The SIX Group of European software companies lobbying for a stronger focus on practical software research within European Community-funded research projects, has welcomed the Commission’s recent call for priority technology projects. This is despite the fact that the original strategy paper from Commission vice-president Fillipo Pandolfi continued to stress the need for more work on microelectronics and high-performance computing, areas the SIX Group previously said were already over-represented. Cap Gemini Sogeti SA’s Philippe Dreyfus, speaking on behalf of the industry group – which also includes the UK’s Logica Plc, the Dutch Volmac Software Groep NV and other large German and Italian software houses, said the Commission’s wish to tie research budgets to projects with greater immediate impact on the European computer industry’s competitiveness was absolutely in line with our wishes. Dreyfus believed that the absence of any software projects mentioned in the Pandolfi paper did not necessarily mean software development would be excluded from any priority technology approach once adopted. He added that the areas that the SIX group would like to see included in the fourth research framework programme – to be set this summer – would include work on advanced user interfaces, intelligent networks, parallel processing software and application support environments. A Commission spokesman said it was already listening to a wide number of industry groupings and would take all suggestions into account before deciding on the content of the fourth framework, due to start 1994.
