Services for Europe: Strategic research agenda and implementation action plan for services

This publication identifies, and provides the rationale for, the most important research and development themes in services and supplies recommendations for the organisation and funding of services-related research in Europe. The major socio-economic and technological trends that currently influence the development of services have been identified also. The research and development themes identified have been divided into four broad categories: markets and business logic, operations and enabling technologies, socio-economic environment and regulation, and conceptual and methodological issues. The recommendations concerning organisation and funding of research have been prepared specifically for EU-funded research. The key recommendation is that services be designated as a priority area with a dedicated budget in the forthcoming Horizon 2020 - the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation - on account of services' huge importance and potential for European economies and societies as a whole. The work was conducted in association with AERTOs ERA-NET Coordination Action. The participating organisations included TNO (Netherlands), Fraunhofer ISI and IAO (Germany), Tecnalia (Spain), SINTEF (Norway), SP (Sweden), and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The project received financial support from Tekes - the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.