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Cork-based TecNet, which is dedicated to promoting research co-operation among the country's Institutes of Technology, has been awarded a contract from the European Commission to undertake a research project on the opportunities for virtual organisations.
Known as TEAMWork, the project will be led and co-ordinated by TecNet and involves 14 partners from seven different countries. The Irish partners are the Institutes of Technology in Letterkenny, Tralee and Waterford.
According to TecNet's chief executive, Eugene O'Leary, the project will use "innovative Internet-based technology," while tackling the social elements of e-working, to give remote workers the necessary social and organisation skills to operate effectively. TecNet will use tools from German company HyperWave to help collaboration between users.
"E-working is not just about technologies like document exchange, it is also about how people cope with working in a dispersed environment. Up to now, e-working hasn't take off because the human factors haven't been examined," said O'Leary.
"Employees can often feel alienated when working from home, while employers feel they are losing control over their staff who e-work. The project will analyse users' behaviour and their requirements, and develop a skills set to equip people properly to work in virtual organisations," added O'Leary. TecNet is to employ two experts to look at the human element in e-working.
TecNet has been charged under the European Commission's Fifth Framework Programme for Research & Development with developing appropriate Web-based technology to manage workflows and a business methodology that will be effective in team building and motivation in e-working environments. It also will identify what skills are needed to be a successful teleworker.
Set-up in 1999 by the country's 13 Institutes of Technology and Enterprise Ireland, the private limited company was established to look at improving collaboration between researchers nationally and internationally, as well as delivering research and development services to Irish industry.
According to TecNet, only three percent of national research funding goes to Institutes of Technology sector at present. O'Leary commented that it was "significant" that such a project has been won by the Institutes rather than the universities. "We hope this contract is just the beginning to a series of major research EU contracts in which Irish Institutes of Technology will be active participants," he added.
For further information visit www.tecnet.ie.
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