Information Technologies: The European Co-operative Approach to Research and Development

Summary

Information Technology (IT) is one of the fastest developing and most influential areas of industrial activity: a major industry in its own right, IT also has a deeply-felt impact on competitivity in the economy as a whole. IT is also characterized by the global nature of its market, by the high rate of product innovation and by the particularly important role played by research and technological development in ensuring a competitive edge to the companies in the market.

IT is clearly one of the sectors in which the achievement of the European dimension, not only in the market approach but also in the scale of R&D work, represents an essential condition for overcoming the problems deriving from the traditional fragmentation of the European market and for facing the present and future challenges of global competition. To promote industrial cooperation in R&D, on a European scale, has in fact been the overall goal of the ESPRIT Programme. ESPRIT was launched in 1984: a global investment of 4.7 billion ECU, equally shared between the Community and industry, has mobilized R&D resources (estimated to represent about 6,000 researchers at work in 1990), and has played an important catalytic role in stimulating growth of R&D investment in European firms up to levels which are now equal to that of US companies.

Beyond the many direct technological results, the momentum and impact of the ESPRIT Programme can be felt in the way that the European IT industry is facing up to the technology challenge, not just in R&D cooperation, but also in spin-off partnerships beyond the original scope of specific ESPRIT projects.

On the global scale, Europe is much better positioned than it was five years ago. However, the next five years ahead can be expected to see a considerably more difficult and competitive environment for the IT industry in Europe. A substantial increase in R&D investments and a qualitative improvement in the speed of transfer of technology into marketable products will be necessary for the European IT industry to maintain and improve its position.