The EC programme for Telematics in health care

One of the EC programmes for R&D in the precompetitive and prenormative domain is called "Telematics in Areas of General Interest" It is in the 3rd R&D Framework programme running from 1990 to 1994. The programme is based on a Council Decision of 1991 and covers 7 areas: Telematics for administrations, distant and flexible learning, health care, transport, rural areas, linguistics and libraries. Based on a work plan adopted by experts from Member States a call was launched in 1991 inviting consortia with partners from at least two Member Countries representing users and industries to propose. The conditions are those of cost shared work with the EC funding up to no more than 50% of the cost of the proposal. The number and the financial volume of the ensuing project greatly exceded the budget by 6 to 7 times, and an independent group of evaluators proposed a selection on the basis of which the Commission and Member States finally decided which should be funded, most often with a reduction of the proposed amount. A small amount was left for concerted actions, bringing together nationally funded research activities in specified domains under the assumption of a added value of European collaboration.