This booklet highlights some of the many EU initiatives and co-funded research and innovation projects which address societal challenges through digital innovation, such as better healthcare, independent living for the elderly, delivering effective public services, energy saving, smart transport, secure internet, inclusion, preservation of cultural heritage.

The EU Media Futures Forum, commissioned by Neelie Kroes, has just released its final report complementing the executive summary and recommendations already published in June 2012. Through the executive summary the Forum delivered a wake-up call to political and economic leaders, and this report is now an opportunity for detailed reflection on the discussions that took place between members during the Forum meetings. The report highlights the key trends, opportunities and challenges of the sector, as well as the solutions to overcome them.

The European Commission has unveiled a study on a Digital Agenda for European Film Heritage. The study analyses the challenges and the opportunities that film heritage institutions are facing in relation to collection, storage and long-term preservation of digital film material, digital restoration, digitization and access to collections thanks to new technologies.

This report looks at how information and communication technology (ICT) is playing a key role in the education and training of European citizens. ICT offers far more than a convenient way to deliver educational content. Today, researchers are demonstrating how ICT can actually enhance the learning process for all Europeans and make lifelong learning part of everyday activity.

As a follow-up of the report of the High Level Group on Multilingualism, the European Commission initiated a study with the aim to investigate the impact on language learning of ICT and new media. The research deals with innovative learning methods as a complement to traditional face-to-face learning and teaching, both within and beyond the framework of formal education systems. The research presents an overview of formal and informal language learning in eight different European countries. In spite of differences in the take-up of new technologies for language learning, there are some universal tendencies that are demonstrated by the research. Through increased awareness about the benefits of innovative methods and concerted measures on national and regional levels, more people could be involved in language learning and make faster progress with the help of tailor-made technology support.

Evidence shows that social computing is already affecting the ways in which people find, create, share and learn knowledge, through rich media opportunities and in collaboration with each other. These practices are at the core of Education and Training, as they promote the competences needed for future jobs and enable new tools for educational institutions.

Just as we are taught to read and write, we need to understand how the various types of media work and how to critically evaluate their content. With the developments in Information and Communication Technologies, the media environment has been changing rapidly. Media play an increasingly important role in our everyday life. They allow us to participate in democratic and cultural life. This is why the European Commission has issued guidelines for this skill, referred to as "Media Literacy".

The "MEDIA International" preparatory action explores ways of strengthening cooperation between audiovisual industry professionals from the European Union and third countries on a reciprocal basis. With a budget of €5 million for funding projects in 2009, approved by the European Parliament in December 2008, MEDIA International is now in the second of its three year duration. Cooperation is expected to bring more diverse audiovisual products to European and international markets and create new business opportunities for audiovisual professionals from Europe and around the globe. Media International runs in parallel to the existing MEDIA 2007 programme which supports the EU film industry.

In recent years, the EU has coordinated and supported efforts to make the internet a safer place, especially for children. These efforts are ongoing and in the next five years, € 55 million will be used to fight illegal content and harmful behaviours on the Web that could be labelled as racism, bullying or grooming.

"The future of electronic service provision relies on development of a citizen-centred trust network" finds the most recent Think Paper of the cc:eGov study. The paper argues that governments must understand that trust is a relationship and building trust means achieving a balance between the need to hold data and the duty to use it and protect it responsibly. ECOTEC Research & Consulting, with the Tavistock Institute, was commissioned by the European Commission to undertake research into the impact of organisational change for the delivery of citizen-centric eGovernment services. The current Think Paper of the study addresses the topical issues of trust, security and identity in electronic public services.

Social Networking is like a ‘digital cocktail party’: a powerful mixture of human social instincts and web 2.0 technology which is revolutionising the Internet. In this position paper, ENISA emphasises the many benefits of Social Networking but identifies 14 important threats. This leads to 17 recommendations on how Social Networking can be made safer.

MEDIA 2007: €755 million from the European Union to support Europe's film industry from 2007-2013. A clear priority is the distribution and promotion of European films outside their originating country, across Europe and worldwide (almost 65% of the total budget). Under MEDIA Plus and MEDIA Training (2001-2006), more than half a billion euros were injected into 8000 projects from over 30 countries.

Unfolding innovative interactive multimedia and audio-visual services for hand-held mobiles – this was the objective of Phenix, a project led by a Chinese-European consortium. Partners co-operated on the commercial, industrial and research aspects for a roll-out on the Chinese market.

Mobile television is a prime example of digital convergence, which can generate new business opportunities and benefit consumers. By bringing audiovisual content to personal mobile terminals, mobile TV is indeed at the cutting edge of high-value, innovative services. It unites personal mobile communications, one of the most dynamic European markets, and audiovisual content.

The switch over from analogue to digital broadcasting means freed-up radio spectrum – but how will these newly available frequencies be used? The PARTAKE project engaged leading Chinese organisations in standardisation and regulation initiatives which are of strategic importance to the audiovisual sector in Europe.

INSTINCT is paving the way for marketing mobile broadband and digital terrestrial TV services through a single handheld device. As such it is addressing the key European policy objective in this area: digital convergence.

Leaflet explaining the basics on the 7th Framework Programme and the ICT elements within it, the 7 key Research Challenges, the budget breakwdown, the i2010 Flagship Initiatives, the European Technology Platforms and Joint Technology Initiatives.

Technological advance has enabled perfect, inexpensive and unlimited replication of content, delivered instantly to individual users, seamlessly across borders. It has led to a proliferation of new media and has fuelled the development of new content products. With this continued innovation have come not just opportunities, but also technical, organisational and regulatory challenges, touching our content industry and content-holding public sector, individual citizens and businesses alike.

The Recommendation aims at bringing out the full economic and cultural potential of Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage through the Internet. It is part of the Commission’s strategy for the digitisation, online accessibility and digital preservation of Europe's cultural and scientific heritage as set out in the Commission Communication ‘i2010: digital libraries’ of 30 September 2005, COM(2005)465 final.