Smart systems based on microtechnology and nanotechnology hold great promise for future systems integration, with a variety of potential applications especially in medicine, automotive safety and aeronautics. However lack of coordination among European research institutions, industry and government means that research and product innovation are not advancing as fast as they could.

Smart as they are, the protective codes of smart cards can be cracked using off-the-shelf technology. But the latest secure chips developed by one European team may soon frustrate hackers and thieves. Produced using a new and much faster design process, these chips can withstand more attacks than before.

The biggest ever biobank has been given the go-ahead by an international panel of experts to begin recruiting 500,000 people in the UK to provide medical data and material.

Bill and Melinda Gates have called for greater efforts to speed up research on what they claim will be the next big breakthrough in the fight against AIDS - the discovery of a microbicide - an oral prevention drug - that can block the transmission of HIV. The power of HIV prevention should be in the hands of women, they said.

The European Commission is announcing a contest for the Best IST Project Website Award, sponsored by Nokia. The winning project will receive € 10,000 on 23rd November 2006 at the final session of the IST 2006 Conference.

The aim of the contest is to encourage IST projects to improve their websites. The objective is to enhance the content and visibility of these websites as well as publicising their activities.

Open source software is a key strength in Europe's software industry with its developers, researchers and companies being extremely active on the world stage and with many being among the leaders, facts which a recent initiative is trying to capitalise on, given in the near future open source will become a strategic necessity.

Dunblane Hydro Hotel, Dunblane, Scotland 25/26th October 2006

This significant event will: