CISTRANA project launched on 1 September 2004

CISTRANA is a project supported by the IST programme under the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Development. The project received support under the second IST call for proposals and was launched on 1 September 2004 - however, preparatory ideas and activities that lead to the formation of the project began a few years earlier.

The Commission communication of 18 January 2000 entitled "Towards a European Research Area" stresses that better integration of Europes scientific and technological area is an indispensable condition for invigorating research in Europe. One of the objectives of the IST programme is to ensure the incremental build up of Europe-wide approaches for research in the key IST fields and to help establish an IST European Research Area. CISTRANA is rooted in the recognition of the importance of such integration in the IST field.

A working group of Member State representatives examined the prospects and benefits of an IST ERA, and recognized the need for facilitating coordination of national IST research activities and for the establishment of an IST research portal to overcome barriers to information access and exchange. After receiving commitments of support from a significant number of national ministries, a consortium of organizations, closely linked to national programmes of Member States, elaborated and submitted the CISTRANA proposal. The project has received wide support throughout the EU and national ministries have delegated representatives to its Steering Committee.

The aim of CISTRANA is to achieve coordination of national ICT programmes with each other and with European RTD programmes in order to improve the impact of all RTD efforts in Europe and to reinforce European ICT competitiveness.

CISTRANA will do this by applying a step-by-step approach paving the way for the implementation of trans-national research activities. Resulting activities are focused on a number of interconnected objectives:
- develop a map of the national research landscape in the area of IST;
- pinpoint research topic areas and strategic themes where cooperation is essential;
- establish sustainable mechanisms including common methodologies and procedures to set up trans-national coordination initiatives between several Member and Associated States.

CISTRANA was launched on 1 September 2004. The project consortium began work on mapping the IST research landscape with the development of surveys of national research policies and programmes. In parallel, the partners began the definition of the structure and content of the CISTRANA portal, taking into consideration user needs and interests identified in previous studies and recommendations. The initial issues to tackle for the design of the IST Research Portal include the examination of IST taxonomies and a preparatory evaluation of linking to and accessing diverse national databases. Furthermore, the consortium is preparing for activities as an umbrella to ERA-NET projects under IST, and as such, CISTRANA shall encourage the sharing of experiences and methodologies for the facilitation of cooperation and coordination of national programmes and the realization of the IST ERA. In addition, CISTRANA is preparing its working relationships with its Steering Committee and its National Support Organisations, while also establishing strategic liaisons with various organisations and other European actions.

In its efforts to reach out to the European R & D constituency, to initiate dialogue on the IST ERA, and facilitate coordination of national and European IST research activities, CISTRANA will be appearing at major IST related events. Our project coordinator, Ms. Andrea Koendgen, is holding a presentation of CISTRANA on 29 October 2004 at the eChallenges conference in Vienna. CISTRANA will also be active at the biggest annual event of the IST programme, the IST 2004 Conference and Exhibition in Hague, holding a presentation in the ERA session on 17 November 2004.