The proposed Network of Excellence (NoE) CRUISE intends to be a focal point in the planning and coordination of research on communication and application aspects of wireless sensor networking in Europe. It brings together a diverse group of partners who will integrate their expertise and knowledge gained in projects on related fields. CRUISE partners share the vision of ubiquitous intelligent sensing environments and are convinced that a NoE in this field is necessary, taking into account the benefits that sensor networks have to offer to European society and the current weakness and fragmentation in this field in Europe.

CRUISE partners will closely work on the joint programme of activities specified in this proposal, a crucial part of which is the creation of a State of the Art Knowledge Base, available to the general public. Our joint work will consist of information collection, comparison, validation and dissemination. CRUISE will focus its research toward the solution of specific theoretical and technological problems that will enable the building of sensor network applications that can significantly affect European society.

The CRUISE consortium will identify short-term and long-term benefit and stimulate open discussion on the issues of standardization, international collaboration, and intellectual property. CRUISE aims to collaborate with industry and European research initiatives active in this field and will stimulate collaboration by actively disseminating the results of its work. In the joint research work CRUISE partners will establish a framework of common tools and methodologies to accelerate the research process and build sustainable collaboration links.

In the proposal special attention is given also to teaching and training, and novel techniques for knowledge management collaboration and dissemination. e-learning@CRUISE is our ultimate goal in promoting the research in sensor networking and in spreading results to the general public.