Research Areas

Industry leadership in information and communication technology (ICT) is one of the main objectives of the European Commission. For this reason, ICT has been the focus of several EC initiatives: the E2020 strategy, which includes projects such as the Digital Agenda for Europe, and Horizon 2020, the largest EU research and innovation program. But the relevance of the ICT industry goes beyond simply the size of its production sector: ICT is at the root of industry transformations such as the media, where the flow of information (i.e. the content) is what is important.

The objective of this study, undertaken for the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, is not only to analyze the ICT industry, but also the media and electronic content sectors and retailers, as well as the intensity of ICT use in European industries and the position of the EU in the global value chain of technology products. In particular, the project focuses on the following aspects:

• The size of ICT and media and electronic content (MC) industries in the EU and in the rest of the world
• The performance and resistance of the ICT and MC industries during the period of crisis and the differences in productivity between them
• The potential of these sectors to create jobs
• The behavior of public funding in R&D in the ICT sectors during the crisis and its consequences in different countries and their industries
• The importance of e-commerce firms to retailers and what is expected of this sector
• The importance of predictions in the short-term for government policies
• A detailed analysis of the data on trade for measuring international competitiveness and orientating foreign demand
• The role played by ICT both in terms of ICT-producing industries, as well as ICT assets used by all sectors of the economy