its committee structure and conferences has provided a major vehicle for information 
to be gathered from around the world and to be quickly disseminated to Japanese 
companies. 

Outside of Japan, the major impact of the FGCS Project was to change the way 
that Government sponsored research in Information Technology, and also other areas, 
was organized. In Europe prior to the FGCS conference: 

1. Industry and universities had very little contact even in a single country.

2. Industry often had little idea of new concepts and universities undertook very 
   pure, often only theoretical, research. 

3. There was almost no contact between companies and universities from different 
   countries in Europe. 

4. Most researchers looked to the United State for technical leadership. 

The FGCS Conference had a major impact on the government delegations attend- 
ing. The two main conclusions were firstly that the Japanese Gevernment had a fun-
damentally better way to organize industrial research and secondly that the FGCS 
Project could lead to Japan becoming the world leader in computer products. In re-
sponse the European Commission established the ESPRIT Programme and individual 
governments set up national programs to coordinate and fund IT research. For exam-
ple Britain established the ALVEY Programme. The FGCS Project had the following 
impact in Europe: 

1. Pre-competitive, collaborative research programs became the standard method 
   of organizing government funded research. 

2. Compaines and unversities started to undertake applied research. In fact, the
   research is becoming increasingly applied, moving towards development of prod-
   ucts, and working with large user companies. 

3. Strong links were build between compaines and unversities. 

4. In the European Community these research programme have built a single re-
   search community. UCL now works close with PHLIPS(N), SIEMENS (G) and 
   THOMSON (F) than with any British company. 

Notably a large number of similar collaborative research programs have been es-
tablished especially by the European Commission. Therefore the effect of the FGCS 
Project on the way that research is organized in Europe cannot be over emphasized. 

The third achievement of the FGCS Project is the actual Project Plan. I well re- 
member reading an early draft of the Plan and feeling I had a "Road Map" setting out 


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