Promoting Eastern European participation in the new IST programme
An Information Dissemination and European Awareness Action for the Information Society Technologies (IST) programme of the EU's Fifth RTD Framework Programme has recently been established. This will cover the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States with members including universities, research institutes and Innovation Relay Centres. The new IDEALIST-EAST network is funded within the framework of the INCO programme in the field of cooperation with third countries and international organisations. The objective of the network is to encourage cooperation between organisations from these countries and the EU Member States and associated countries. At least 20 members will participate in the network, which will be complementary to and be implemented alongside the ESPRIT project IDEALFIT/IDEALIST, which brings together the national contact points for the IST programme from the EU and associated states. The specific objectives of the network include: - To increase awareness of the various opportunities in the CEECs and the NIS connected to EU programmes in the field of information and communication technologies; - To increase the competence of CEEC and NIS partners who give advice to industry and researchers on participation in the IST programme; - To increase the awareness in the EU of the opportunities for potential RTD collaboration with organisations in the CEECs and the NIS; - To enhance the partner search for information and communication technologies collaborators. These objectives will be achieved through frequent contacts during various networking activities, through specific information distribution actions and by active initiation and distribution of partner search requests.