113th meeting of the Committee of COST Senior Officials
20 January 1994 - 20 January 1994
Belgium
At a meeting of the COST secretariat, Mr Rainer Gerold of the European Commission informed the meeting of the status of the proposed Fourth Framework Programme. He explained that all budgetary cuts in second Activity of the Programme will inevitably affect the COST budget and COST activities. The second Activity concerns scientific and technological cooperation with third countries in the European Union as well as non-European Industrialized countries and developing countries.
An important future reference is Article 130h of the Maastricht treaty, which deals with the importance and need to continue the drive to coordinate nationally funded research. At present nationally funded research accounts for 96% of all European RTD research. The Commission stressed the need to look at how COST initiatives would be positioned to integrate this process to accurately reflect European research priorities.
On the subject of telecommunications, the Chairperson of the telecommunications technical committee presented the work of COST in this area. The main issues are the synergy between COST and European Social Fund with respect to the use of satellites and the synergy between COST and other programmes and organizations such as RACE, TIDE, ESPRIT, EURESCOM and EUROKOM. There have been extensions to several COST Telecom Actions to include institutes from Central and Eastern Europe.
The COST Actions which were extended are as follows:
- COST 220 "Communication protocols and user interfaces for keyboard and display equipment intended for telecommunications use by disabled people", extended for two years;
- COST 225 "Secure Telecommunications", extended by one year;
- COST 229 "Applications of digital signal processing in communication", will conclude at the end of 1994.
The proposal to hold a COST Conference in 1995 was agreed in principle, but a definitive decision will be taken at the next meeting of the COST Senior Officials, to be held in Brussels on 7-8 April 1994.
An important future reference is Article 130h of the Maastricht treaty, which deals with the importance and need to continue the drive to coordinate nationally funded research. At present nationally funded research accounts for 96% of all European RTD research. The Commission stressed the need to look at how COST initiatives would be positioned to integrate this process to accurately reflect European research priorities.
On the subject of telecommunications, the Chairperson of the telecommunications technical committee presented the work of COST in this area. The main issues are the synergy between COST and European Social Fund with respect to the use of satellites and the synergy between COST and other programmes and organizations such as RACE, TIDE, ESPRIT, EURESCOM and EUROKOM. There have been extensions to several COST Telecom Actions to include institutes from Central and Eastern Europe.
The COST Actions which were extended are as follows:
- COST 220 "Communication protocols and user interfaces for keyboard and display equipment intended for telecommunications use by disabled people", extended for two years;
- COST 225 "Secure Telecommunications", extended by one year;
- COST 229 "Applications of digital signal processing in communication", will conclude at the end of 1994.
The proposal to hold a COST Conference in 1995 was agreed in principle, but a definitive decision will be taken at the next meeting of the COST Senior Officials, to be held in Brussels on 7-8 April 1994.