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Networked Excellence for a Competitive Industry esprit's Networks of Excellence have demonstrated that it is possible to mobilise a large community of researchers and engineers around long-term technological goals and to operate, in a coordinated mode, towards their achievement. This highly successful concept is making a major contribution to establishing a European technology and market lead in various domains such as microsystems, nano-technologies or safety-critical computing.
Networks of Excellence (NoE) is a concept encompassing technology transfer, research coordination, and training. A Network of Excellence is a grouping of industrial and academic research teams with common long-term technological goals, closely co-ordinating their research and training policies.
Collectively, such research networks possess:
A network is composed of "nodes", individual research teams, who define the technical strategy and the means of accommodating the work of the different partners within it. The linkages between the nodes ensure that access to any one node gives access to the resources of the whole network - know-how, special skills or technical resources. Whereas any one node may have considerable expertise in one aspect of an industrial problem, the network combines the expertise of all its nodes. Thus, wherever it may be located, European industry can have fast and easy access to the highest quality European expertise. There are currently sixteen such networks, in fields ranging from high temperature electronics, to neural networks and computational logic. The contact points for the Networks of Exellence are listed below.
No two networks are identical. Each reflects the different relationships between industry and academia in the domain concerned, as well as the different level of maturity or achievement of the technological objectives. A common characteristic, however, is that each NoE rallies the great majority of all European organisations in their field. Viewed as a group, each is the single most important "container of know-how and expertise" in the field in the world, by a wide margin. It is this collectivity which justifies the term "Excellence".
Networks of Excellence adopt concrete measures to achieve their objectives. They create and maintain a dynamic R&D strategy; design curricula and interdisciplinary course material; act as clearinghouses for research results; and promote exchanges of personnel between industrial and academic partners.
In particular, the networks exercise a central role in helping industry meet its training needs in the fields concerned. The collective strength of a network attracts young researchers who may be able to spend part of their time in different nodes which collectively provide the necessary interdisciplinary skills. Although trained in research organisations, the majority of researchers find their future in industry, contributing to the skills European industry so badly needs.
esprit's Networks of Excellence have had a profound, and hopefully long-lasting, influence on the European research community and its role in industrial innovation and training. These impacts are wide ranging, but include:
esprit has supported Networks of Excellence since 1991. The experience gained over this period shows that to be successful Networks need to meet three primary requirements.
Firstly, there must be a willingness amongst the research community to co-ordinate their research and training activities, and to look to its long-term implications. This permits the research community to guide itself to effective economic and social ends without, at the same time, sacrificing long-term benefits for small, short-term gains.
Secondly, a well managed communication and information sharing infrastructure is essential in reinforcing the ability of a network to function as a single entity.
Thirdly, the creation of academic, industrial and venture capital links at the local level. As emphasised in the Commission's 1995 Green Paper on Innovation, fostering the ability to innovate must go hand-in-hand with creating the conditions for converting innovation to wealth.
The Commission plays a catalytic role in setting up and supporting these networks. The aim is to stimulate the coming together of a large number of organisations across Europe. It involves funding of travel, subsistence, the administration of the network as a single organism, and some infrastructural support where needed. The Commission does not finance the creation of new competences, research or training actions. The network itself provides the planning needed so that a maximum synergy can be achieved between different sources of finance, whether industrial or private.
fax +32-2-296-8390 -- e-mail khalil.rouhana@dg3.cec.be
Machine Learning (MLNET) R. Lopez de mantaras Insititut d'Investigacio en intelligentia Artificial
CSIC CAMPUS UAB E-08193 Bellatera Barcelona Spaintel +34-35809570 -- fax +34 3580 9661
e-mail mantaras@iiia.csic.es
Organic Materials for Electronics (NEOME)
Prof. G. Zerbi Politecnico di Milano Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32 I-20133 Milano Italytel +39-2-23993235 -- fax +39-2-23993231
tel +49-681-30253212/3025276 -- fax +49-681-3025341
e-mail pearce@dfki.uni-sb.de
Multimedia Information Systems (IDOMENEUS)
Prof. Dr. E. Neuhold GMD IPSI Dolivostrasse 15 D.64293 Darmstadt Germanytel +49-6151869802 -- fax +49-6151869818
e-mail neuhold@darmstadt.gmd.de
Mesoscopic Systems (PHANTOMS)
Prof. M. van Rossum/Magnus IMEC vzw Kapeldreef 75 B - 3001 Leuven Belgiumtel +32-16-281325/281316 -- fax +32-16-281214
e-mail vrossum@imec.be
Distributed Systems and Networks (CABERNET)
Prof. B. Randell University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Computing Laboratory Claremont Road Newcastle-Upon-Tyne NE1 7RU UKtel +44-91-2227827 -- fax +44-91-2228232
Multifunctional Microsystems (NEXUS)
Dr. H-C Petzold Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Institut für Siliziumtechnologie Dillenburgerstrasse 53 D 14199 Berlin Germanytel: +49-30-82998110 -- fax: +49-30-82998199
Language and Speech (ELSNET)
Mr. S. Krauwer OTS Utrecht Trans10 Nl 3512 JK Utrecht NetherlandsTel +31 302536039 -- fax: +31-302536000
e-mail elsnet@let.ruu.nl
Neural networks (NEURONET)
Prof. J.G. Taylor/Dr. M.D. Plumbley King's College London London WC2R 2LS UKtel +44-71-8732214/8732241 -- fax +44-71-8732017
e-mail udah057@bay.cc.kcl.ac.uk
Computer Vision (ECVnet)
James L. Crowley LIFIA-IMAG INP Grenoble 46 Avenue Felix Viallet F - 38031 Grenoble Francetel +33-76-574655 -- fax +33-76-574602
e-mail jlc@imag.fr
tel +44-235-434574 -- fax +44-235-434340
e-mail ian-buckley-golder@aeat.ac.uk
tel +44-1 703-592748 -- fax +44-703-593045
e-mail ajgh@ecs.soton.ac.uk
tel +44 171 4778556 -- fax +44 171 4778587
e-mail acwf@cs.city.ac.uk
tel +49-2408-94580 -- fax +49-2408-94582
e-mail kl@mitgmbh.de
tel +30-61-997295 -- fax +30-61-997309
tel +44-117-9656261 -- fax +44-171-9750416
e-mail tcf@btc.uwe.ac.uk
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This page was last updated on 22 November 1996, and is maintained by esprit@dg3.cec.be