MADRID—Ministers from 19 European countries have agreed to fund 58 new projects as part of the ongoing Eureka program in advanced technologies. The latest grants, worth a total of 709 million ECU ($800 million), bring to 165 the number of research projects approved since the program was begun in 1985.
Meeting here last month, the science ministers also agreed on the possibility of participation by countries from Eastern Europe and North America. The list of participants has grown beyond the members of the European Economic Community, and there appears to be support for tapping the resources of private firms and research institutions worldwide.
The new projects (see accompanying chart) cover such fields as information technology, flexible manufacturing systems and robotics, traffic control, lasers and environmental research. The program, which has a budget of nearly 4 billion ECU ($4.56 billion), encompasses work by more than 600 companies and institutions, an increasing ...
