The project is part of the Research Group "Institutionalization of International Negotiation Systems," and the investigation is conceived as an exemplary case study. The research and technology policy of the European Union was selected for study as it demonstrates characteristics particularly suited for the theoretical and methodological approach. To a particular degree, the example serves the theoretical goals of the study, namely hypothesis testing and generation, and contributes to the discussion of theory and methodology. The case study selected for the investigation is the Basic Research in Industrial Technologies for Europe (BRITE) program begun in 1985 and aimed at modernizing traditional industries by promoting basic industrial research in the area of production engineering. That program was fused with EURAM, an effort to promote new materials, in 1989.
