Objectives, modules and history of the SPP ICS

The Priority Programme in Informatics Research

At the beginning of 1991 the two legislative chambers of the Swiss Confederation decided on measures for the promotion of scientific research during the period 1992 to 1995. A new element in this decision was the creation of the six priority programmes. The Priority Programme for Informatics Research(SPP IF, 1992–1995) was one of these and was sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Thirty-four projects were started at the beginning of 1993 (series 1), of which 27 were extended to the end of 1995. In the spring of 1994, a second series of 14 projects was decided upon. Three SPP IF modules were defined:
1) secure distributed systems,
2) knowledge based systems,
3) massively parallel systems.

The Priority Programme in Information and Communications Structures

In Autumn 1995 the two legislative chambers of the Swiss Confederation decided on measures for the promotion of scientific research during the period 1996 to 1999. Instead of a mere continuation of the Informatics programme, a new Swiss Priority Programme for Information and Communications Structures (SPP ICS, 1996–1999) was brought into being. The main objectives are the design, development, implementation and testing of distributed applications and the associated networks.

In 1996, 33 projects were selected by the group of experts and a sum of approximately CHF 10 million was dedicated to a first series of projects of 24 months duration. A second call for submissions was carried out at the end of 1996, and in summer 1997 eight more projects were approved for a total sum of approximately CHF 4 million.

In Autumn 1997, 25 of the 33 first series projects received funding approval to continue their research work until the end of 1999. Two new projects were defined, which replaced the four Virtual Software House projects of phase 1. The total sum granted amounted to nearly CHF 10 million. At the beginning of 1998, a Competence Network for applied research and development in Electronic Commerce was created and a management team of three was appointed to actively give rise to research projects. 13 projects were approved in this field for a total of CHF 4 million.

In total, 56 projects were initiated, and an amount of around CHF 27 million was directly spent for research work in the four years from 1996 to 1999. All projects involve private business partners in order to achieve the main effect of technology transfer during the project work.

In 1999, the main stream of the SPP ICS ended and the results were presented on the Symposium on Research Results in Electronic Commerce on 22 February 2000 at Berne University and on the SPP ICS Closing Conference 2000 on 15 March at Ecole d’Ingénieurs de Fribourg.

The research effort in Electronic Commerce CNEC 2000-01 will be pursued with four combined projects in a phasing out period of 24 months in 2000 and 2001. An amount of CHF 2.5 million was granted for this purpose in 1999.

At the outset, the structure of the programme was intended to be modular and overlapping, but this idea was not carried through for the whole process of evaluation. As a result, the projects - which all deal in one way or another with the engineering of distributed applications and networks - can now be divided into five modules or competence centers:
• quality and security aspects
• management aspects
• general aspects
• demonstrators
• electronic commerce

We wish to thank all those whose devoted work contributed to the success of the programme, the closing events and this publication.

K. Bauknecht, Experts’ group president
J. M. Grossenbacher, Programme director

© 1996-2000 Swiss National Science Foundation, Priority Programme Informatics - All rights reserved - last update 06.04.2000