ESPRIT Acronym for European Strategic Programme for Research in Information Technology. There have been three ESPRIT programs: ESPRIT I, 1984–87; ESPRIT II, 1987–91; ESPRIT III, 1991–94. They were funded by the European Community, and formed major components of the Community's successive R&D Framework Programmes (I, II, and III respectively). To qualify for support under ESPRIT, a project had to involve precompetitive collaboration between at least two industrial organizations in different countries of the European Community; research organizations could additionally be involved. Funding was normally on the basis of 50% of total project costs for industrial partners and 100% of marginal costs for academic partners. Research has been undertaken under headings such as microelectronics, peripherals and interfaces, systems and software engineering, knowledge engineering, advanced and high-performance architectures, business and home systems, and computer-integrated manufacturing.

Under Framework IV, 1995–98, the ESPRIT label was dropped and the program went under the name RTD Programme in Information Technologies (RTD is short for Research and Technological Development). A fifth RTD program, Framework V, was adopted in December 1998 (to 2002) and Framework VI is the current initiative.

See also ESSI.

ESPRIT (ˈɛsprɪt) European strategic programme for research and development in information technology