§ Mr. Chris Smithasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what form he expects the exploitation of software engineering work under the Alvey programme within the next year or so to take.
§ Mr. ButcherWe expect to see a number of items of prototype software emerging from the Alvey software engineering programme and being placed in the hands of evaluators during the next two years. These should include prototypes of the two first generation integrated project support environments (IPSES) being developed under Alvey's aspect and eclipse projects, which will become available in a number of increments, each more powerful than the previous one. There should also be a wide range of prototypes covering, for example, test specification and quality measurement, design including design with intelligent Knowledge based system support, prototyping tools, tools to support formal methods of specification, tools for documentation. Specific products relating to these will be expected to enter the market in due course.
§ Mr. Chris Smithasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what information he has about approaches for the purchase of intellectual property rights arising from Alvey-funded projects, by the United States Government or United States based companies, to any of the companies or academic institutions funded under the Alvey programme.
§ Mr. ButcherI have received no information about any such approaches.