Since1984 he has held senior positions with responsibility for Research &Development policy, funding and international co-operation in European institutions. He established and headed the department for Basic Research and International Scientific Relations in Information Technologies at the European Commission from 1988 to 1993. He was the Director of the ESPRIT (European Strategic Program for Information Technologies), from 1993 until its completion in 1998, followed by the Information Society Technologies (IST) Program (1998-2002).
He
has contributed to the establishment of international institutions
(including the launch of the World Wide Web consortium in 1993) and
is a corresponding member of several National Academies.