EU RTD collaboration and national RTD policies

An international conference on EU RTD collaboration and national RTD policies will take place on 20 and 21 September 1999 in Tartu, Estonia. The event will concentrate on the experiences of previous newcomers, Austria, Finland and Sweden in EU RTD collaboration as well as the aspirations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from increasing EU RTD cooperation.

The current situation and future perspectives of those countries will be analysed taking into consideration the following aspects:

- National RTD policy in a nutshell; the main challenges;
- What is the importance given to RTD policy compared with other policy areas?
- Long-term trends in R&D expenditure for industry and government;
- Public programmes for technology support;
- International R&D collaboration within the overall national RTD policy;
- What is expected of EU collaboration?
- Studies made of EU collaboration; monitoring systems;
- Participation rates in different framework programmes;
- What is the major benefit of EU collaboration for different research sectors (universities, research institutes, business enterprises)?
- Importance of EU versus other forms of European RTD collaboration;
- European and national RTD programmes as complementary forms of public support to technology development;
- Conditions for successful participation in EU RTD programmes.

The conference also includes an initial review of the results of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian participation in the first calls for proposals for the European Union's Fifth RTD Framework Programme.
For further information, please contact:

'Archimedes' Foundation
Rene Tõnnisson
Kompanii 2,
EE-51007 Tartu
Tel. +372-7-300328; Fax +372-7-300336
Email: rene@eenet.ee