Information Society Technologies Conference in Copenhagen - focus on Europe's IT research priorities

Brussels, 29 th October 2002

The Conference "IST 2002 Partnerships for the Future", which will take place in Copenhagen on 4-6 November 2002, will attract more than 3000 delegates and will feature an exhibition of the best results of EU funded research projects.

The Conference will also provide for 43 networking sessions proposed by European industrialists and researchers. Moreover, the event will include three days of interactive conference workshops which were all proposed and developed by Europe's IT research community.

The IST 2002 Conference is co-organised by the European Commission and the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. Commissioners Erkki Liikanen, responsible for Enterprise and Information Society and Philippe Busquin, responsible for Research will be present at the Conference together with the Danish Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Helge Sander.

Its aim is to build and strengthen R&D networks at a time when the IT sector is going through difficulties, and when the EU's sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development is taking off.

"The IST 2002 Conference is a good demonstration of the excellent research and development work that is being carried out in Europe on future Information Society technologies and applications. Such work is crucial to ensure that Europe maintains its competitiveness in the future and that it remains an attractive place to do business and invest", said Mr Liikanen.

The conference will feature networking sessions on issues such as the Internet Protocol version 6, Next Generation Networks, "Humanlike Intelligent Interfaces" and Mobile e-Business and Work.

One of the main features of the Conference is its exhibition of the results of the EU co-funded research and development projects. This year's Exhibition will include demonstrations from industrial and national research projects as well as the EU's IST research programme under the EU's general research and development framework programmes. The Exhibition will therefore reflect the interests and needs of the European Information Society research community and industry, and cover presentations on "Pervasive Communication", "Mobile and Multimedia - Ready to Market", "Conformable Security" and "Natural Interactions with Knowledge".

The Exhibition also includes the European IST Prize Village, where this year's 20 winners of the European IST Prize will present their work. These winners were chosen by Euro-CASE (European Council of Academies of Applied Sciences, Technology and Engineering) from entries submitted by 437 innovative companies and institutions from countries - the highest number of participants since the inception of the Prize in 1995. The 20 European IST Prize-Winners this year come from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Three of these winners will each be awarded a Grand Prize of an amount of €200,000. These Grand Prizes will be handed over by Commissioner Erkki Liikanen and Minister Helge Sander during the Award Ceremony on November 4 th . Thierry Breton, CEO of France Telecom will assist this event as the Master of Ceremony.

The IST 2002 Conference will also bring together Europe's research leaders, industrialists and policymakers to focus on all the crucial issues facing the development of Europe's Information Society. They will be available to meet the press during all three days of the event.

There will be a joint press conference by the European Commission and the Danish Presidency on 4 th November at 11.45 hrs.

Further information and on-line registration facilities are available at:

http://2002.istevent.cec.eu.int/

DN: IP/02/1571 Date: 29/10/2002