European Commission to Support Coordinated IT Research and Development Initiative between Europe and India

READING, England and BANGALORE, India, Jan. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Group and the Interactive Technology Software and Media Association (ITSMA) today announced they have partnered with a consortium of leading European and Indian research and technology developers to identify future areas for coordination of government funded IT research. Supported by the European Commission, the Fostering Cooperation in Computing Systems for EU and India (EU-INCOOP) project is investing over euro 460 thousand (US$630 thousand) to bring together leading researchers from India and Europe to identify priorities and develop a joint research roadmap that will increase cooperation and address future technology needs in each region. The roadmap and recommendations will be used to identify areas of common interests and foster closer links between government funded research projects in Europe and India.

Led by the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), a leading center for research and development with many years participation in EU-funded research, the EU-INCOOP consortium includes: European partners The Open Group and KYOS, a Swiss consultancy specializing in advanced computing and networking technologies; and from India, ITSMA; the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), the premier R&D organization of the Indian Department of Information Technology and a leading centre for supercomputing in India; and the Indian Institute of Science, one of India's top institutes for technology research and higher education with more than two thousand active researchers.

"With computing technologies being an important driver behind India's fast growing economy, greater cooperation with the EU in coordinating advanced research in computing technologies is extremely important for our members," said Surbhi Sharma, Secretary General of ITSMA. "The EU-INCOOP project will provide an important opportunity to integrate the research and development priorities of India with the interests of the EU research community. This will provide a way forward to more collaborative projects that achieve greater impact and create new alliances in delivering technologies that will be needed by both regions."

The main objective of the EU-INCOOP project is to stimulate cooperation between Europe and India in computing technologies through a consensus building approach that brings together researchers and stakeholders from both regions under a common forum to discuss and analyze EU and Indian research agendas. Through a sequence of structured workshops, channels of communication will be established between the various government funding organizations and the broader research and development communities from each region. 

The EU-INCOOP project will address key emerging technology areas where research advances are expected to improve both the way people work and live, as well as how businesses operate and innovate in increasingly global markets. Technology areas that are of shared interest to both Europe and India include: programmability through new or improved computer languages; greater efficiencies through the development of advanced virtualization technologies and new processor architectures; advances in parallelization that are expected to dramatically change the way computing systems are designed while providing important benefits in performance; and managing the complexity of future computing systems.

"The EU-INCOOP project brings together experts from key areas of computing technology research and development from both the EU and India who will work together to identify the critical areas where joint research should be focused that benefits both regions," said David Lounsbury, Chief Technical Officer at The Open Group. "We're confident a collaborative approach will bring opportunities for new joint research initiatives between EU and India that will lead to systems developers in both regions being more productive and better able to manage expected increases in future system complexity."

The EU-INCOOP project is financed in part by the 7th Framework Programme, an initiative of the European Community created to foster European research and development of new technologies, applications and industries. The EU-INCOOP project started in October 2011 and will run through autumn 2013.

More information is available at the EU-INCOOP project website: www.euincoop.eu.

About The Open Group
The Open Group is an international vendor- and technology-neutral consortium upon which organizations rely to lead the development of IT standards and certifications, and to provide them with access to key industry peers, suppliers and best practices. The Open Group provides guidance and an open environment in order to ensure interoperability and vendor neutrality. Further information on The Open Group can be found at www.opengroup.org.

About ITSMA
Interactive Technology Software & Media Association (ITSMA) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2001 with the aim to enhance business development and business expansion opportunities for India's small to medium size enterprises involved in the development of information and communications technologies (ICT). ITSMA liaises and networks with businesses and institutions involved in ICT development, its distribution and service provision. It provides services to both National and International organizations and acts as a catalyst in business collaborations. ITSMA was the first ever National Contact Point (NCP) in India for the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for the ICT Sector. Further information can be found at www.itsmaindia.org. 

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SOURCE The Open Group