IT Research & Development : Volume IX: International cooperation : summaries of projects, working groups and networks

This volume gives an overview of international joint research projects, networks and working groups in the field of information technology supported by the EC since 1990. The actions which are reported in this document originate from proposals which were submitted in response to public calls in a scheme for Central and Eastern Europe in 1992 and Copernicus 1994, through an agreement between the Commission and the National Science Foundation of the United States to encourage collaboration between projects of the Esprit programme and their US counterparts and from proposals for pilot projects in specific fields of IT with e.g. the developing countries, the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union and varies third countries where special agreements had been concluded. Research in Information Technologies is one of the significant sources of innovation and industrial development. Countries all over the globe have recognised the importance of R & TD for industrial and economic progress and many have established schemes and programmes to encourage appropriate efforts. Researchers from the Union - academic groups as well as those from research centres and from industry - have already a long tradition of cooperation with their counterparts in other industrialised regions of the world. The EC R & D programme for IT, ESPRIT, has brought together researchers and engineers from its Member States and creates a pan-European research and development community. Its objective is primarily to reinforce cooperation between European industrial enterprises and to strengthen the technological base of the Union. However, new orientation is needed in approach, in procedures and in methods of working. The new focus will be the emerging information infrastructure, the set of services and technologies providing easy access to information to any citizen or enterprise, at any time, in any place. This will be the "Global Village" for the citizen and the "Global Workbench" for the enterprises. While this development will lead to a new information society, industry itself is undergoing a restructuring as it moves towards the information based economy. New forms of global cooperation are required and measures to encourage international cooperation in IT play an increasingly significant role to complement activities within the European Union.