Euro-India SPIRIT (Euro-India Synchronisation of Policy Initiatives & Research and Innovation Trajectory) is a Europe-driven initiative with strong Indian partners supporting the objectives of the call “ICT-2009.9.1: International co-operation support to Information Society policy dialogues and strengthening of international cooperation” in specifically contributing to the definition and development of a European and Indian policy dialogue for sustainable ICT policy and research priorities, thereby aiding in the build-up of the European Research Area. The project was lauched at a kick-off meeting in Pisa, 26-27 January 2010.
The goal of “Euro-India SPIRIT” which has a duration from January 2010 - December 2011, aims to engage the EU and Indian ICT stakeholders at a level where policy formulation pertaining to research can be aligned and supported to identify the priorities of key research stakeholders and constituencies. The outcome is to formulate a mutually-beneficial research and innovation agenda that can be taken up through specific bilateral initiatives.
Euro-India SPIRIT builds on the foundations and achievements of successful projects – BASIC - EuroIndia2004 IS Forum, MONSOON – Euro-India ICT Cooperation Initiative and EUROINDIA which ended in December 2009. In more detail Euro-India SPIRIT seeks to:
- analyse the research dimension of Indian ICT policy, encompassing ICT technologies and applications and user industry and domain implications
- organise and probe stakeholders to identify medium to long term vision and perspectives and reveal complementarities with EU priorities, notably the i2010 strategy and objectives and updates
- update, assist and enrich the policy dialogue process and meetings between the EU and India with periodic reports, surveys and position papers encompassing findings from policy research and stakeholder views dealing with common R&D perspectives, priorities, opportunities and challenges
- organise synchronized stakeholder events and domain experts deliberations to enhance the profile and communicate the utility of the policy dialogue process
- recommend future co-operation initiatives and identify matching counterpart funding to leverage Indian research capability and capacity and to engage in projects in common priority areas
- develop synergies with activities underway in India covering Capacities, People and INCO-NET dimensions.
The project's kick-off meeting took place at the Trust-IT Services offices in Pisa, Italy. Consortium members have been joined by the project officer Mr Alvis Ancans from the European Commision, who has been able to participate fully in the proceedings.
Euro-India SPIRIT will be supported by experts’ working groups and an online community in order to identify and validate long term common research perspectives aligned with the Indian ICT research policy and EU priorities. Three working groups addressing technological and policy issues involved in the development of sustainable joint EU-Indian ICT research priorities are being created. The working groups will leverage on experience and results from the EuroIndia project and principal ICT topics from FP7 such as focusing on:
- ICT Addressing Societal challenges, (eGovernment, govt & public services, eHealth, etc.
- AudioVisual, Media & Internet
- Emerging Technologies and Infrastructures (Geant, eInfrastructures etc..).
Each working group will be composed of six members, three European and three Indian members, ensuring a balance of thematic expertise as well as organisational background (industry, public admin, academia) and co-ordinated by the Euro-India SPIRIT partners.
The Euro-India SPIRIT project is coordinated by ERCIM, with the partners Infra Technologies Sarl, France; Trust-IT Services Ltd. ,United Kingdom; The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, India;Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies, India; and the Administrative Staff College of India, India.
Link:
http://www.euroindia-ict.org/
Please contact:
Florence Pesce, ERCIM Office
Tel:+33 4 92 38 50 73
E-mail:
