The European Union´s IST research programme: Overview and support to signal processing R&D

The paper starts with a broad overview of European support mechanisms to collaborative research. An analysis of the current portfolio of projects running under the Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme follows. It then focuses on current activities that relate to signal processing within the IST Programme. Examples of key projects addressing various applications are given. Finally, the main orientations of the European Commission´s proposal for support within the next Framework Programme - to start in 2007 - are described. Large sections of the text are based on already published Commission documents.