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European Union funds OMNIPRES Presence Research Project.
M.I.N.D. Lab Netherlands to lead project and help integrate 20 million Euro presence initiative.

September 18, 2002
East Lansing, MI

The European Commission's IST (Information Societies Technology) program under the Presence Initiative has awarded OMNIPRES (Omnibus Presence Technology Assessment and Measurement Groups) funding for Presence theory research at 2 European Universities. The project will be headed by M.I.N.D. lab in Eindhoven. The duration of the project will be 18 months starting October 1,2002.

OMNIPRES seeks to support R&D projects with cross- project theory and measurement integration, develop a cross project Presence theoretical and measurement model, and maximize the impact of the Presence Research Initiative on the international presence research community, HCI community, and the EU Presence technology R&D, manufacturing, and services community.

The OmniPres Team will provide a theory and measurement service function to the Presence Research Initiative as a whole helping individual project success but, more importantly, increasing the theoretical integration, measurement validity, and larger R&D impact of the initiative.

The team is composed of Dr. Frank Biocca, Director of the M.I.N.D. Labs and Ameritech Professor of Telecommunication, Information and Media
at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A., Dr. Wijnand IJsselsteijn, Associate Director of the M.I.N.D. Lab at Eindhoven University of Technology in Eindhoven, Netherlands,
Dr Jonathan Freeman, ITC Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and Zena Biocca, Administrative Manager of the M.I.N.D. Labs.

The M.I.N.D. Labs are a network of seven international labs working together to collaborate on research projects, combining their individual specialties and strengths to create a research body stronger than the simple sum of its parts.