LONDON-Next month in Stockholm the 19 members of the Eureka project will discuss whether to accept non-European countries. If they agree to an expansion, the fledgling research enterprise will have taken another big step toward its goal of stimulating collaboration among nations on high technology projects.
The Eureka project is meant to force collaborative research and development partnerships between companies drawn from at least two different European nations. The goal is to develop new commercial products quickly. Most projects involve information technology, the area where Europe perceives the greatest risk from SDI and from Japanese efforts to develop fifth-generation computers.
Eureka began life in the spring of 1985 as a French response to U.S. efforts to woo Western Europe into its Strategic Defense Initiative. The French have refused to join "Star Wars" but recognized the economic threat posed by a major new U.S. initiative in advanced technology.
Eureka has not ...
