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TEKES awarded funding for the project EVIUS: European Virtual Testbed for Location Based Ubiquitous Services. The objective of the project is to prepare and launch the follow-up research program for the national program NAVI – Personal Navigation (2000-2002). A major aim of the follow-up program is to establish a European network of test sites for developing and studying next generation location-enhanced mobile digital services. Dr. Martti Mäntylä leads the project, and Mikko Kontiainen acts as the project manager.

HIIT submitted three preproposals for evaluation by the Proactive Computing program of the Academy of Finland. Selected teams will be invited to submit full proposals in August, 2002. If funded, these projects will launch in January 2003.

Prof. George Metakides, Director, Essential Information Society Technologies and Infrastructures, Directorate-General Information Society, European Commission, visited HIIT. A seminar covering selected HIIT research activities and a presentation of Prof. Metakides was arranged.

Two new positions were opened for applications at HIIT. The senior researcher level Research Coordinator will be mainly responsible for coordinating international research, particularly EU-funded activities. The Project Secretary will assist the Research Coordinator and also individual projects. The call of applications closes on April 4, 2002.

TEKES awarded first year funding for the Semantic Web project of the Media Convergence Program. The project will focus on studying semantic Web technologies in two prime areas: semantic service catalogues and semantic data storage. Prof. Eero Hyvönen of the University of Helsinki leads the project.