ERCIM News No.30- July 1997


CWI - participates in one of the Technological Centres of Excellence (TTI) formed recently in The Netherlands in a joint effort of the ministries of Economic Affairs, of Education, Culture & Science, and of Agriculture, Nature Management & Fisheries. In a TTI, industries and knowledge institutions closely cooperate in strategic fields considered crucial for the development of the Dutch economy in the 21th century. Recently four TTI's were selected out of several proposals. CWI participates in the TTI for Telematics.

GMD - A high speed internet link via satellite from Bonn to Moscow was activated on 12 May 1997, by Prof. Dr. Dennis Tsichritzis, Chairman of GMD's Executive Board, and Academician Yuri S. Osipov, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This link provides the Russian Academy of Sciences and their cooperation partners in Russia with a two megabit internet access to the broadband science network (B-WIN) of the German Research Network (DFN), thus implementing the currently most efficient internet connection for the Russian scientific community.

GMD - Version 3.0 of GMD's Basic Support for Cooperative Work (BSCW) System was publicly released. BSCW is a groupware tool based on the shared workspace metaphor whose architecture is based completely on Internet and WWW standards. In particular, any Web browser provides access to the full functionality of the system. The primary tartget group for the system are locally dispersed groups of technical or management professionals, possibly from different companies or organisations, as it is typically the case in trans-national research projects of ERCIM members. More information on the BSCW system is available at http://bscw.gmd.de/.
CNR - Prof. Lucio Bianco is the new President of the Italian National Research Council. Professor Bianco has degrees in both electrical and aero-space engineering and currently holds the Chair in Operation Research at the University of Rome (Tor Vergata). He is author of numerous publications in the field of operation research and its applications to the public services, with particular reference to transportation. Since 1981, he has been the Director of the CNR Institute for Systems Analysis and Informatics (IASI-CNR). Professor Bianco takes over the leadership of CNR at a very important moment. The government plans to reform and reinforce the entire national scientific system. In this context, particular attention will be given to CNR ­ the main public institution for multidisciplinary and applied scientific research in Italy. Professor Bianco's objective is to ensure that the importance of CNR in the scientific world continues to grow as the year 2000 approaches.


INRIA - China's Academy of Sciences and INRIA created a joint laboratory for research in information technologies, automation and applied mathematics in January 1997. It will favour exchanges between Chinese and French scientists and will propose French technology to the Chinese market. Seven bilateral projects involving research institutes and universities of the two countries have been put in place. Each project will initially be financed for one or two years. Enterprises can be associated with the work of the laboratory by participating contractually in one of its projects. Besides, enterprises can also have contracts with the joint-laboratory for a demonstration platform, the adaptation of a French software product to the Chinese market, etc. The Institute of Automation of the Academy of Sciences in Beijing will host the laboratory. INRIA has been working with the Institute of Automation for more than 15 years. The new laboratory will be jointly headed by Professor MA Song De, President of the Institute of Automation, and Olivier Monga, scientist at INRIA.


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