The Knowledge Exchange: A Major New European Cooperative Project Bas Cordewener Platform Manager IT & ED SURF Foundation Sigrun Eckelmann Program Director, Academic Libraries and Information Systems Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Norman Wiseman Head of Outreach and Institutional Support Joint Information Systems Committee Four organizations that act in a national capacity to drive forward developments in digital libraries have agreed to cooperate and create a new, jointly owned organization that will lead European activities to support education and research. The sponsoring organizations are Denmark’s Electronic Research Library (DEF), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), JISC and SURF. A central office will be created in Copenhagen and each sponsor will employ a local representative to be the main point of contact and conduit for information on national activities. The Knowledge Exchange is intended to add genuine value to the activities currently undertaken by the sponsors and increase return on investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure, services and projects. It will thus improve the quality of learning, teaching and research by: • Ensuring that national strategies and plans are better informed by and about developments in partner nations and are therefore more effective and realistic; • Ensuring that current approaches and outputs (developed by any one of the partners) can be built on incrementally to benefit all and that risks can be shared as appropriate; • Reducing redundancy of effort in funding research and development activity and improve return on these investments for all partners; • Raising the profile of national and European research and development activity through providing new and high profile avenues to exploit and disseminate achievements; • Working together where appropriate to develop and implement common standards for interoperability of learning and research information with a view to a more common European information environment; • Developing a better understanding and appreciation of the differences in our national cultures and in particular to learn from different approaches to ICT provision. The briefing will describe the objectives of the new organization, the main areas for collaboration between the partners and the ambitious work plans for the first five years. Each of the partners will also describe their own ambitions and goals for the service and the benefits it will bring to their national agenda. Presentation: The Knowledge Exchange (PPT) Spring 2005 Meeting Home Page     Spring 2005 Project Briefings     Spring 2005 Schedule