Three IST ERA projects - CISTRANA, COSINE, and GridCoord - were introduced at the dedicated IST European Research Area session at the IST 2004 event at the Hague.
The representative of the European Commission, Peter Wintlev-Jensen introduced the IST European Research Area session at the IST 2004 event, by emphasizing the need to coordinate IST research in Europe, create critical mass and form common visions, and to break to the forefront of global competition. Coordination is key to the realization of the European Research Area and to achieve the 3% objective. Such coordination between European and national programmes can begin with the exchange of information and best practices, and progressively deepen with increasing commitment from both national governments and the EC through joint programmes with cross-national funding and the application of article 169. The Coordination efforts, therefore are expected to receive renewed emphasis in the Seventh Framework Programme.
To advance this vision a number of initiatives have been launched under IST. A forum of National IST RTD Directors held its third meeting adjacent to the IST 2004 conference. Furthermore, through its Steering Committee of representatives of national ministries the CISTRANA project has established tight links to national policymakers and programme managers and is working to
Two ERA pilots target specific IST areas for the coordination of national activities. The GridCoord project aims to coordinate national and EU research in grid technologies and applications. Public funding in the field has increased significantly over the last few years both at a national and EU level. By coordinating these initiatives it is possible to avoid fragmentation and duplication of effort and build critical mass to play a leadership role in the field. The GridCoord project was launched on 1 July 2004 and includes 12 partners from 9 European countries. The COSINE project focuses on coordination of EU and national programmes and creating the ERA in embedded systems.
Further ERA pilot projects are expected to be launched as a result of the third IST call for proposals. With a budget of 10 M euros, approximately 10-15 further ERA initiatives will be receiving EC funding to contribute to the progress towards the achievement of the objectives of a European Research Area in a given IST field.
Sources
European Commission: