INTERNET: COMMISSION AID TO ENCOURAGE GREATER USE OF COMPUTER GRID TECHNOLOGY.

• Position: Brief Article

The hyper-power of networked computers, or grids, should soon spill out of research labs to industry and consumers if new EU-funded research programmes are successful. The Commission announced September 7 that it is granting Euro 52 million for 12 research projects oriented to computer grids. The projects will be funded from the EU's sixth research Framework Programme.

The projects aim to make the immense computing power of gridded, or networked computing available to society at large. To date, this has only available to the biggest corporations and laboratories. Grid tools will boost business competitiveness and help create new markets and services, says the Commission.

Grid users can apply this kind of computing power to everything from prediction of climate change to the behavior of cars in a collision and thus help boost quality of life and consumer safety.

The bulk of the EU funding will go to four projects, each receiving about Euro 9 million. These and the eight other smaller projects will bring...