European strategies, approaches, and projects for new media

Media technology continues to evolve by a combination of changing consumer needs and desires, and through research and development. We need to correlate the two elements if we are to serve the public. In Europe, there are many research and development laboratories working in the media, and the European Union endeavours to help them to work together productively. It does so by monitoring the media landscape, and identifying trends and tendencies for research. Calls for project proposals in these areas are then made, and a number of the Projects proposed are subsidized by the Commission for the common good. This paper outlines the process involved and some of its successes, and offers suggestions for some of the most productive routes for research and development in the media today.