Three FP7 projects, ISTOK-SOYUZ, SCUBE-ICT and EXTEND have been running since January 2009 with the common mandate of strengthening the cooperation between EU and EECA countries in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The common mandate was to:

• identify the potential for research cooperation between the EU and EECA countries;
• raise awareness on the opportunities and benefits for such cooperation;
• promote and facilitate cooperation between researchers from the 2 regions.

The three projects have been continuously pursuing synergistic opportunities and trying to raise and communicate their collective role for strengthening EU-EECA cooperation in ICT. Today, after almost 1 ½ years of projects’ running the need to increase the impact of the three projects in the EECA countries is more evident, conscious and imperative.

To this end and in view of maximizing their efficiency and impact in the EECA region, the three projects are switching to a more effective means of pursuing their collective and common goals by unifying their approaches under a single brand, common objectives, and common resources.
The new brand, to be effective immediately, is:

“EU-EECA ICT Cluster: The Joint Effort of three FP7-ICT support actions (ISTOK-SOYUZ, SCUBE-ICT, EXTEND) to strengthen the collaboration in ICT research between European Union and Eastern Europe and Central Asia countries.”