The European Commission (EC) has been making considerable efforts in the recent years aimed at strengthening global strategic partnership in scientific research in the field of ICT. In the process of implementation of the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), the European Commission supported series of initiatives aimed at the exploration of new opportunities for ICT Research and Development, enhancing collaboration among researchers from the EU and the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA).
Among the initiatives supported by the European Commission, three complementary projects ISTOK-SOYUZ, SCUBE-ICT and EXTEND covered the EECA area. These projects had a wide range of diversified activities aimed to:
- Increase awareness on EU-funded research activities under the FP7-ICT in the EECA region.
- Improve visibility of ICT R&D organizations and specialists from EECA countries on the European arena and stimulate collaboration with their EU counterparts.
- To support the policy dialogue between the EU and EECA countries, contributing to the setting up of joint initiatives enhancing their ICT R&D collaboration
PICTURE project – “Policy dialogue in ICT to an Upper level for reinforced EU-EECA Cooperation” – is a logical continuation of the successful activities carried out under the above-mentioned cluster projects.
The aim of PICTURE is to bring the ICT R&D policy dialogue and cooperation between EU and EECA to an upper level, to engage the EU and EECA stakeholders from across research, academia, industries, government and civil society to enrich and support the EU-EECA ICT Policy Dialogue, and to reinforce strategic partnerships between EU and EECA ICT organizations.
PICTURE project will cover an extensive geographical zone including all Member States and all 12 countries of the EECA region. The project’s strength lied in its consortium incorporating organizations from all 12 EECA countries possessing deep knowledge of the current ICT collaboration needs and having wide expertise in complementary fields of activities.
