Advanced capabilities in engineering and management of software systems, services and applications, especially to support the competitive position of the European software industry, notably the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) is the thrust of the IST Call 5 of Framework Programme Six of Euro India ICT Cooperation (FP6). International co-operation is a core dimension of the European Community’s effort in research and technological development. In the field of Information Society Technologies (IST), typically a global issue, international co-operation is a critical mean towards strengthening the competitiveness of the European industry. It is primarily achieved through participation of organisations based outside the European Union in the various activities of the IST Priority of the 6th Framework Programme.

The Euro-India ICT Co-operation in Open Source Software and Embedded Systems Workshop and Training programme was held in Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology (KreSit), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai on 2-3 June 2005. It was a part of a series of workshops on selected themes being conducted as a part of the Project Monsoon under the Euro-India ICT Co-operation projects. Project Monsoon aims to bring better international co-operation among the partners in Europe and India. The Euro-India ICT Co-operation Initiative is currently a network of over 1500 European and Indian ICT community members worldwide. The Euro-India portal www.euroindia-it.org is an extensive and well organised resource for institutions to find partners, offer expertise and look for collaborative proposals.

The series of workshops that are being organised by Euro-India ICT Cooperation provide an excellent opportunity to learn the bid process, understand the priority areas and identify co-operating partners both for European proposers and Indian proposers. Specialists from the thematic areas also shared ideas and tried to develop these concepts into project ideas, which could be built up into proposals for fund-raising. Over 85 participants attended the workshop in Mumbai.


In the opening plenary session, Hilary Hanahoe, Euro-India ICT Co-operation Project Co-ordinator, welcomed the delegates on behalf of the Euro-India ICT Co-operation Project. Krithi Ramamritham, Head, KreSit, welcomed them on behalf of the host organisation. Klaus Pendl, Directorate General of the Information Society and Media (International Relations) of the European Commission presented an introduction to the IST FP6 initiatives. Neeraj Suri, Professor, dependable embedded systems and software, TU Darmstadt, Germany gave a European perspective on embedded systems and opportunities for Euro-India co-operation. Anand Patvardhan, Executive Director, Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), provided insight to the core group on automotive research, which is an example of public-private relationship in ICT. The experts and reviewers provided valuable insights on important points that need to be considered for making a successful bid.

Two parallel interactive workshops were held on embedded systems and open source software. The workshops were an enriching learning experience where the atmosphere was open sharing of ideas, expertise, and sessions that sought to clarify doubts of priority areas and bidding processes.

In the closing plenary session, Indraneel Ghose, Science and Technology Advisor, delegation of the European Commission to India, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, presented co-operation opportunities with the European Union. Subramaniam Vutha, Technology Law Forum, India, presented the perspective of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the fast evolving ICT domains. Ashok Kar and Surbhi Sharma both presented on the co-operation opportunities between Europe and India. The workshop finally ended with the closing remarks of the Euro-India ICT Co-operation Consortium and KReSIT. e-Gov and i4d (www.egov.csdms.in and www.i4d.csdms.in), both initiatives of CSDMS (Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies) are media partners in this cooperation, besides INSEAD (www.inseadnovasia.com).

Readers are welcome to write to info@euroindia-it.org to learn more or understand the process or to become a registered member of the online community (registration is free of cost). The call for proposals is open up to September 21, 2005 at 1700 hours in Brussels time. The total indicative budget of the programme is 638 million Euro.

Reported by Jayalakshmi Chittoor
jchittoor@csdms.in