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FSFE's activities in the 6th EC Framework Programme led to the SELF project. These pages here are kept for archiving purposes.

6th EC Framework Programme

Involvement of the FSF Europe in FP6 began in March 2002, when Free Software was not on the proposed agenda for activities within the programme.

As a first step, a recommendation was written and (with the support of over 50 parties throughout Europe) filed in April 2002. Within that recommendation the advantages of Free Software for Europe were explained and recommendations on how to make them come true were given.

The second step was filing two Expressions of Interest, in which the FSF Europe together with some of the signatories of the recommendation announced their interest in undertaking Free Software activities in FP6.

The third step was exhibiting at the IST Conference & Expo, November 5th 2002 in Copenhagen and hosting a "Free Software Networking Session."

As of December 17th, 2002, Free Software has found its way into the Information Society Technologies (IST) Work Programme (see press release). Although using the misnomer "Open Source," which we avoid for multiple reasons, page 7 of the work programme says that Free Software should be encouraged. This translates into an evaluation bonus for Free Software within FP6. Consortia with Free Software have higher chances of getting funds than those with proprietary software.

Step 4

As the next step, we seek to gather people, companies and institutes interested in Free Software related activities around FP6 on a mailing list created for this purpose.

With the "hard core" of these people we will most likely seek to start a "Co-ordinating Action" for Free Software that can help Free Software consortia get off the ground.

Step 5

The FSF Europe will offer to help Free Software consortia the way it is doing for AGNULA, a FP5 IST Accompanying Measure. Also we will offer advice for those who encounter problems along the way.

You may find more details on these projects in a presentation Georg Greve (president of the FSF Europe) gave at a European Commission FP6 workshop in Brussels on June 5 2003 : http://gnuhh.org/work/presentations/Brussels-IST-OP-Infoday-2003/.

For those consortia who encounter internal problems or conflicts, the FSFE will offer a neutral third party. As a non-profit NGO, we are free of immediate commercial exploitation interests; our sole interest is the promotion and success of Free Software. One of our projects that might help with this is the Fiduciary Licence Agreement.

Remark

As many will know, activities on this level are often painstakingly slow and take a lot of work. Althuogh the FSF Europe will try to do as much as it can, its resources are limited by the amount of support that it gets. So one way of speeding the process up supporting our work.

Documents

Documents by the FSF Europe for the 6th European Community framework programme 2002--2006 (FP6), which will cover funding by the European Commission for research and development during the period 2002-2006.

April 30th, 2002

Recommendation by the FSFE and supporting parties for the 6th framework programme:

Free Software is a concept that has fundamentally changed the way some parts of the IT sector are working towards a more stable, lasting and sustainable approach with higher dynamics and increased efficiency. It is obvious that the first region to adopt and support this principle on a larger scale can profit enormously and get a head-start in the information age.

June 4th, 2002

Following a Call for Expressions of Interest (EOI.FP6.2002), the FSF Europe submitted an expression of interest for each of the FP6 instruments:

FOCAL -- "FOcusing Competence for Advantages of Liberty"

Expression of Interest for a Network of Excellence(Also available as PDF; 129k)

Registered in IST program's database as:

LAFIS -- "LAying the Foundations for Information Society"

Expression of Interest for an Integrated Project (Also available as PDF; 127k)

Registered in IST program's database as: