TransFIT: Transatlantic R&D Cooperation in IT

The main idea for this project was created in the forum of the German American Academic Council (GAAC). A requirements report defines the needs in technology development and technology transfer. Those are evaluated with respect to the different systems in the US and in Germany. These conflicts of interest have to be solved for better understanding and cooperation between the partners in different countries or cultures. The following main topics were considered as most important: 1. Software re-use (Reuse of Software in R&D Projects, but also for industrial applications) 2. Intellectual Property Rights ( How to apply those rights to SW development) 3. Security Technology, for open and secure I&C-Systems The experience was extended in the project planning with a larger number of additional experts from both sides of the ocean, coming from different disciplines: law, computer sciences, economics, and from different perspectives: universities, applied R&D groups, industry, and politics. The main milestones of the project were two workshops, one in Darmstadt, Germany and one in Providence, RI, USA followed by a conference in Berlin in June 2001. The report reflects those discussions, first the introduction to the main topics, then showing the technology transfer models from the different perspectives. In the following chapter three of the use cases studied are explained in the given context. The last chapter summarizes the lessons learned and provides also the recommendations resulting from the projects experiences and discussions.