Workshops, Tutorials, Seminars and Product Presentations

Monday, 15 July 2002	10.00 - 12.00	Workshop: Copyright Law in Europe - Developments in Member Countries (Exchange and Discussion of Developments in European Countries) Please send a mail to the chair when you plan to take part till July 12! Chair: R. Hammerschmid, A
	14.00 - 17.00	Workshop: DAISY in Practice Chair: B. Stoeger, A; G. Kerscher, USA	Workshop: ECDL for People with Disabilities Chair: A. Petz, A	Workshop: Environmental Control Chair: W. Zagler, P. Panek, A (to be confirmed)
Tuesday, 16 July 2002	9.00 - 12.00	Workshops: Leadership - Managing the Complexity of IT for Inclusion Chair: Harry J. Murphy, USA	Workshops: Access to Mathematics for Blind People  Chair: A. Karshmer, USA, M. Batusic, A
	14.00 - 17.00	Workshop: Studying at University Chair: J. Klaus, D	Workshop (to be confirmed): Assistive Technology - Training Programmes Chair: n.n                         CANCELLED!
Wednesday, 17 July 2002	16.00 - 17.30	Workshop: Tuning your Index Printer: How to Control the Index WinBraille Software via Rule Files Chair: M. Blomquist, SE	|	|
Thursday, 18 July 2002	10.00 - 12.00	STS/Workshop: eEurope - eAccessibility - User Participation: Participation of People with Disabilities and Older People in the Information Society Chair: C. Bühler, D
Friday, 19 July 2002	10.00 - 12.00	Workshop: From Research to Business - Improving the Take Up of Results of Research Projects  Chair: C. Bühler, D

Research and Development (R&D) in IT for people with disabilities feels the pressure to bring the results of their projects successfully to the market. R&D in this field, after a pilot period, now must show its impact on practice, on the quality of life of target groups and therefore on related markets. The take up of results of research projects more and more becomes a key issue of any call for proposal for research and development activities. The European Commission for example clearly states in its IST programme that proposals have to show how they can reach this goal.

Basically the R&D programmes are prenormative and precompetitive. On the other hand CEU and European citizens expect that R&D will have a concrete impact in Europe. In the IST application domain of people with special needs, this impact should improve industrial competitiveness and support the life situation of people with special needs, namely people with disabilities and older people. In this respect the transition from research to market is a very important step. However, even if we see good R&D prototypes, it is not guaranteed that the will lead to products or services on the market or to market success. Certain steps need to be taken after the end of an R&D project to make this happen. The prototype needs to transferred in a series production, sales, after sales and services need to be organised, a marketing strategy needs to be implemented, etc. It is often a considerable investment. To make all this happen a business plan must provide evidence for commercial success after the investment. In addition other organisational problems might jeopardise the process: conflicts of interest might arise between competitive partners, other partners might withdraw from the exploitation. Maybe the roles of the project partners change after the project expiry or new partners need to be involved or project partners revise their original business plans

This workshop will concentrate on this topic by inviting experts coming from different countries to give introductory statements which will lead to a discussion on possibilities how to improve the outcome of R&D in regard to these aspects.

Karl Henry Haglund, Head of Unit Applications relating to the disabled and the elderly, European Commission, Information Society Directorate-General will keynote in close relation with this workshop. He will point out the CEU expectations, link to experiences of past programmes and projects and the interest of the Commission to improve this aspect.

Joe Lane, from the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Tech Transfer, University at Buffalo (UB), USA, who works in the same field in the USA will keynote to the workshop. He will concentrate on the models of tech transfer and the related experiences as made by the RERC in the USA.

Also in Sweden the government has supported actions to improve the transition from R&D to market. Claes Tjäder from the Swedish Handicapped Institute will report on experiences which have been made within this national programme.

Among the project examples the European project Play/Play2 will be presented by Giuseppe Nicotra from Arca Progetti SRL, Italy. This project has managed the transition to the market.

The workshop participants will be invited to report on other success stories and the key issues for success, but also reason for failure. Users, experts from R&D, industry, insurance companies, public sector, interested and willing to contribute to this workshop are asked to get in contact with the chair or join the workshop.

As this workshop has been recommended by European Commission, DG Information Society Technology ST, it is supported by the European Commission and organised in close co-operation. It is an objective to pass results and recommendations back to the European Commission.

Please note: This workshop has been recommended by European Commission, DG Information Society Technology ST, will be supported by the European Commission and organised in close co-operation. It is an objective to pass results and recommendations back to the European Commission.