSFORMATIVE CONSUMER TECHNOLOGIES. This speaker series focuses on a specific technology trend and how innovative minds are turning it into something beyond its main purpose.

In just 15 years, Switzerland’s government and universities have worked to make the country a leader in entrepreneurship. It may be known for snow-covered mountains and cold-weather sports, but in terms of innovation, Switzerland is hot. The Alpine country with a population of 7.6 million is home to 61 technology parks, and its universities churn out dozens of science-based start-ups every year.

Early December 2011, we started a new guest speakers’ series to talk about future technology trends and their impact on our work and life.

The challenges posed by Europe’s ageing population are pushing policymakers to act quickly before the health systems become unsustainable. This drive for improved efficiency and cost effectiveness in healthcare systems is increasingly encouraging stakeholders to embrace technology-based health solutions.

In this case study, you can read about London Borough of Newham’s leading example of utilizing cloud computing in public sector services and sharing technology with neighbouring boroughs which has resulted in improved service delivery and digital engagement with its citizens.  

In the run up to and during the UN’s 17th Conference of Parties on climate change (COP17), Microsoft has been addressing a key concern of participants: what is becoming increasingly known as ‘virtual participation’. This refers to the use of technology to attend and follow climate discussions from afar, reducing the need for international travel and the carbon emissions that are related to...

Earlier this year, the European Commission adopted a wide-ranging strategy on IPRs. This strategy sets out a blueprint for a number of initiatives the Commission intends to launch between now and 2012 in various areas, including patents, trade marks, geographical indications, copyright licensing and digital libraries. The ambitious work programme was also mentioned in the most recent Commission Work...

Cloud computing is currently considered to have great potential in mitigating the financial and administrative difficulties of public administrations in Germany. It promises to both optimize the use of IT resources, and encourages a great variety of collaboration options.

Under this year’s theme of “Working Together: Saving Tomorrow Today” from the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Microsoft and our partners, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Esri announced yesterday the Eye on Earth Network – a cloud-hosted online community for developing services that map...

Natural Computing Building on the success of last year’s Digital Values series, Microsoft is introducing a new speakers’ series called TRANSFORMATIVE CONSUMER TECHNOLOGIES. This speaker series focuses on a specific technology trend and how innovative minds are turning it into something beyond its main purpose.

Video games are a worldwide boom industry and Europe is one of the strongest regions for potential growth. And much of that is being driven by small businesses and young entrepreneurs, who could turn their ideas into something big. Take Angry Birds from Rovio which started out as a small mobile games development studio in Finland. Now it’s a worldwide phenomenon.

It is strange for me to talk about my own interview (starts at 01:16) but I had the honour of speaking on TV2 Danish National television on an initiative called Sustainia. The book entitled “Guide to Sustainia, Exploring the sustainable society of tomorrow” imagines a fictitious place in 2020 that hopes to inspire us into making it a reality.

Microsoft is taking Facebook to the office and tailoring your Twitter feed.

This event has taken place. You can read our post-event summary here. Microsoft is hosting its 3rd annual eHealth event that examines how ICT can enable advanced patient-centric healthcare in Europe.

Not too long ago the geospatial industry enjoyed a fair amount of anonymity. Those who worked in the profession drew blank stares at social gatherings when the topic of discussion took the inevitable “what do you do?” turn. “Mapping” was an easy enough response, though the impression left was that of the AA or Michelin Road Atlases.

Doctors want to reduce their administrative work and patients want easy access to healthcare. Why not use mobile technology to help them?

More than ever now, the European Commission needs to focus on building and growing the high-performance computing (HPC) market. High-performance computing (HPC) uses supercomputers to solve advanced computation problems and is a key enabler of ground-breaking innovation that creates high wage jobs and allows Europe’s competitiveness to be maintained.

We have seen the global financial crisis affect all economies around the world to varying degrees, but it has been especially severe in some European countries such as Spain, Portugal and Ireland. In Spain we see the youth unemployment rates at almost 50%, and in Portugal we hear the news that the Education budget will be cut 8% (600 million euros less than this year). Ireland has experienced a drastic...

How can we make our economies succeed, provide jobs and build for the future?  These are the big questions on government leaders’ minds this year – not to mention those of business and of people everywhere.

Teenagers use Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to form their social identities – in a world that may or may not include their parents.

We have recently run a pilot programme on our corporate campus in Redmond, Wash., USA, aimed at using technology to improve the energy efficiency of the buildings.

HealthBlog readers may recall reading about an event I facilitated in Brussels just before Christmas last year.  More than 90 customers, partners, developers, clinicians, and government officials gathered in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss “Embracing Cloud Computing in Health and Wellness”.  The event was perhaps all the more special because of its setting in the historic Concert Noble,...

I truly believe that Europe has an immense potential to innovate. As stated by the EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be the powerhouse of the Innovation Union, as they represent more than 99% of all businesses and employ more than 90 million people in Europe.

In this case study, you can read about how Barcelona, a city with a reputation of being a premiere location for business conferences, has developed a “new way of working” for its citizens and tourists through cloud computing. The city of Barcelona in Spain serves more than 1.6 million inhabitants and draws about 6.5 million visitors each year. Many citizens work remotely...

Several months ago, we released a new whitepaper, The IT Energy Efficiency Imperative, which explores the critical importance and substantial benefits of embracing IT energy efficiency in a world where almost every facet of business and society is dependent on IT-based services. Added to this we’re also releasing a new video featuring Mark Aggar, Senior Director of Technology Strategy, talking about...

The Global Innovation Index (GII) project was launched by INSEAD business school in 2007 with the goal of determining metrics and approaches to better capture the richness of innovation in society and go beyond traditional measures of innovation such as the number of PhDs, the number of research articles produced, research centres created, patents issued, and research and development expenditures.

In this case study, you can read about how a Madrid based company has developed a cloud solution to enable its 17,000 residents help the city council maintain its 245,000 trees and keep the city green, with the help of an innovative SME – Tecnigral. Tecnigral is a Madrid based company specialised in environmental services solutions for inner cities. Its ArboMap product for urban management has...

The ICT sector is a very fluid and aggressive global market where technology is driving change, in fact it’s driving innovation across all sectors. There’s a huge amount of innovation coming from Russia and across the East. Look to Asia and you’ll see the Japanese ‘eBay’ coming our way which will undoubtedly put pressure on eBay. In the coming years we are going to see some...

The internet is developing at a tremendous pace as more businesses and people worldwide gain access to a vast range of online services. Increasingly, those services are built using cloud computing technologies which provide companies with an opportunity to save money on ICT infrastructure, and software developers with an advanced interoperable platform to create, test and deploy new services faster.

Information technology (IT) departments in organisations across sectors are facing difficulties in meeting the growing demand for IT services, due to tight budgets, rising energy costs, and limits on electric power availability. To answer the existing and new demands while remaining productive and competitive, it is important for organisations to embrace IT energy efficiency principles and practices.

When Richard Banks’ grandfather died about five years ago, he left behind a suitcase filled with hundreds of photographs, many depicting his time as a pilot during World War II. Looking through those images made Banks think about the legacy he would leave his daughter, and about the physical limitations of photos and floppy disks that become obsolete as images and information are increasingly stored...

Governments around the world are racing to invest in smart electricity grids to reduce energy consumption and battle climate change. The European Union’s Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan includes a €2 billion investment in smart grids over the next ten years. By 2020, the EU aims to have smart meters in 80 per cent of homes.

Have you ever thought that gaming could make us live better and longer? Europe increasingly needs prevention and health promotion, integrated care, and independent living of elderly people. For this reason, the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing is seeking out creative ways to increase the average healthy lifespan of citizens by two years. One way to achieve this is...

There has been a lot of buzz going around since Google announced it is retiring Google Health. They had built a service based on the idea that “with more and better information, people can make smarter choices.” This is why we have worked with Google to enable people using the Google Health service, scheduled to be discontinued on 1 January 2012, to easily transfer their personal health...

How often has a friend tweeted you from a restaurant? Weren’t you curious to know where exactly it was? Since late 2009, Twitter users have been able to add details of their location to a tweet. Bing Twitter Maps, a new Twitter-based app developed by Microsoft researchers, merges these geotagged public tweets with the rich geographical information available via Bing Maps.

EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger has said that “The cheapest energy is the one we don’t consume”. Private households also need to reduce their energy needs, and doing so makes economic sense too: lowering your room temperature by just three degrees can save 20 percent on heating costs. Even reducing temperature by a single degree can cut consumption by 6 percent.

In this case study, you can read about how Partners HealthCare has enabled increased accessibility of healthcare by making health data and communication between patients and providers possible virtually through cloud computing. Partners HealthCare is a large, integrated healthcare system in the Boston region, in the U.S., which provides patient care and employs about 50,000 people, including 6,000...

Governments across Europe increasingly recognize the benefits of making their non-sensitive and non-personal data open and reusable. For this reason, the topic was outlined in many discussions at the EU Digital Agenda Assembly that took place some weeks ago.In fact better access to public sector information based on open data can improve quality of life and facilitate interfacing with governments. The...

Microsoft’s latest products are geared towards enabling users to be more productive and to do their work faster and more efficiently. But as well as being user-friendly, its products have also been specifically crafted to manage power efficiently, reducing both energy use and your overall electricity bill.

Continuing my cloud conversation with Microsoft International’s president Jean-Philippe Courtois, we now talk about the ongoing availability of cloud technologies for citizens.

Organisations of all types are adopting cloud computing technologies to gain flexibility and strategic advantage in their environments.

Mapping the route ahead for cloud computing, specifically looking at the human capital investment needed to bridge the transition and the question of organizational infrastructure, was recently made relevant to both Italian and EU-level institutions as well as stakeholders at the European Parliament in Rome.

Several of the EU’s biggest tech and media companies join together to explore use of TV white spaces spectrum to help meet the fast rising demand for broadband and therefore meet Europe 2020 targets for broadband coverage.

Educate, inspire, connect – three words that describe the unique summit taking place this year: the 61st annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.  It is an exceptional conference which illustrates just how meaningful and fascinating science is for society.

“Every human being is author of his own health or disease,” the Buddha said. Some 2,500 years later, technology is allowing patients to truly take control of their own well-being in what may be the biggest medical revolution in decades: the computerisation of personal health records (PHRs).

If you have ever needed to be away from the office to look after your child at the last minute, run an important personal errand or even accept a midday delivery at your home – then you will appreciate the advantages that flexible working offers. In fact, there are multiple benefits for employers and for wider society too: greater employee satisfaction and retention, increased workforce...

Over the last few decades microprocessors and software have been increasingly present in cars. Today, an average car might contain as many as 50 microprocessors, each with their own piece of software on them. Electric cars have even more electronics on them and it is likely that tomorrow’s car will have even more!

I was recently at a roundtable meeting with Connie Hedegaard, the European Commissioner for Climate Action and many companies representing the financial, manufacturing, technology and transport sectors and NGOs. Part of the discussion was on the EU’s carbon emissions reduction target for 2020 and a move from 20% to 30%.

The Centre for eGovernance Development in Ljubljana and the Austrian Computer Society in Vienna have co-organised the 9th Eastern European eGov Days on "eGovernment in Times of Economic Challenges”.

Microsoft and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced the latest awardees for the joint Microsoft-NSF research partnership in cloud computing. As part of this agreement with the NSF, Microsoft is making available access to Windows Azure , Microsoft's cloud computing platform. In addition, a support team of Microsoft researchers and developers is working with grant...

Early May, European Commissioner for Research and Innovation Máire Geoghegan-Quinn re-stated her desire to go further in cutting red tape and for the Commission to be innovative itself to release the full potential of EU funded research and innovation. She encouraged interested parties who had not yet given their views to respond to the consultation on the Common Strategic Framework for Research and...

Flexible working is the norm in many Microsoft subsidiaries across Europe. Employees are empowered to use our own technology – from Lync to Windows Phone to Sharepoint and Office – to communicate and collaborate, creating a culture of trust and transparency where people may work in a way that better suits work-life balance. These efforts have paid off, as today, the Great Place to Work Institute...

This week I had the pleasure of participating in the eHealth Conference as part of the CIEN (Crossroads for the Electronics and Digital Industry) in Paris. The event was very stimulating, having identified some key challenges in the adoption of eHealth in France as well as the rest of Europe. It brought together representatives from industry, academia, and government.

In the current, rather pessimistic climate of discussions about Europe’s difficulty to innovate, I was very pleased to  see that 48 (nearly 40%) out of 124 student teams selected to attend the Imagine Cup finals are from the European continent (see full list)!  Imagine Cup is the world's premier student technology competition run by Microsoft. European countries such as Denmark and France,...

Climate change is a global problem and therefore requires a global answer, as rightfully stated by James Lovegrove in our video interview. James is the Managing Director of TechAmerica Europe, leading US high-tech companies operating in the EU. Indeed, answering the environmental challenges requires a unitary effort across industries, governments and citizens. Through his leadership TechAmerica Europe has...

The EU Cybersecurity and Digital Crimes Forum is a full day conference on cyber and internet security addressing European policy makers and national security and digital crime specialists. We invite you to discover or re-discover key Microsoft programmes & initiatives around this topic. You might imagine that counterfeiting and piracy were a thing of the past, particularly in the EU, but sadly...

The European Commission has placed innovation at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy, encouraging large companies to play a key role through investing in research and development (R&D), as well as through public-private partnerships. 

How do you offer ICT services to mobile health workers?

Meander needed to convert its timesheet and leave request system from paper to digital. By using a cloud-based set of messaging and collaboration solutions, rather than running its own servers, it achieved cost savings of over 60%.

It feels like the past two days in Budapest, Hungary, have gone by in the blink of an eye; in this case a somewhat droopy, red and tired pair of eyes. Let me start with a gigantic thank you to the many customers, partners, clinicians, EU officials, press and others who engaged with me and my Microsoft colleagues during the World of Health IT (WoHIT).

I underlined in several of my previous posts that cloud computing brings great benefits such as scalability and increased energy efficiency, but what about the next phase? As data centers grow in capacity and the rate of adoption increases, we need also to look to the future.

Following the recent economic downturn, public sector administration across Europe have had to make some tough financial decisions, whilst still ensuring high quality and cost effective services for the ever more digital citizens in Europe.

I had the pleasure some weeks ago to attend the first Green Growth Council meeting in Copenhagen, led by Monday Morning a leading independent think tank in Scandinavia. The Council gathered leading scholars, politicians, as well as representatives from the business sector that discussed the state of green growth, barriers, policy frameworks and best practices in transitioning to a low-carbon...

“European healthcare establishments will be faced with substantial challenges over the next decade, such as significant demographic changes and reduced human resources, forcing European leaders to re-design the European Healthcare landscape.” So reads the introduction to eHealth Week 2011, a co-location of the European Commission's High Level Ministerial Conference and the World of Health IT...

Finland has set out to create a university that has innovation built into its foundations, merging three institutions into one along the way.  Is Aalto a model for universities in other countries?

Health records are becoming increasingly used by citizens and health professionals to aggregate data that comes from many different sources. At the EuroRec Institute, we promote the use of high-quality health record systems by focusing on the users—their needs and how they interact with health information.

The IT industry’s constant evolution is what makes it so exciting.  Our annual BizSpark European Summit is a great demonstration of this: in its 7th year, this event seems to be reaching new heights and attracting an increasingly impressive list of speakers, judges and delegates from the entrepreneurial community.

The global scale of climate and energy challenges is daunting. As world population approaches the 7 billion mark a growing majority people now live in cities. These billions of new urbanites need energy; energy for lights, for heating, for cooling; energy for transportation, housing and emergency services, energy for water systems and sanitation, and they want the same conveniences and luxuries that city...

Electricity companies around the world are racing to develop equipment to help homes and apartments automatically slash energy use. These “smart home” technologies are being tested from San Francisco to Seoul, but many of the do-it-yourself kits are complicated to install and configure. More sophisticated systems are expensive and require professional installation. As a result, global rollout of...

Healthcare is one of the top priorities for Europe surpassing such segments as education, household. But it is also one of the most complex areas of development due to the variety of interests involved. To share best practices in implementation of eHealth projects as well as to address issues preventing their success, Microsoft in cooperation with Center of eGovernment Development South...

Are our schools and universities teaching the right skills to enable a new generation of IT practitioners to drive forward innovation? The question has to be asked, since everyone accepts that IT has a critical part to play in an innovation-based economy. It’s not just about companies selling IT products and services, but about how industries wield information technology to innovate in...

Environmental futurists have said smart cars will increasingly be able to provide drivers GPS information that will help avoid and create traffic.

In this case study, you can read about how the shift to cloud computing has enabled up to 60% cost savings in Italy’s largest paediatric research and treatment centre, freeing up more resources to be invested in research. Founded in 1869 within the walls of Vatican City, Bambino Gesù Hospital is one of Italy’s largest pediatric research and treatment centers. It has 880 beds and...

As you may know, the EU is reviewing its data protection laws, and recently I participated in a hearing hosted by the European Parliament’s EPP group on one of the many important questions being looked at: “Who pays for Data Protection?”

Belgian IT engineer Didier Beka had a new idea: software that would enable people with hearing or speaking disabilities to communicate by telephone. Beka knew he had the technical expertise to develop the product but he lacked business experience to build a company around it. “I needed commercial advice,” he says.

The EU’s Sustainable Energy Week is in town: Brussels and 44 European countries are hosting a wide range of events and attracting thousands of people to take part in sessions which highlight the urgent need to improve energy efficient as part of global efforts to combat climate change.

In this case study, you can read about cloud computing has enabled the Government of Catalonia to expand its IT infrastructure to support 144,000 users in a cost-effective way. The Government of Catalonia (Generalitat of Catalonia) is based in the North of Spain in the city of Barcelona. The Generalitat is the institution in which the self-government of Catalonia is politically organized, and is...

Can cloud computing put patients in control of their own health information? How can innovations in cloud technology help improve general standards of care across Europe? What are the benefits for healthcare organisations that have adopted the cloud as part of their operational structure? What are the benefits for the users?

If ever proof was needed of the importance of cloud computing to local regional and national governments, then I heard a wealth of evidence during my visit to Rome today.

Last week, I was in Nairobi, Kenya for the United Nations Chief Executive Briefing, where Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, launched the UN’s new energy neutral Nairobi office building. The building is the first of its kind for the UN in Africa and is a global showcase of sustainable design and technology.

Since the launch of the Innovation Union flagship by Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn last October, instruments and policies to improve the performance of the research and innovation systems in Europe have never been so much in the spot light.

Did your organization ever face the same problems? Stretched deadlines, missing the right IT infrastructure for launching a highly visible collaboration project, sharing documents with many internal and external stakeholders across various regions.

The Belgian Federal Public Service of Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment used a cloud-based storage and collaboration environment to ensure that its own staff as well as external users could jointly manage the European Presidency.

Microsoft is filing a formal complaint with the European Commission as part of the Commission’s ongoing investigation into whether Google has violated European competition law. We thought it important to be transparent and provide some information on what we’re doing and why.

Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Strategist on ICT, Rob Bernard, passed through Brussels again last month. I had the chance to continue from our  previous discussion on how ICT can contribute to a cleaner economy, and get his views on how cloud computing can reduce a European company's environmental footprint.

For French robotics pioneer Jean-Christophe Baillie, an entrepreneurial adventure that began in Paris five years ago led to a visit to Microsoft’s R&D headquarters in the US.

When I talk with government leaders and chief information officers across our region, I’m often asked questions that seek to learn more about the latest trend towards cloud computing. These questions range from legislative compliance such as data security and privacy, to data formats and interoperability, to budgeting policies and how Microsoft is responding to these specific public sector...

An article in the French newspaper Le Figaro, began with the words ‘Smart grids will be to energy what the internet was for computers’. In other words, a revolutionary concept.

In this case study, you can read about how the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) collaborated with Microsoft in developing an interactive application to engage citizens in the exploration of Mars. Beginning with its own launch in the late 1950s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  (NASA) has been at the forefront of efforts to explore and understand what lies...

The European Commission-funded 'eHealth Strategies study' has published an overview report that traces European countries’ progress along the goals set out in the eHealth Action Plan.

I would like to highlight a recent example from the Netherlands where, Microsoft Partner, Capgemini, will provide a ground-breaking pilot of a smart public lighting system based on Microsoft’s cloud environment, Windows Azure in the Dutch city of Texel.

Following the interview with Craig Mundie we posted last week, I’d like to dig a little bit more on the idea of turning ideas into products. We get a lot of questions about what Microsoft does with the more than €6.5 billion we invest in R&D every year.

New technologies become interwoven with our everyday lives and our relationship with gadgets is constantly evolving. Do the current terms and concepts of consumer protection remain valid in the digital age? What are the new vulnerabilities and do we need to re-learn consumer protection?

Microsoft Poland has launched a charitable initiative in collaboration with the Iskierka Foundation intended to equip all 17 children’s oncology wards in Poland with an Xbox 360 console, a Kinect sensor, an LCD television set and games. The technology can provide children with an attractive form of motion rehabilitation, assist them in overcoming the stress accompanying their illness and fill long...

Efficiency and Opportunity: how the Cloud is powering Future Government This year, the Government Solutions Forum in Rome brought together partners, customers and international public sector experts. During the 2 days of the event, participants discussed ways to deliver more effective citizen services, showcasing a wide range of ideas and solutions.

During the decade I spent at Microsoft Research in Cambridge I’ve witnessed numerous technology transfers from our basic research facility to various business units in the company (for instance F#, TrueSkill, Kinect). There was certainly no unique recipe to make them happen but at high level, there are few principles we can extract.

On the topic of cloud computing, Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, put a stake in the ground recently at the World Economic Forum, saying that she wanted Europe not simply to be cloud-friendly but also to be cloud-active. I was pleased to see her emphasis on several legal, technical and commercial issues that are most relevant to a...

In this case study, you can read about how cloud computing has provided the Associated Press (AP) with new opportunities to open its revenue streams and find new customers for its content. The Associated Press (AP) provides up-to-the-minute news and information for newspapers, radio, television, and the Internet, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I wanted to share with you an interview in The Guardian with Rob Bernard, Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Strategist.

Microsoft and athenahealth, a leading provider of web-based practice management, electronic health record (EHR), and patient communication services to medical groups, have aligned to launch an electronic health solution that will improve the connectivity and communication between hospitals, physicians and patients.

Fishing Cactus is a start-up that began in the world of entertainment games. Now it’s moving into what are called “serious games” – starting with one that can help doctors support patients left with impaired motor skills after an accident.

Small and medium-sized enterprises – SMEs – will be the powerhouse of the Innovation Union that the EU must become if we are to enjoy sustainable prosperity in the face of ever stronger global competition.

Cloud computing will dramatically lower the barriers many researchers face accessing and generating life science data. This shift is not unlike the one that occurred in the 1970s when the first personal computers were sold.

A recent article in The Guardian has profiled how, thanks to an Oxford University project supported by the European Commission and Microsoft Research, citizens now have the opportunity to help scientists track the regional and local weather events caused by climate change.

At Microsoft, we are committed to software and technology innovation that helps people and organizations improve the environment. We work closely with governments, NGOs, businesses and academia, on the best ways to use technology with the aim to resolve issues facing the environment such as climate change and energy sustainability.

The Greek government created the Public Power Corporation (PPC) in 1950 to implement a national electric energy policy and utilise domestic energy resources. Today, PPC provides 93 percent of the power capacity in Greece, generated by lignite, fuel oil, hydro-electric, and natural gas power plants and wind and solar energy parks. PPC is the largest business in Greece in terms of assets, with 98 power plants...

Valentine’s Day isn’t the only day in the year to show someone you care! My colleague Claire Lee spoke with one of our partners, ParcelGenie, and learned how they make gift giving simple.

Benjamin Cohen of Channel 4 News in the UK visited Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, recently and my colleague Steve Clayton took him on a tour to see the people who are building the future and the places where they're building it.  

Did you ever wonder what mathematics has to do with saving the planet? Well a group in France has been working on things like “multi-objective and stochastic constraint programming” for optimising resource usage. This sounds very technical but a lot of the innovative  solutions being looked at today will require smarter methods to make new environmental technologies work.

Stockholm is one of the most networked cities in the world. It is also considered one of the happiest and one of the most environmentally aware. In fact, the city was recently named European Green Capital of 2010. Now, Stockholm is using Microsoft Windows 7 to achieve even better results.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s General Counsel and Senior Vice President, yesterday gave an interesting speech at the French Assemblée Nationale in Paris. Brad talked about the trends and possibilities of cloud computing, and what needs to be done in the way of better laws and improved industry and government cooperation to get ready for this technological shift. Microsoft also released...

I wanted to share with you an interesting article that my colleague Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft, recently wrote. His piece offers up some insightful thoughts on a recent study ran to better understand the potential that cloud computing may have to abate carbon emissions and reduce energy consumption for small to large companies.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s General Counsel and Senior Vice President for Legal & Corporate Affairs, talks to France’s Assemblée Nationale about the opportunities that cloud computing represents for the European Union.

In October I shared my excitement about the VENUS-C project which is actively developing a cloud computing infrastructure for researcher enterprises at EU level thanks to the funding of the European Union.

In this case study, you can read about how HCL Technologies is enabling enterprises to easily monitor its carbon footprint which is helping businesses and governments’ better account and manage carbon emissions. HCL Technologies is a leading global technology firm based in India with extensive global infrastructure and network of offices in 26 countries, including France, Germany, and...

One of the Commission’s long-time dreams, according to the recent Communication to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, has been an EU “single market” where people can trade without barriers between all of its Member States. The digital revolution that launched buying, selling and services online is helping this...

In this case study, you can read about a Catalonian centre which is helping Spanish businesses become more productive through collaboration with Microsoft in providing Microsoft Office 365, an enterprise-class, cloud-based solution. The mission of the Centro de Innovación en Productividad (CIP) in the Spanish region of Catalonia has been to help companies become more productive through the...

The press coverage has been unanimous that the COP 16 in Cancun Mexico exceeded expectations in delivering some tangible results in the effort to combat climate change. As I said in my earlier blog, there was optimism for some sort of success and it is now apparent this optimism was not misplaced. One can only aspire for greater things next year in Durban, South Africa where the COP 17 will be held.

In this case study, you can read about how a Danish transport company has achieved 76% cost savings on IT investments and can now provide a much more reliable information service to its customers, thanks to cloud computing. As the supplier of a vital traffic information system in Denmark, Rail Net delivers information drawn from large amount of data to Danish commuters, as well as to radio and...

This week has seen the launch of several initiatives by the European Commission to improve e-Government services for European citizens, including an overall action plan and a new Framework to make these services work better.

In a Brussels speech on 3 December 2010 , Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda, said: “We are now living through a permanent digital revolution. This long and peaceful revolution is changing how we organize our lives. Powerful computing platforms are creating new markets and we are finding new ways to leverage user creativity.”

As we’ve highlighted in previous posts, one by the President of the SME Union and another on European Commission’s initiative: ACCESS-ICT 2010, great innovation needs to be partnered with access to capital and it remains one of the biggest challenges that the entrepreneurial community in Europe faces.

Microsoft’s announcement this week of new privacy-enhancing technologies in our upcoming Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) browser is our latest move towards giving users simple, clear options for controlling how their information is used on the internet.

Dr. Peter Thomond, from Imperial College provides a fascinating insight into the behavioral changes needed for Europe to become the seat of real environmental change.

It’s a great time to be a consumer looking for mobile solutions. By mobile, I’m referring to the whole range of products and services that give us mobility in our professional and private lives.

We had the chance to chat to Peter Jungen, the President of the SME Union and Chairman of Economic Policy council of EPP at the European Parliament. He shared with us his view on European innovation and entrepreneurship.

After shaking off the jet lag and escaping the European chill I am walking into the UN Conference for Climate Change also known as COP 16 (Conference of the Parties) being held this year in sunny Cancun, Mexico and in its 3rd day.

I had the pleasure of opening the first European Summit of Microsoft’s Health Users Group this week in Brussels. The focus of the summit was on using cloud computing to create a “win-win” in the provisioning of wellbeing, that is, reducing costs while increasing the satisfaction of patients and health care providers.

Talent has no age. Talent has no passport. Talent has no gender; but opportunity has all three. Indeed, it is people that are the world's greatest untapped resource.

Nearly 40% of all patients cured of cancer receive radiotherapy. Yet the methods used to target the radiations to the tumours are extremely time-consuming. New computer vision technologies could help save 4 million man hours globally.

On November 8-11, I took part in the 2010 Care Innovation summit on ‘Going Green’, held this year in Vienna. Participants from across the ICT sector attended the two-day event to better understand how our sector should be part of the answer to reduce greenhouse gases and not part of the problem.

Momentum is building around cloud scenarios applied to health and wellbeing. To offer clearer understanding of the possibilities offered by the cloud and to gain insight into the experiences of early adopters, we are hosting the Health Users Group European Summit in Brussels. It will take place on Monday and Tuesday, 29 and 30 November, and will bring together over 60 health customers and partners from 19...

Availability of content on the internet in languages other than English remains a problem and in particular several European languages.

In this latest video recorded at the European Summit earlier this year we ask:

The first Belgian National Homeworking Day was organized on October 28th by Microsoft, Getronics, AOS Studley and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

I am proud to announce the launch in Germany of Assignio, a health platform powered by Microsoft HealthVault. The platform, which will be operated and marketed by Siemens IT Solutions, marks a change in the way individuals can approach their health and wellness and will steer the German health sector in a new direction.

Billy Boyle is the kind of entrepreneur European policy makers would love to clone. Working out of a basement lab at Cambridge University, Boyle and two fellow chemical engineers pioneered a sensor system on a microchip to detect toxic gases and compounds used in explosives.

The Europe 2020 strategy is driving massive change across European life. The Barroso Commission is not only striving for a stronger economy and more competitive Europeans but it  demands that we act smart in the process.

We’ve been underlining this idea many times before, the ICT industry has the power to contribute to the worldwide carbon reductions not only within the ICT sector itself, but also to help other sectors and industries such as production, transport, construction and logistics become more sustainable.

Ten years after the presentation of the European Lisbon Strategy for growth and employment, which had resolved to make Europe the most competitive and knowledge-driven economy by 2010, a final judgement on success or failure of the overall strategy is difficult.

As the President of Microsoft International I had the honour of hosting the Government Leadership Forum (GLF) in London.

Today’s computer games depend on hand-held controllers that respond to physical touch. Kinect does away with any physical connection to the video game processors controlling the screen.

Growth has been the watchword at the Government Leaders Forum (GLF) in London. It’s an event that brings together some of the region’s most influential public sector figures under one roof, in an effort to find new ways to drive sustainable economic growth in Europe.

For some, the talk of cloud computing produces more haze than light, and there is no doubt: we all need to see the deeper analysis of the economics of the cloud in order to make decisions about information technology strategies.  I work with public administrations across Europe, and see that the interest level in cloud computing is high, but there is also widespread desire for better understanding of...

European governments that cut spending on research and innovation to help rein in budget deficits risk sacrificing the EU’s future prosperity, warns an independent panel of senior policy makers and business leaders.

I just saw Rob Bernard our Chief Environment Strategist in an interview on CNN on how we and the ICT industry are trying to tackle the increasing energy consumption of data centers.

The Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), just released its latest recommendations in a recent report on the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in reducing global carbon emissions by increasing use of technology across varied sectors.

Distributed computing has become very common in large scientific communities because of the needs of exchanging scientific data and sharing computing resources which would otherwise not be affordable by a single research institute. Cloud computing brings a number of advantages (cost being one) that now makes it a platform of choice for many research activities.

As we, the many stakeholders at regional and local level, work with the European Commission to help realise their health strategy Together for Health – a Strategy for the Europe 2020, I want to focus this post on some key challenges and opportunities arising from the availability and access to structural funds used in eHealth.

I have a job within Microsoft that focuses on interoperability, working with other companies to make sure our products work well together. This is part of the company’s commitment to customers, and we understand that enabling choices creates more opportunities for our customers, partners and developers, and that also will make us more successful as a company in the future.   

It’s a clear message my colleagues gave me at a recent event: the ICT industry and cloud computing are key components in helping to reduce the carbon footprint in Europe.  But of course ICT people would say that, I hear you cry!

Just like any other technology enthusiast, I am very excited with the launch last week of Microsoft’s new mobile platform, Windows Phone 7 (WP7). One of the bottlenecks for innovative companies aiming to provide new services on mobile phones is the time it takes to develop new applications. Microsoft addresses this issue in a unique way, giving them a competitive edge.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer toured Europe this week. As a snapshot, here is what he said during one of his visits while in Germany:

In this case study, you can read about LoveCleanStreets, a cloud-based application that helps London authorities manage street care with the help of crowdsourcing – supported by an innovative SME bbits. LoveCleanStreets is an award winning free online portal that helps people who live or work in London to upload photographs of community problems like graffiti and illegal dumping, that require...

The fact is, the world has changed. People are using more and more digital technologies, and the devices and software they use come from a wide variety of sources.

A special ‘European file’ edition focusing on Telemedicine was recently published under the leadership of Gerard Comyn, Vice-President CATEL, and former Head of Unit ‘ICT for Health’, DG INFSO, European Commission.

In this case study, you can read about an Italian company providing flexible, cost-effective communication and collaboration solutions to businesses, especially timely during tough economic times. Cluster Reply is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and part of the Reply Group, in Torino, Italy. It excels in software integration and innovative e-business solutions.

What Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn released today should not be seen as business as usual to innovation in Europe, but exactly the opposite. The new flagship of the Europe 2020 strategy is a strong signal by the Commission to challenge the way research and development (R&D) is done  and an injection of new excitement to put us in Europe on the global and competitive stage.  

Bulgarian firm Fresh Up Label wanted to implement an electronic system to help manage an increasingly complex production process.  Funding secured with the help of EUGA met 65% of the technology investment costs.

June 2010 saw the EU Council agree on a Draft Directive on cross-border care. While this is not the final step for full adoption the positive vote of the EU Council is opening a new perspective on cross-border care and on the use of eHealth as a tool to facilitate the mobility of EU citizens.   

The world's premier student technology competition celebrates this year’s winners on the 6 October! The event takes place at the European Parliament and is hosted by Polish MEP Rafal Trzaskowski.

We attended the eHealth Strategies of European Countries Validation Workshop held on the 16 September 2010 in Brussels, hosted by the Belgium Presidency and organized jointly by the EC and Empirica.

Consumers are at the heart of the EU Digital Agenda, and for very good reason. It is the consumerization of ICT that plays an icreasing role in incentivizing innovation in the ICT sector. We will see measure and initiatives that aim at improving transparency of online rights and increasing trust over the next years. Technology can play an important part in supporting these goals.

The new EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science is starting her term with a strong statement; at a time when many European governments struggle with debt, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn announced the biggest package ever for European research: €6.4 billion!

Innovation in technology has changed the way we access and consume knowledge! With this in mind there can be no greater impact than that on the delivery of education and the creation of an attractive learning path for students both young and old. 

One of the most important ways in which we are supporting European technology companies is helping them find access to capital in those crucial early years.

Similar to other industries the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industries has been challenged to prevent its carbon emissions from increasing. ICT also has the incentive to demonstrate the potential for reductions in carbon emissions through increased use of technology within other sectors. 

In few years, they will be creators of innovative start-ups, recognised researchers, or, why not, even heads of large IT corporations. In the meantime, 400 students battled it out in Warsaw this July, during the worldwide finals of the Imagine Cup competition organised by Microsoft.

This is another really nice piece on the power of cloud computing. My colleague Mark Drapeau, Director of Social Engagement talks about the massive energy boost this ‘pay as you go’ approach to IT offers anyone moving to the cloud. And he literally means anyone: from the one-man start-up, through to small and medium size businesses, universities and schools, as well as public...

Recently I was invited to speak about new business models of eHealth at a conference in Denmark. It was surprising that this eHealth conference, The New Age of Health IT, was in fact organized by the International Bar Association!

For the second year Microsoft Research in Cambridge opened its doors to an audience of press, academics, industry and policymakers for an event called “Enabling Innovation Through Research”.

HealthVault – the Microsoft Personal Health Record platform – is now in Europe! While, in several posts on EMEA Health blog, I was discussing the potential benefits of such a platform in Europe, a first launch happened this June in the UK.

How do you hit a carbon emissions target if you don’t know how much you are producing? This question was answered by the Carbon Disclosure Project that transparently publishes the carbon emissions of 2,500 organizations in some 60 countries around the world.

Today, we try to control just about every aspect of our lives. Technology, software, mobile devices and a culture of individual empowerment means we have greater choice over how, when and where we work and live.

Europe’s own environmental visionary Dennis Pamlin (Senior Associate Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and senior Advisor B4E) reminds us of the power of technology to not only lead to solutions but generate tremendous wealth for Europe. For Pamlin the next major investments in urban infrastructure over the next 30 years needs to be done in a smarter and more efficient way.

During one of his visits in Brussels, we got the chance to interview Rob Bernard, the Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft. Rob is responsible for defining and implementing the global strategy for the company’s environmental efforts.  We talked to him about Microsoft’s environmental stewardship and got his views on the role that the ICT sector plays in enabling solutions for...

Watch my colleague Niels Soelberg, Vice President Public Sector Sales, Microsoft speak about the need for sound collaboration between industry and government in the interest of better healthcare provision.

Microsoft Innovation Centres around Europe aim to help harness great ideas and turn them into successful businesses while creating jobs, helping people and contributing to both Microsoft’s success and local European economies along the way.

Go is a game so complex that raw computing power was never going to be enough to turn it into a competitive computer game. But two Cambridge researchers found a way – with a programming language used for analysing financial risks.

Personalised healthcare stands at the confluence of the most powerful technologies in the history of the life sciences.  

In this case study, you can read about how Chronorace, a logistics company, handled huge demands for accessing multimedia on its Brussels Half-marathon website after the event with Windows Azure, the Microsoft cloud platform. The 20km of Brussels was held on the 30th May 2010, 10 Microsoft employees participated in the race but there was also another Microsoft participant, Windows Azure.

The Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) is taking part in a pioneering EU Framework Programme 7 project on cloud computing , Venus-C - a project that aims to foster the development of a cloud computing platform based on virtualisation technologies not for individuals, but for industry and the scientific community.

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and Microsoft joined forces in 2008 to create the BSC-Microsoft Research Centre.

Sahara dust forecasting, cancer genome sequencing or the design of computer’s next generation of microprocessors are among the scientific challenges that the BSC’s 63 teraflop (equivalent to the power of 210,000 standard PCs) MareNostrum is tackling at the moment.

In this case study, you can read about a small Danish business, able to adopt enterprise-class messaging and collaboration software and grow with the help of cloud computing. Small businesses in Denmark are increasingly interested in the more sophisticated features of enterprise-class messaging and collaboration software, but rarely do they have the desire or the technical infrastructure to support...

It’s been all change in Brussels, and innovation now has a new Commissioner. And Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has made it crystal clear that she intends to be her own woman.

The European Environment Agency is using leading-edge technologies to enable citizens to find out about the state of the environment.

A converted chapel in Barcelona is the home for a supercomputing centre that is helping to revolutionise the way we will use cloud computing.

Thanks to technology and a robust broadband network in Belgium, we recently hosted our second ‘Transatlantic debate’ with ICT and health experts in the United States.

Europe and the US may have very different ways of funding health, but they have much in common, too. A new program is exploring what we might learn from each other.

Superbowl Sunday is big business in the US as people all over the nation tune in to watch the American football match of the year. Pizza deliveries soar on what is one of the highest days of food consumption in the US. This year Domino’s Pizza found a new way to cope with the sudden burst of demand on its computing resources: using “the cloud” for extra capacity.

Microsoft welcomes the “Digital Agenda for Europe” as a bold roadmap for action. We share the European Commission’s view that technology is an enabler for economic growth, job creation, sustainability and social inclusion. As a company, we are fully committed to working with the European Commission and governments to realize the potential of Europe's digital future.

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, Ireland is one of Europe’s key hubs for innovation, offering an environment for tech entrepreneurs.It is crucial that in Ireland and the rest of Europe, SMEs can operate in an environment supportive of innovation.

Learn how the government agency - European Environment Agency - is raising environmental awareness across Europe through Eye On Earth, a platform based on Windows Azure.

There is one game-changer that can turn the promise of personalised healthcare into a reality. It is healthcare IT, says Alan Davies from GE Healthcare.

In this case study, you can read about how cloud computing helps Dutch orthopaedic centre help 30% more patients and scale up without worrying about continuously expanding or managing escalating IT expenses. Annatommie is an orthopaedic diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation centre in the Netherlands. With ambitious plans to open 14 offices, annatommie needed to automate manual processes to lower...

I'm often asked why Microsoft is getting involved in environmental issues: people assume it is not our issue or that internet and communication technologies can help. Wrong! Technology is not the solution but an important enabler for energy efficiency and reductions in greenhouse gases.

One aspect of government we thoroughly dislike here in the UK is useless and inefficient bureaucracy. 

Huge industrial robots are now a mature industry. Young French entrepreneur Jean-Christophe Baillie believes it is time for them to move from factories to the home. The founder and CEO of robotics software start-up Gostai, Baillie envisions a bold paradigm shift in robotics – and last December he received a big vote of confidence when the judges in the ACES Awards for Academic Enterprise gave him the...

Biologists have long had to fight against the idea that theirs is a ‘soft’ science. Now, armed with tools from computer science, they are changing our ideas about life itself.

Patient empowerment is key to healthcare in the future. Patients themselves are demanding it, as they want more control of their health and wellbeing than might have been the case before.

The cloud is one of the most popular terms in IT today but perhaps also one of the least well defined. FUTURES guides you through the how and the why.

Here is our short interview of Bruce Greenstein, World Wide Managing Director for Health at Microsoft– when he passed through Brussels after a full week at Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HiMSS) Atlanta and on his way to the World of Health and IT (WoHIT) and the eHealth high level Event in Barcelona. 

We were at the Go digITal event during eSkills week earlier March and spoke to a number of ICT students present.

In this case study, you can read about how the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) worked with Active Web Solutions (AWS) to develop a cost-efficient, cloud-based application to help them save more lives at sea. High numbers of deaths at sea is a major concern for anyone in the fishing industry, with an estimated 24,000 crew members drowning worldwide each year. To try and prevent these...

40 years ago Earth Day started as a grassroots movement to build ecological awareness on an issue largely misunderstood as anti-economy.

Computer science can play a major role in fuelling scientific breakthroughs in other fields, but only if it can meet its own grand challenges, said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer of Microsoft at a symposium in Brussels debating how best to use EU-funded research programmes to solve grand challenges.

In this case study, you can read about the partnership between the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft to develop the “Eye on Earth” application on cloud to give Europeans data on water and air quality. An agency of the European Union, the European Environment Agency (EEA) provides independent and reliable information on the environment for policy makers and the general...

In this case study, you can read about how Aviva, a global organisation who unites its operations in 28 countries with cloud computing. Aviva is a global life and general insurance services company built around the needs of its customers. It has offices in 28 countries with 54,000 employees serving 50 million customers, and first started operating more than 300 years ago.

The BBC’s Digital Giants series features a video from Steve Ballmer, where he discusses the next big things online and how they will change our lives. Steve talked about three areas: the natural user interface, convergence and Cloud Computing.

Developers are the lifeblood of Microsoft. I know, I know, it’s a well-worn Microsoft mantra but believe me, it’s never been more true. Today, the hunger for new technologies is only growing.

  In this case study, you can read about how cloud computing has enabled a Dutch hospital to switch to a cost-effective email solution to comply with changes in regulation in a quick and seamless manner. Ziekenhuis Amstelland (ZHA) is a hospital in Amstelveen with 1,200 employees. Due to changes in Dutch regulation requiring hospitals to implement a safety information system, the hospital...

In this case study, you can read about the Royal Mail Group has improved their efficiency by giving its employees reliable & simple ways to access information through the adoption of Microsoft’s cloud solution. In the United Kingdom the Royal Mail Group has expanded their IT services agreement with CSC to include Microsoft’s Business Productivity Suite from Microsoft Online Services.

Innovation is now the catch phrase for the European Commission but an important one to try and resolve issues facing the EU and the world. From climate change to healthcare society faces many ‘grand challenges’ that will demand the brightest minds in both government, academia and the private sector.

Fiat Ecodrive lets you record your driving information on a usb stick and then use this information find out how to lower your driving emissions on your PC.

The European Commission as part of the EU Sustainable Energy Week (23-25 March) will once again run the Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign which contributes to realising the European Union's energy policy to amongst other things promote energy efficiency, new renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and clean transport. The 2009 EU Sustainable Energy Week will sponsor 149 events inside and outside of...

I recently attended the European Commission’s ICT for Energy Efficiency event in Brussels where four associations representing information and communication technology companies have come together to ensure our industry will be part of the solution instead of the problem.

Our favorite Geek in Disguise, Steve Clayton from the UK, provides on his blog a short and useful summary of Steve Ballmer’s speech yesterday in which the Microsoft CEO described how “we’re all in” cloud computing.

Hear me talking about the Eye on Earth online tool. This website shows data from thousands of air and water quality stations from across Europe in real-time. (By the way, I say 60,000 stations in the video but I was told I got a little ahead of myself - it's actually 6,000!).

The eHealth landscape offers both opportunities and barriers to policy makers in the EU 27 member states which are not just about technical issues of interoperability and data security and confidentiality.

In Europe and elsewhere, computing is experiencing a powerful transformation. Driven by continuous innovations in software, hardware and the Internet, traditional models of computing are gradually shifting.   

I've just re-watched this video of Jean-Philippe Courtois talking to INSEAD about the role that IT can play in mitigating climate change, answering that age-old question: what does the ICT industry have to do with climate change?! It's nearly a couple of years old, but still relevant

Andrew Herbert has always been fascinated by computing, completing his first degree in computational science in 1975 and since then gaining a PhD from Cambridge University, founding a couple of companies and later joining Microsoft Research Cambridge in the UK, where he is now managing director.

Last week I published a video interview I conducted with Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer, where he explains his vision of cloud computing.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer, when he was last in Brussels.

New and unique climate site illustrates for the first time in 3D how climate change affects you, your city and your home - and what you can do to protect the global environment Map My Climate by MicrosoftEurope

As you may have read before on this site, we opened one of the largest data centres in Europe just last year in Dublin. Large-scale facilities such as this can play a big role in the development of cloud computing, providing companies with better and cheaper computing facilities. Great news to resource-strapped companies in particular.

Think industry is the biggest emitter of C02?

It’s not a new story, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve to be told again! In 2008, Fiat introduced eco:Drive for Fiat Blue&Me powered by Microsoft, the first tool in the world to actually interact directly with drivers to analyse their habits at the wheel and make recommendations on how they can drive more efficiently.

Microsoft, in partnership with European Voice and its sister publications in Washington DC, Roll Call and Congressional Quarterly, is hosting a high-level transatlantic dialogue on how technology can enable innovation and transformation in the field of health.

Brad Smith, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft Corporation gave a speech on “Technology leadership in the 21st century: How cloud computing will change our world”. 

Ray Ozzie introduced the term Software plus Services about 3 years ago and since then it’s where I have focused all of my time at Microsoft.

Volvo chose Microsoft technology to help improve the company's collaboration, communication and environmental sustainability efforts. Unified Communications enable reductions in costs and CO2 emissions as well as decrease the need for business travel.

Major advances in data availability, together with recent advances in computational modeling and data analysis techniques, are enabling Microsoft Research to shed light on climate change and the implications for European forest dynamics.

The Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX enables midsize businesses to easily track their environmental impact and energy consumption from within their Enterprise Resource Planning solution.

Scientists from Microsoft Research in the United Kingdom and the United States and University of California have developed a prototype that allows computers to run low-energy tasks while in sleep mode.

Views and commentaries from Europe’s ICT & eHealth thought leaders. Filmed during the Friends of Europe Summit in Brussels - December 2009.

Copenhagen has succeeded as Kyoto did to bring the world’s attention to issue of climate change.

The Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX enables midsize businesses to easily track their environmental impact and energy consumption from within their Enterprise Resource Planning solution.

Join our partner – EEA – and  help build a community showing how we can IMPACT and CONTRIBUTE to addressing Climate Change!!

I wanted to share with you the fact that we joined the COCIR.  We are delighted to be joining such a distinguished, well respected and professional organization.

With Eye On Earth providing near to real-time information on Water and Air quality, encouraging two-way collaboration with citizens, Environmental Atlas of Europe now extends our digital platform to educate on climate change. (See my previous post )

The European Environment Agency and Microsoft launched their latest project this month - the Environmental Atlas of Europe (Atlas) at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen.

A group of scientists from Microsoft Research in the United Kingdom and the United States and University of California have developed a prototype that allows computers to run low-energy tasks while in sleep mode. This saves both energy and money.

What is Le Web?

As you might have read in my recent post, the IDC last week published a report sponsored by Microsoft, entitled “Post Crisis: e-skills are needed to drive Europe’s innovation society” (view PDF) which is based on the input of over 1,300 employers and training partners.

We were very proud to announce the grand opening of our Dublin data centre last month. This state of the art facility helps to improve cloud computing capacity and network infrastructure throughout Europe to meet the demand generated from Microsoft’s online, live and cloud services (like Bing, Windows Live and the Azure Services Platform).

We were very proud to announce the grand opening of our Dublin data centre in September 2009.

As part of its drive to foster innovation and the knowledge economy in Europe, the Commission has designated 2009 as the Year of Creativity & Innovation.

Interoperability and building trust in the privacy and security of eHealth systems is the route to patient-centric healthcare

What developing countries need is a stable, sustainable, robust and low-cost means of delivering services and information.

Take an ancient town, a new university, Microsoft Research and a fresh approach to computational systems biology. Mix well. Then apply…

There’s a new technology coming into your home. But unlike many, this one should save you money.

Big challenges can encourage big solutions, and at the end of last year there was no challenge bigger than Europe’s response to the economic turmoil caused by the global credit crisis.

Environmental scientists face many challenges in monitoring and understanding our planet’s changing climate.

In May 2009, a Brussels seminar examined the potential of computers to save energy – and the obstacles to realising that potential.

Software tools that help researchers to study the role of forests in climate change could make it easier to understand a wide variety of natural and artificial complex systems.

Is a European Innovation Act what’s needed to make Europe more innovative and strengthen growth and competitiveness in the EU? Policymakers, analysts and businesses are currently debating that very question as the EU considers what to do post-Lisbon.

Peer Bork, who heads a team of bioinformatic researchers at the Heidelberg, Germany- based European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), has been recognised for his outstanding contributions to the field by winning the fourth annual Royal Society and Académie des Sciences Microsoft Award

On 16 June 2009, the King of Belgium, Albert II, visited one of Belgium’s innovation hotspots, the Digital Innovation Valley in Mons. During the visit the King, Walloon Minister for Economy Jean-Claude Marcourt and Mons mayor Elio Di Rupo stopped by the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Mons.

When the new Commission is appointed, it will find a raft of proposals waiting for it – all aimed at putting research, development and innovation at the heart of policy.

Fifty-five researchers met in Trento, Italy, in October to look for collaborative solutions to the limitations that are emerging in the way that models of complex biological systems are created and managed.

John Wood, Chair of the European Research Area Board, gives a personal assessment of how research needs to change and adapt to face the future.

Microsoft’s Akhtar Badshah wants to be a disruptive influence

Inspired by biology, Klaus-Peter Zauner is working on a radically new kind of computer.

Microsoft’s first European “mega data centre”, which opened recently on the western outskirts of Dublin, uses 50 per cent less energy than a traditional data centre built some three years ago.

A new research group in Paris aims to use optimisation theory to find answers to the challenges of ensuring an efficient and sustainable future.

Heard of The Good Entrepreneur? It’s a TV show where entrepreneurs from across Europe compete for a hefty prize package of €250,000 by attempting to produce the most amazing, environmentally responsible business concepts imaginable. 

Earlier this week Microsoft joined with the European Environment Agency to launch a compelling example of how Microsoft’s cloud computing technology can be a real ‘change maker’ in the fight against climate change.

Through Eye on Earth, a repository for geographical environmental information created by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft, Europeans can see and rate the air quality with an online application called AirWatch.

Prof. Jacqueline McGlade at EEA, Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist at Microsoft Corp and Ludo de Bock, Senior Director EU and NATO, Microsoft Corp. 

The President of Microsoft International, Jean Philippe Courtois, was recently interviewed in the back of a cab (of all places). In a 3 minute interview you can hear Jean Philippe’s views on how all business and jobs are ultimately the result of innovation via cooperation between the worlds of academia, science, business and finance. The result is the creation of enabling technologies which will...

eHealth is key to better patient care but health systems should work together i.e. be interoperable if widespread eHealth is to become a reality. Here are the basics, as described by a series of experts. Filmed at an event hosted by Microsoft Europe - interoperability and eHealth - in September 2009.

Erich Andersen, VP and Deputy General Counsel of the Windows Business at Microsoft, speaking about the prevalence of interoperability in Windows 7.

Erich Andersen, VP and Deputy General Counsel of the Windows Business at Microsoft, speaking about Windows 7 as a potential driver of the European ICT economy.

Cliff Reeves – General Manager of the Emerging Business Team (which in non-Microsoft speak means he works with start-ups and investors to help them make the most of their relationship with Microsoft and grow into super-successful companies!) – recently travelled around Europe to meet with a number of start-ups and Network Partners in the BizSpark program. 

Microsoft's Vice President for EU affairs blogs via video on how ICT can stimulate Europe's growth

Information technology plays a crucial role in enabling EU environmental policy goals to become a reality. The Eye On Earth project is another example of Microsoft providing technology solutions that are innovative as well as interoperable, to address societal needs. 

Eye on Earth is a partnership created by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft that allows Europeans to understand and rate the quality of the water they swim in. It also provides a tool for communities that can be used in their claim for cleaner water.

Atlas, an online portal, uses the intuitive interface of Bing Maps to allow people to view stories about the impact of climate change across Europe.

Please click below to view a short 1-minute interview with Erich Andersen, VP and Deputy General Counsel of the Windows Business at Microsoft, filmed on a recent visit to Europe.

  Although most people will agree that eHealth is important, it remains a complex landscape which few grasp clearly. 

Dr Octavian Purcarea’s recent presentation on Innovation and Sustainable eHealth - at the Global Forum on Innovation in Bucharest - is available to view on YouTube. Octavian is Global Solution Manager of the Worldwide Health Team at Microsoft, which in layman's terms means that he is an eHealth expert!

We launched our latest operating system – Windows 7 - on October 22nd. Appreciating the mistakes we made on Vista, we have adopted a beta approach on Windows 7 to ensure we took in as much input from users during the development process – a process which is carrying on during the current post-launch phase.   

What will be the future of healthcare? 

What is Microsoft's vision for the future? Take a look.

Spotted this in a post by Murray Gordon: apparently, Windows 7 broke the Harry Potter pre-order record on Amazon prior to its launch on October 22nd!

Garbage Information Gathering eases up the clean-up in Roskilde Festival using mobile technology

Garbage Information Gathering eases up the clean-up in Roskilde Festival using mobile technology

Microsoft Europe’s eHealth expert per excellence, Dr Octavian Purcarea (his real job title is Global Solution Manager, Worldwide Health Team) has written a post on the Microsoft EMEA Health Blog about the Ambient Assisted Living Forum which he recently attended in Vienna

eHealth is key to better patient care. Here are the basics, as described by a series of experts. Filmed at an event hosted by Microsoft Europe - Interoperability and eHealth - in September 2009.

Microsoft's Vice President for EU Affairs talks about the role of ICT into driving European growth

We at Microsoft are delighted to see the opening of the first "mega data center" here in Europe. The Dublin Data Center is part of Microsoft’s long-term commitment in the region, and is a major step in realising Microsoft’s Software plus Services strategy.

In a recent Microsoft eHealth and Interoperability event, we asked various experts and thought leaders on the definition of eHealth.

Global Forum 2009 is now happening in Romania and Microsoft is glad to be part of the program. Four of Microsoft's officials will be speaking in this two day event. 

Interoperability and eHealth might at first glance appear as very different concepts – but the actual relationship between the two is extremely important. 

This week I have been lucky to be one of a handful of business executives speaking at the European Union’s Green Week conference in Brussels. 

European Microsoft Innovation Centre leads a EU Cofunded project that aims to tackle information overload. Microsoft partnerships with Univeristies, industry & SMEs.

Best of with Viviane Reding, Meglena Kuneva, Neil Holloway, John Vassallo, Alexandr Vondra, Jan Muelfheit

Eye on Earth allows governments, policymakers and individuals to compare the cleanliness of bathing water from sites across 27 European countries, giving people the power to choose where they swim and to influence their environment.

The internet is developing at a tremendous pace as more businesses and peopleworldwide gain access to an ever greater range of online services including online office functionality, video and music downloads and more. 

  Car Manufacturers have made tremendous progress in reducing vehicle emissions. Today’s cars create far less pollution and emit far less carbon dioxide compared with those built a decade ago.

Healthcare is one of the biggest challenges facing our societies, economies and governments over the coming decades. At a personal level almost everyone has an experience, not only about healthcare, about healthcare innovation. At the organizational level, the private sector has a key opportunity to contribute to transform and innovate in the healthcare field.

The EU’s education commissioner, Ján Figel’, is pushing for change in European universities – to the economic benefit of all.

Viviane Reding, European commissioner for all things hi-tech, is known for telling it like it is. A passionate advocate for new technologies, she has made a name for herself by confronting anything or anyone she thinks hinders European citizens from benefiting from what technologies have to offer.

As the global financial turmoil continues to cast its shadow, government leaders are gathering in Brussels to discuss collaboration.

The European Research Council head urges basic research for economic growth – and charts a course for expansion

As concerns about global warming grow, scientists are turning to sophisticated computational models to better understand and ultimately predict the impact of climate change and human activity on biodiversity.

The European Commission has called on national governments and companies to apply information and communications technology (ICT) solutions to improve their energy efficiency.

Small computing devices, such as enhanced cameras, are becoming smarter and more capable: not only do they record visual input (video) but they are starting to interpret it.

Cost-effective face-recognition software has been the springboard for success for one company spun out from the Politecnico di Milano. It has also won the company's founders an inaugural ACES award for academic enterprise.

Is this the ultimate challenge: to use computational techniques to construct a model of how the human body works? Nuala Moran takes a look.

From conception to birth, death and beyond, the human body is all about change. Thus, a key issue in modelling any aspect of the body is to move beyond static images of what any element looks like at any particular point, and factor in the fourth dimension of time.

It's a simple idea – digitise the results of microscopy and accelerate the healthcare process. One university hospital researcher decided to turn the idea into reality.

Microsoft’s SenseCam helps advance the study of neuroscience by enabling memory recall and opening the pathway for the development of new rehabilitation treatments.

A joint venture between Microsoft Research and the British Library is looking to address the needs of researchers as ‘extreme information users'.

Youssef Hamadi: applied mathematics researcher and top-flight scientist, directing research projects in Cambridge and Orsay. It's an extraordinary story of a son of Berber immigrants, driven by the thirst for freedom.

Frances's premier institute for computer science is now developing joint laboratories with international companies, including Microsoft, to tackle some of the key challenges in the field.

Search is increasingly becoming the main way in which people interact with information online, no matter what form it takes or where it is stored – be it on an intranet or on the Web. According to information technology analysts Gartner, by the end of 2012 more than 75 per cent of applications will use a “search/explore” field as a primary user interface.

“The phone has a unique role. While the PC is the most powerful device, the phone is the most popular device… How do we bring all the business experiences and entertainment experiences of the other devices to the phone in an appropriate way? … That's a great opportunity for innovation from Microsoft.”- Steve Ballmer, CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment conference, October 2007

Since Hungary's accession into the European Union, the number of logistics operators in the country has been growing fast. This is particularly true for the region in and around the capital, Budapest, seen by foreign operators as a hub for distributing goods to other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The boom in the logistics sector is expected to foster significant economic growth in the region.

In February 2008, Microsoft launched the Microsoft Embedded Systems Development Centre (MESDC) in Aachen, Germany. The MESDC was created to foster product development in Europe by addressing the needs of industry partners and customers. Products developed at the MESDC are intended to tackle challenges faced by European customers, but also demonstrate applicability throughout the globe. Bill Dunlap,...

Microsoft's European Growth and Innovation Day brought together policymakers and software developers in Brussels to see how the IT industry can help drive innovation in Europe.

How do you get a Silicon Valley - or three of them - in Europe? And what can policy makers do to help? These were the themes of an innovative round of discussions that took place earlier this year.

“The creation of a single European Research Area (ERA) - to mirror the single market with the four freedoms of goods, services, people and capital that have done so much to boost competitiveness in Europe - is one of my central objectives.” - Janez Potocnik

The much vaunted globalisation of business and politics has not by-passed the world of R&D.

Even as part of the largest industry computer science research organisation, Microsoft Research does not have a monopoly of talent or ideas, making collaboration an essential part of how we do research. Collaboration takes many forms: collaborations with industry partners, collaborations with university partners, collaborations through formal programmes, collaborations founded on an ad hoc basis.

One of Europe's leading pioneers in the field of medical image analysis has been awarded the €250,000 Royal Society and Académie des sciences Microsoft award to apply computational techniques to build composite three-dimensional images of hearts, brains and other organs from the 2D slices obtained with MRI and PET.

The European Microsoft Innovation Centre (EMIC), in Aachen, Germany, opened five years ago. Since then, it has created an impressive track record in collaborative applied technology research and product development in several interesting domains. There are indeed many reasons for saying ‘Congratulations EMIC!'

Computer technologies have suffused the world we live in. They have created change and continue to create change. This is manifest not only on our desktops and in our hands, but in virtually all aspects of our lives, in our communities and in the wider society.

We spoke with Richard Harper, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge about the HCI 2020 ‘Being Human’ report.

Computing has come a long way since the invention of the diminutive mouse. Unlike the keyboard, which was an adaptation of old technology, the mouse was the first purpose built approach to interacting with computers to catch on with consumers.

Microsoft, via its European Microsoft Innovation Centre (EMIC) in Aachen, Germany, is engaged in the ARTEMIS Joint Technology Initiative on scaleable, distributed embedded systems - a top priority for both Europe and Microsoft.

As computers become more prevalent in our offices and homes, not only as PCs but also in media and entertainment devices and embedded in appliances, so-called home networks can connect these computers and offer new convenience to users.

For most consumers, the amount of energy that each electrical appliance in a household consumes is hidden.

Are we prepared for the next generation of embedded and mobile computing devices?

One of the gigs at this year's Roskilde Festival, the largest music festival in Europe, didn't take place on the stage but in the trash. Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen joined forces with its trusted partner Tegos, a solution provider for the recycling and waste management industry, to implement an innovative solution for “Garbage Information Gathering” (GIG) that simply cleared the...

Handheld computers for issuing tickets, reading meters, recording environmental data or taking orders are commonplace. Now attention has shifted to adapting computers so that rather than being held and operated by hand they can be worn on users' bodies, or integrated into their clothing.

FUTURES spoke with Jordi Ribas, head of the new Microsoft Search Technology Center.

European Environment Agency and Microsoft Eye on Earth Observatory bring Europaan beach quality into sharp focus

Paris-based startup Miyowa enlisted the support of European Union Grants Advisor (EUGA) and successfully applied for government funding to develop next-generation solutions for mobile instant messaging.

Cluster Stew: the European Commission is formulating an all-embracing strategy on cluster development to boost innovation and maximise returns from structural funds and related budgets. But what is the right policy recipe for a perfectly formed cluster?

In 1997, Microsoft opened its first big European lab – and it placed it in what was then Europe's only serious answer to Silicon Valley: Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.

The Science|Business Innovation Board says Europe's innovation policies need to change, to encourage high-growth entrepreneurs.

It’s a familiar story: invented in Europe, commercialised abroad.

Research and development in highly complex fields – such as embedded computer systems – relies heavily on partnerships in which the strengths of the partners complement each other and the different partners fill the various roles that lead to successful innovation.

Computing pervades everyday life: whether used in business or leisure, by individuals or communities, it offers opportunities for new ways of living and working together. It is also having a profound impact on human behaviour and thinking, and on interactions between people and with technology.

In an era of continual Internet innovation, one of the biggest trends is the Internet’s rapid growth as a platform for rich, high-definition content such as graphics, animation, video and film.

Just when you thought there was nothing new in pictures, along comes HD View and explodes all your preconceptions about what photography can do.

The Photosynth experience justifies the use of the old truism: it has to be seen to be believed.

Earlier this year Microsoft Research Cambridge, in partnership with Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio team, Lionhead Studios and Rare Ltd, brought together finalists from the international games development contest, ‘Silicon Minds’.

Programming an industrial robot is still an annoying task that requires too many details and expert knowledge. Each robot unit needs to be installed and prepared for a particular task, which makes the introduction of robots an expensive and risky decision.

One of the current projects of the Socio-Digital Systems Group atMicrosoft Research in Cambridge is ‘Family Archive’. This work arose from the team’s fascination with the things that households keep - the objects, both physical and digital, that are meaningful and special to people in the home.

Budapest-based start-up eSpirit sought help from European Union Grants Advisor (EUGA) and applied for government funding to develop a new Web-based application. In just over six months, eSpirit received notice that it had secured a grant to cover 100 per cent development costs. The new product will result in significant rise in the company's market share.

As more and more people share data and opinions over the Internet, geographic and location information is becoming an increasingly important dimension of the way people intuitively organise, view and analyse data.

New geoweb applications such as Microsoft’s Virtual Earth are at the confluence of two massive innovation trends – user-generated content and smart environments. To browse what the augmented reality of where virtual worlds collide with the real one, you need a good map.

Football supporters and other visitors to this summer's Euro2008 football championships in Austria and Switzerland can enjoy a new experience as they log onto websites in search of information to plan their trip.

Imagine a search engine capable of recognising the details of paintings rather than words. This is the challenge facing a joint Microsoft/INRIA research project to recreate, in 3D virtual form, a two thousand year old house in Pompeii.

Few research issues are as significant as trying to work out how climate change might affect the environment. Unlike many scientific experiments, this isn't something that we can try in a laboratory several times to see how things pan out under different conditions. Nor do we have the luxury of being able to wait to see which of the many theories on offer is the most scientifically complete. This is why...

“When I'm making plans for my spare time, the most convenient way to do it is to ask for the location and places of restaurants, tourist sites and service stations,” says Dragan Tomic, Principal Development Lead at the Microsoft Development Center Serbia in Belgrade. “But even when it's not obvious that I'm asking for location information, I'm probably interested in that information,...

On 18 January 2008, Microsoft and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) announced the creation of the BSC – Microsoft Research Centre, which focuses on the way microprocessors and software for the mobile and desktop market segments will be designed and interact over the next 10 years and beyond.

“Mathematics must make a great leap forward”: this is the challenge that Georges Gonthier has set himself.

It is a fact universally acknowledged: the pharmaceutical industry needs a new drug development paradigm. Systems biology promises the ability to place drug targets in the overall physiological context - offering a possible route out of the destructive cycle of spiralling R&D costs and low productivity that is hitting the pharmaceutical industry – but it will take new tools and programming...

Computing and communication technologies have already had a massive impact on today's healthcare system. Even so, there is great potential for these technologies to not only improve, but profoundly change healthcare in several ways.

The Lisbon Strategy's aim is to make the EU ‘the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, and respect for the environment by 2010'.

The free lunch is over For the past 20 years the computer industry has grown on the back of ever-increasing clock rates. In line with Moore's law, coined by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, advances in chip design have allowed performance to double every 18 months or so.

You can't capture the thrill and excitement of a football match by describing the individual players. Similarly, it is not possible to understand biological processes and pathways by looking just at the component parts.

In the global village, goes the standard economic theory, every region should have its own set of specialised skills to trade with the rest of the world – an inventory of talents and resources at which it excels and earns its keep. So what is Europe's niche?

“EUROPE has a team of star players, but it is not a star team.” That frank assessment of EUROPE's weaknesses and strengths in research was how Dr Janez Potocnik, the EU Science and Research Commissioner, opened a campaign earlier this year to reform how R&D is governed in EUROPE. His effort is the most-sweeping look at EU research policy in years, and is expected to result in a series of new...

Implementation of the Directive by member states is essential to the paradigm of ‘brain circulation' and the development of the European Research Area.

Merely a concept at the start of the century, Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) has already completed the first stage of its growth, moving from an idea to a real service that has now achieved a broad market penetration across many European countries.

Driven by computer and network technologies, TV is undergoing a paradigm shift that is not only changing TV itself but also how people consume media and make it an integral part of their daily lives.

Year by year, the flood of content is rising all around us: television channels, books, music and the Internet - where not only traditional media but millions of individuals are adding content. So, in this flood, how do you find the content that matters to you? How do you discover multimedia information and entertainment in ways that suit you personally? Isn't there an easier way?

Back in 2001, Matteo Berlucchi, an Italian entrepreneur and academic, was ploughing through his email inbox trying to sort out the important messages from the spam, when a simple idea struck him. Create a dedicated priority communication channel that could work outside of email and could be used for sending important and time critical messages straight to the desktop.

Vienna-based start-up IQ Mobile found that obtaining funding to develop innovative solutions was a straightforward exercise. It was awarded 15 per cent of the costs for its video telephony project and now names Sony BMG as one of its customers.

Today, the efficient and innovative distribution and processing of information is at the core of all business activity – so the effects of new technologies on company growth opportunities, and as a result, on investment decisions, are significant.

Global Research Library 2020 (GRL 2020) is an initiative of the University of Washington Libraries and Microsoft Corporation to bring together global leaders from different sectors to shape a roadmap for research libraries for the decades ahead.

The Tablet PC has broadened our concept of how we use a personal computer: a mobile computer with a screen that allows for inputs via a pen or fingertips instead of a keyboard or a mouse device. With a Tablet PC, users can capture handwritten notes on screen, which can then be converted into text in the required languages. Bodin Dresevic, Product Unit Manager, Microsoft Development Center Serbia

The folks at RARE, one of the iconic pioneers in computer gaming, like to joke that the quiet surrounds of their headquarters, deep in the UK countryside in Warwickshire, is the reason for their company's consistently strong record in innovation. “From the early days it was intentional to be outside the city,” says Nick Burton, a Senior Software Engineer at RARE. “Being somewhere quiet...

What if you could get assistance for your complicated business decisions by simply going through various What-If scenarios and having them visualised instantly in 3D, with key metrics and resulting outcomes calculated on the fly?

The phenomenal growth of online advertising is driving demand for smarter tools to track results: enabling advertisers to see clearly how many people have accessed the website in question, how many people have bought something and how much they have spent.

Thanks to a unique partnership between the public, private and academic sectors in Portugal and Brazil, the decommissioned pyrite mine in Lousal, in the Alentjo region of Portugal, has become the site of the first large-scale immersive Virtual Reality system ever installed in Portugal. Today, the Lousal Live Science Centre provides an interactive learning experience about mining, as well as facilities for...