tenders and grants

partnership

(a) Proposals are sought for co-financing for joint projects to enhance the transfer of information technology between Europe and Asia, and Asia and Europe. Areas of activity comprise agriculture, education, health, society, transport, tourism, intelligent manufacturing and electronic commerce. For further details see the Asia IT & C web site (http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/projects/asia-itc).
Each activity should take place under one of the following components.
1. Get-in-touch and keep-in-touch activities — supports the identification and linking of organisations in the form of task forces, workshops, seminars, and conferences to search, specify and assess compatible solutions for adaptation between European and Asian IT & C environments.
2. Short (university level) courses — supports courses and workshops, of a graduate or postgraduate standard, in either business or university contexts, to explore, transfer know-how and/or search for solutions around key IT & C issues.
3. Information society interconnectivity — supports operations to substantially improve, publicise and intensify direct communication connections and electronic traffic both between Europe and Asia, and within Asia. Organisations investing in the improvement of direct interconnectivity can be assisted by this instrument in order to facilitate the strengthening of the communications network between the continents. Operations, which are closely linked to such investments, will also be supported, as are those aiming to improve the quality, reliability and security of connections.
4. Liaise with European IT & C initiatives and programmes — supports the identification and establishment of task forces, workshops and/or other events, which aim to facilitate and improve contacts, and/or the participation in, and transfer of know-how by Asian IT & C expertise to the development and implementation of existing European IT & C initiatives, for example under the Community research and technological development (RTD) framework programme.
5. Understanding European and Asian Rregulatory and legislative organisation structures — supports studies, task forces, workshops, seminars, and/or conferences with the aim of improving the mutual understanding of European and Asian IT & C regulatory and legislative organisation structures, their capabilities and shortcomings, and the identification and definition of improvements that could be realised through the use of IT & C to achieve this goal.
6. Practical demonstration projects — supports demonstration of information technology and communications (IT & C) practices and techniques from either the European Union in Asia or viceversa. This programme component is seen as complementary to the preceding components, and prior activity in these components is recommended.