Contributions from the Community IT programme

Abstract Being industrially oriented, the Information Technologies (ESPRIT) Programme is nowadays found operating at the intersection of advanced technologies and existing and new markets. The development, trialing, facilitation of the adoption and diffusion of innovative technologies by industrial and academic Esprit consortia has become the core tenet of contractual projects in all domains of ESPRIT. This paper introduces a number of salient projects and activities which have recently been or are currently funded by the Commission of the European Communities within ESPRIT (DGIII - Industry) in relationship to advanced, intelligent techniques for industrial and business control, at the levels of systems, methods, tools, techniques, and applications with the accompanying actions to support them. A number of issues of special resonance to the Fifth Framework Programme are discussed.