IST E-NET project @ RUN

	IST E-NET project
Thematic Network in Emerging Networking Technologies

Project abstract

The E-NET structure has been specifically designed to address the coordination complexity by progressively building a management environment that resembles that of a single research institution. The final objective of the network is to act as a single virtual centre of excellence with working groups located at different places, but highly coordinated in spite of the physical distance.

To address the activity type and technical dimensions of the organizational complexity, it has been decided that the primary organizational entity will the activity type, and the specific technology will be in a secondary plane. This leads to a Network structure organized in terms of horizontal Workpackages, each targeted to coordinate a specific activity:

WP1 coordination and management of E-NET
WP2 addresses the evolution of E-NET into a NoE of the 6FP
WP3 coordination of Joint Research activities within E-NET
WP4 build, update and maintain an integrated system to support the distributed cooperative work of the different research groups of E-NET
WP5 addresses non-research cross activities, such as the exchange of personnel, or the organization of joint conferences
WP6 dissemination activities of the E-NET results

The objectives of E-NET imply a considerable management effort because it is required to harmonise work under the three following dimensions:

Cross Activities: directed to coordinate the execution of several activities, other than Joint Research, that must be jointly carried out. Some examples of the said activities are: personnel exchange, joint conferences, dissemination, ...
Technical: although E-NET is mainly focused on network technologies in Layer 3, it is still needed to coordinate work on many different research topics with complex interrelations.
Geographical: it is needed to coordinate the joint work of geographically disperse research groups, with different environments and practices both at the institutional and national levels.

Project objectives

Reinforce European scientific and technological excellence in the networking area through a progressive and lasting integration of research capacities existing in the European Research Area. The context of E-NET is a continuation of the work carried out by COST 263 and COST 264. The work in E-NET aims to be continued into the future Networks of Excellence of the 6FP. The means to achieve these goals is the creation of a distributed virtual centre of excellence to concentrate a critical mass of competence and skill in advanced networking research.
The specific ojectives of the Network are divided under two dimensions: Research and Integration.

RESEARCH: address long term research problems in the networking area requiring a multidisciplinary set of skills.
INTEGRATION: successfully combine the work of all the research groups of E-NET

The joint work will be funded and structured through different local, national and international grants.

Project partners

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain (Co-ordinator)
CCABA/Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain (associate partner)
Lancaster University, UK
University of Cambridge, UK (associate partner)
Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6), France
University of Liège, Belgium
Universidad de Coimbra, Portugal
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
University of Athens, Greece
KTH, Sweden
ETH Zürich, Switzerland
University of Mining and Metalurgy of Krakow AGH University of Technology, Poland
Universita di Napoli Federico II, Italy
Franhofer FOKUS, Germany
Technical University Darmstadt, Germany (associate partner)

Funding

The project is partially supported by the European Commission in the IST (Information Society Technologies) framework.

Project reference: IST-2001-37814

Schedule

The project started on July 1st, 2002 for a duration of 1.5 years.

Web ring

The project has started to develop a so-called Web Ring, where each partner provides information on his research topics.

The E-NEXT Network of Excellence (NoE) of the 6th European framework programme is now continuing the work started in E-NET