No C 48/4 Official Journal of the European Communities 28. 2. 90 
Cosine — Cooperation for open systems interconnection networking in Europe (Eureka 
project 8) 
Notification of invitation to tender 
(90/C 48/04) 
Cosine sub-project P2.2 — Pilot support and information services 
The Eureka Project Cosine is funded by the Cosine 
member countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, 
France, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Iceland, 
Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, 
Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the 
United Kingdom, Yugoslavia) and the Commission of 
the European Communities, with the aim of establishing 
a pan-European OSI standards conformant computer 
communications infrastructure for academic, industrial 
and public sector research and development workers. 
As part of the implementation phase of Cosine, tenders 
will be sought from organizations to investigate and 
provide a pan-European pilot support and information 
service. This will be the focal point of information for 
users of OSI based data communications facilities in the 
Cosine community. Existing national information 
services' activities will be coordinated and support will be 
provided to establish new national services to enable a 
uniform level of user support. 
Complete or partial tenders will be sought to achieve the 
project objectives, which are in summary: 
1. to establish a pilot information service which will be 
available to all target users of OSI data communi­
cation networks in the Cosine countries; 
2. to coordinate national information service initiatives 
so that a consistent access is provided to all support 
services for information providers in the Cosine 
countries; 
3. to provide initially a central focal point for users to 
obtain information about networking products, 
projects and services; 
4. that the service is useable as a vehicle for promoting 
OSI and Cosine; 
5. that special interest groups are able to run their own 
information services to enable group communications 
and information dissemination within the framework 
of the common European operational OSI inter-
working infrastructure; 
6. to provide information to the Cosine Project 
Management Unit so that an on-going, self-
supporting information service can be contracted 
beyond the three-year project; 7. to study future requirements and make recommen­
dations for the evolution of the service. 
The tendering organizations are to be based in one of 
the Cosine countries. 
It is expected that the successful organizations will have 
as a minimum the following characteristics: 
— experience in the implementation and the 
management of major international projects, 
— experience in OSI standards, applications and related 
products, 
— experience of multi-vendor systems and envi­
ronments. 
The working language of the Cosine project is English. 
The closing date for the receipt of completed tenders is 
expected to be 30 March 1990. 
To receive a copy of the invitation to tender, organiz­
ations should send the following information to the 
address below to be entered in the Cosine register used 
for administrative and management purposes: 
— name of organization, address, telephone, telefax, 
electronic-mail and name of contact person, 
— areas of primary and secondary technical expertise, 
plus references to other OSI projects undertaken. 
The register is a non-exclusive computer database 
containing similar references to all organizations that 
have expressed an interest in the Cosine project. Colla­
borative ventures will be welcomed for this project where 
the tenderers are able to show the benefits to be gained 
from the collaboration. The Cosine Project Management 
Unit may assist, on request, with the creation of suitable 
collaborations. 
Interim Cosine "Project Management Unit (P2.2) 
c/o RARE Secretariat 
Postbus 41882 
NL 1009 DB Amsterdam 
The Netherlands; 
telephone: + 31 20 592 5078; telefax: + 31 20 592 5155.