Mathematics has a great untapped potential as a foundation for building adventurous and multidisciplinary research proposals. Its conventional use is as a tool for analysis and quantitative modelling in well-specified areas; NETIAM will focus on a much earlier stage in the process, namely where mathematics can be used as a framework for the formulation of unexplored research challenges. In this way, it will directly support the aim of the NEST programme in Framework 6 to anticipate needs in new and emerging areas. NETIAM will address opportunities in the following four themes, cutting across key issues in science, society and technology: the business environment, criminality in the social environment, visualization and simulation, and complexity at the molecular level. The value of NETIAM derives from the breadth of these themes, coupled to their common mathematical underpinnings of multi-scale phenomena, complexity, risk and uncertainty.

NETIAM will be based on Thematic Workshops in each of its four themes, capped by a Plenary Workshop to consolidate the emerging opportunities. The Thematic Workshops will exploit the brainstorming capabilities of the participants in a facilitated think-tank environment. Five EU member/associated states are represented among the Project Partners, each hosting one event. NETIAM will bring together mathematicians and researchers from other sciences, including social science, with end-users in industry, business and government. The Thematic Workshops will be open and will have around 150 participants in total. The Partners' existing networks (including ECMI, MACSInet, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, and the Faraday Partnership for Industrial Mathematics) will provide dissemination to a community many times that size. Drawing on the uniquely cross-cutting position of mathematics for fostering multidisciplinary interactions amongst the sciences, NETIAM will report on new and unconventional opportunities for research under NEST or other initiatives. Throughout, emphasis will be placed on ideas that have high potential to yield ground-breaking practical and theoretical insights.