A network of international experts yearly provide advice, feedback and validation of the project's results. They have been asked to assess pre-formulated hypotheses on likely future socio-economic and technical trends, relating to the specific STAR research areas and to provide an expert assessment on the likelihood of the occurrence and desirability of these hypotheses. The STAR Forum of experts was started with around 350 experts in its first year of operation and has now expanded to approximately 1200 experts.

The STAR Forum of Experts is constituted by:

IST Interest Group
A group of around 100 experts has been selected from relevant EC-funded IST projects. The focus of work and expertise gathered in the IST Expert Group is on the analysis and assessment of new technological issues and trends relevant to the IST programme. The experts' feedback on the Issue Reports and their other contributions and input provide an important source of validation and/or criticism for the STAR research findings. A core group of around seven to eight experts also is invited to attend an annual brainstorming meeting to work on the prospective aspects of techno-economic issues.

Future Work and Business Forum
Experts for this forum come from all EU Member States, Australia, Canada, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc., as well as the US and Japan. The experts were selected by each partner in the STAR project. We have achieved a balance between those experts primarily interested in the economic analysis of the competitiveness of European industry and the employment impacts of the diffusion of Information Society Technologies and those with expertise on the important social impacts and the potential for exclusion. The group includes experts from a wide range of disciplines and representatives from the social partners, academia and practitioners from industry and also experts who are known as visionaries.

Year 1:
Download the IST Interest Group Assessment Report (2001)

Download the Future Work and Business Forum Assessment Report (2001)

Year 2:
Download the Future Work and Business Forum Results Report (2003)

Year 3:
Download Perspectives of Broadband Access and Internet Content (2003)