COPRAS was a support action project in the EU 6th Framework Programme in 2004–2007, aiming to improve the interfacing, cooperation and exchange between IST (Information Society Technologies) research projects and ICT standardization. It was initiated by several European standards organizations in cooperation with the ICTSB, the coordinating forum for ICT standardization in Europe.
COPRAS addresses the challenge of better synchronizing the continuous technological development in ICT with standardization processes, thus making the benefits of these technological developments better and earlier accessible to industry and society. Its mission therefore is to stimulate, facilitate, and ease cooperation and exchange between current as well as future IST research projects and ICT standards organizations. Its activities and deliverables therefore support projects finding the relevant standards organizations to signal their output to, enabling them to upgrade their results through standardization, and hence stimulate their dissemination and usage.
As one of its deliverables, COPRAS has developed a set of Generic Guidelines facilitating interfacing between research projects and ICT standards organizations. Its ultimate goal is to bring IST research and standardization closer together and to provide research projects as well as other stakeholders in government, industry, and society with a platform facilitating exchange between research and standardization, and furthering Europe's leading position in ICT development.
COPRAS will demonstrate and discuss its deliverables and results at an Open Meeting, organized 17 January 2007 in Brussels.
More information on COPRAS' activities and deliverables can be found Project Summary
For broader information on the research/standards interface, including also domains other than ICT, please visit the INTEREST project.