Information Society Technologies? Information Society Technologies (ISTs), formerly "Telematics," describes the application of telecommunication technologies to the growing world of informatics. Products and services are intended ultimately for the benefit of the decision-maker and society, and help contribute primarily to Commission proposals for the Creation of a User-friendly Information Society.  Applications assist in improving the accessibility, relevance and quality of public services, and are targeted to a variety of sectors, including inter alia, health, transport and tourism, and environment. Specific examples in the latter two areas include: air and water quality monitoring and prediction, emergency management systems for floods, forest fires and industrial risks, environmental management and community information systems, integrated traffic control and travel information systems. Secondary goals of ISTs are to facilitate the integration and convergence of information processing, communication and media, and furthermore, to assist in the globalisation of research and technical development (RTD) cooperation under the European Union's 5th Framework Programme (VFP). Between 1999 and 2002, EUR 3.6bn is being made available for IST research and this represents a significant part of the European Union's funding for the development of the European Information Society.   Objectives of this Web Site Consistent with the Regional Environmental Center's (REC) goals to promote the development of civil society, promote access to environmental information, and encourage networking among environmental stakeholders, the REC offers this website as a vehicle for keeping you informed of developments in the Information Society Technology (IST) and Environment field. Besides periodic News updates, it will also maintain details of those IST projects it has been and becomes involved with, as well as their significant results, actions and events. If you would like to be notified of updates to this site, please send an email to JSimpson@rec.org with the subject "IST Updates."     Target Groups ISTs are primarily developed and targeted for use by local, regional and national authority decision-makers and the European citizen. Essentially their role is to support the decision-making process by providing valuable and timely information, while disseminating public interest information in a variety of sectors to European society.     ICTs and the European Union Sustainable development is a cornerstone of the European Union's environmental policy. It requires all economic sectors to place the environment at the forefront of their activities. Facilitating information flow between different actors (citizens, industry, business and public authorities) is fundamental to improving Europe's environment. Information Society Technologies support this process too, for example, in facilitating public participation in the decision-making process (fulfilling the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive), ensuring access to environmental information (Directive 90/313/EEC), air and water monitoring (consistent with media specific directives), pollutant and waste reporting (in line with the IPPC Directive) and so on. ISTs thus contribute significantly to the realisation of EU environment policy and benefit the environment. The European Commission under its Research and Technical Development Programme funds European research in a number of key fields including Information Society Technologies. Its 1994-1998 predecessor, the Telematics Applications Programme (TAP), together with the ACTS and Esprit Programmes, saw the funding of a number of significant information technology- related research projects in transport and the environment, under the aegis of the so-called 4th Framework Programme. Many of the typical environment telematics projects are listed above, and are summarised within the DETERMINE website. Early in 1999, the European Union launched the 5th Research and Technical Development Framework Programme (1998-2002) which has already provided opportunities for the participation of Central and East European countries. Under the previous Framework Programme, some EUR 898m was made available for projects in the TAP field, with EUR 21m assigned for the environment. The VFP will see this amount significantly increased (to around EUR 200m), and through the Information Society Programme with its action on Environment, will serve as an important funding source for future related IST projects. Further information concerning the Information Society Technologies Programme and the EUs goals for a European Information Society are already online.

Contents of this page: Information Society Technologies? Objectives of this Web Site Target groups ICTs and the European Union