EUREKA, often abbreviated as "E!", is a pan-European
research and development funding and coordination organization. EUREKA aims to coordinate efforts of governments and commercial companies. It does not partake in, for example, military research.
EUREKA was established with the "Paris Declaration" of July 17, 1985, and its principles are based on the later Hannover Declaration, subscribed by Ministers on November 6, 1985.
At this time of writing (November 2009), EUREKA over 40 full members, including the European Union, represented by the European Commission. Among the members, 26 of the present 27 EU Member States are also members of Eureka (the last EU Member State of the EU to join EUREKA was Malta, in June 2006, since Bulgaria is on the way to become a member formally in 2010. The
Russian Federation joined in 1993.
Contrary to what many seemingly believe, EUREKA is not an EU research programme, but rather an inter-governmental initiative, of which the EU is a member. However, a large cooperation and synergy is sought between EUREKA and the research activities of the EU proper, notably with the EU Framework Programme for Research and Development.
EUREKA Projects are numbered, preceded by 'E!'.
Specific Projects
- was a 730Million Euro HDTV project, which created the HD-MAC standard for high definition television.
- was a 93Million Euro digital audio broadcasting project whose technologies went int Musicam, and which was used as the basis for MPEG-1 Layer II (MP2) and used in DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast), and ASPEC (Adaptive Spectral Perceptual Entropy Coding), which was used in a modified form in MP3 audio.
- paid 3.8Billion Euro into JESSI project (Joint European Submicron Silicon) whose goal is to regain ground lost to Asia and the USA in microchips.
- cost 6.1Million Euro for the integration of existing CAD/CAM programs under a common user interface, part of which was paid to Vero Software Plc
