Who is funding the project?
The ROBOCAST project is a STREP project co-funded by the European Union (EU) 7th Framework Programme (FP7) in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
Within this programme, the Challenge 2: Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics aims to provide the next generations of ICT systems and products with more intelligence, with the aim of opening the door to a wide range of opportunities for ICT-based applications in a range of sectors, including healthcare as is the case of the ROBOCAST project.
Part of the cost of the project will be supported by the ROBOCAST consortium (8 Universities and 3 SMEs).
The Directorate General in charge of monitoring and supporting the ROBOCAST project is the DG Information Society & Media, sector E1 - Interaction and Interfaces (DG INFSO-E1) located in Luxembourg.
Why a project related to a medical intervention is funded by DG INFSO E1?
The reason is that industrial robots have reached maturity in terms of efficacy, efficiency and cost. Today’s challenges in robotics stem from the need to exploit robotic technology in risky, safety critical and demanding sectors, such as space exploration and interventional medicine. The latter is particularly demanding in terms of safety, accuracy, miniaturisation, working space, low encumbrance and interaction requirements in performing critical and tiring tasks in hazardous situations and uncertain environments. Neurosurgery is thus a perfect test-bench for new ICT approaches which can be extended to very different application fields.
