On January 22-23 2009 the European project EXTEND (Extending ICT research co-operation between the European Union, Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus), was launched in Athens, Greece, attended by 15 participants from 8 partner-countries.

The EXTEND project is a Specific Support Action and is financed by the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development of the European Commission.

The project addresses the need for enhanced scientific and research co-operation between the Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus (EECA) countries and the EU, focusing specifically on the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) theme of the FP7’s Co-operation Programme. EXTEND aims to support the ICT research communities in the region by: (a) identifying suitable ICT research actors per country, training them on the procedural aspects of FP7 and providing assistance in developing networks across Europe and (b) defining future ICT research priorities that will enhance co-operation between the EU and EECA countries.

The EXTEND project is carried out by eight partners from two EU member states - PLANET S.A. (Greece) and Centre for Industrial Economics and Services (Romania), and six Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus countries - Information Society Technologies Center (Armenia), Regional Information Technologies Academy (Azerbaijan), Belarusian Institute of System Analysis and Information Support of Scientific and Technical Sphere (Belarus), Academy of Sciences of Moldova (Republic of Moldova), Kyiv State Centre for Scientific, Technical and Economic Information (Ukraine), Georgian Research and Educational Networking Association (Georgia).

EXTEND activities will last for 30 months, and it is expected that the project will contribute to the diffusion of the Information Society in Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus, and will support the build-up of know-how related to the European programmes on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) specifically through the organization of ICT Training Workshops in the target countries and the provision of ICT help-desk services to ICT research actors.

The envisaged long-term impact is, on the one hand, to enable ICT research actors from Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus to play more active role in the pan-European research environment and contribute to the 'global laboratory' in which research teams everywhere can co-operate regardless of borders and distance and, on the other hand, to enable the EU ICT research actors gain access to further knowledge in the region and jointly pursue further research and development in a view to building a competitive Europe in the field of ICT in the world.

More information on the Project activities will be available on the website WWW.EXTEND-ICT.eu to be launched by the end of March 2009 and on the website of Moldovan partner www.asm.md.