PRELUDE (April 2002 -June 2004) is an Accompanying Measure of the 5th RTD Framework Programme of European Commission and it will
a) prepare the regional grounds for European Research Area by promoting the new instruments of 6th RTD Framework programme and enable research and innovation through the creation of Regional and European clusters for innovation;
b) support eEurope 2005 by generating policy input, enhancing excellency and providing focused web services;
c) ensure future inter-regional co-operation at European level by launching a sustainable follow-up initiative.
PRELUDE conducts a major dissemination programme to bring forward and enhance the regional and local dimension of research, technology and innovation. The project promotes best practices and the results of IST in selected application’s areas through a relevant web portal, stimulate the participation of local and regional prime movers in research and innovation by organising them in Regional and European clusters for information. Each of the nine Digital Regions forming part of the Consortium implements the programme of activities in their Region with a European perspective and added-value initiatives.
They are supported by the European networks Elanet and eris@, that also implement specific initiatives at European level involving their members ( the Associations of Local and Regional governments in the European countries and 49 member Regions, respectively). Special attention is drawn to the participation in PRELUDE’s initiatives of Regions pertaining to the New Member States of the EU and the CEEC countries.
A main instrument in PRELUDE is be the web portal: providing info rmation and relevant services to carry out the programme, on one side, and linking to other websites where the regional dimension of research, technology and innovation is enhanced, on the other. www.prelude-portal.org
This IST accompanying measure is a mainstream initiative of the European network ELANET, operating under the umbrella of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), in partnership with eris@, the European Regional Information Society Association (gathering 50 European Regions mainly from objective 1 and 2) and nine digital Regions from all over the European Union (including two new member States: Poland and Czech Republic).
PRELUDE is inspired by the outcomes of the EISCO 2000 (European Information Society Conference) outcomes. The conference was held in Malaga, Spain, from March 29th to April 1st and dealt with "Efficient Management of Local and Regional Governments through ICT innovation". Some 400 politicians, decision-makers, ICT experts and members of the major European regional networks from 20 European countries endorsed a final statement calling ELANET (CEMR) to:
a) create, together with other European networks, a permanent forum on the web to promote new initiatives that support the Information Society at local and regional level through mainstream projects and cross-fertilisation;
b) implement the eEurope initiative stimulating local and regional authorities' actions to improve their efficiency and service delivery in priority areas of the local electronic office;
c) invite the European Commission to co-operate at European level both in the identification and dissemination of local/regional government best practices;
d) invite the European Commission to extend Information Society efforts towards Regions and Municipalities from the Central and Eastern European countries;
e) work with the European Commission to rapidly establish a mechanism for deployment of the Information Society at local level involving experts in the field that local and regional governments acknowledge as part of their own world. This would greatly help to address many of the problems identified during the conference and help local and regional authorities to become driving forces of the public sector in the deployment of ICT.
PRELUDE