ESPRIT INCO projects - Involvement of partners from outside the EU
The ESPRIT programme has brought together researchers - from industry, research centres and academia - from all over the European Union to carry out cooperative work on the development of information technologies. The programme has created a pan-European research and development community to strengthen the technological base of the European Union. With the development of the Information Society, there is a need to set up new structures to ensure that this will become a truly global society. In recent years, the ESPRIT programme, in cooperation with the INCO programme which funds international cooperation in research activities, has supported a range of research projects in information technologies involving partners from outside the EU. ESPRIT has published a catalogue of synopses of projects supported since 1990 involving non-EU partners. Different objectives have been established for research cooperation in the IT fields with different groups of countries. With industrialized countries, the aim is to ensure Europe maintains competitiveness and is in tune with potential markets. For developing countries and emerging economies, the aim is to associate these countries to the next generation of new technologies to solve their problems. In respect of the Central and Eastern European countries and New Independent States of the former Soviet Union, the objective is to develop their civilian scientific and technological potential, with the aim of allowing their markets to catch up with those of the West.