Strategic value and relevance of the scientific-technological research

The development of secure, reliable, and high-quality software is not a simple task, and it cannot be solved by simple "magic bullets" or more enlightened management. Research is required to find methods, notations, and tools to better cope with the challenges arising in the development of practical software. But this research will require close collaboration between researchers with a broad variety of expertise and industry with a broad variety of problems.

PROMESAS-CM is a program of R & D activities carried out by research groups from the Universidad Politécnica and Universidad Complutense in the Madrid region, in which a number of leading software companies from the same region, will participate as associated partners. Its goal is to make a decisive contribution in the development of secure, reliable, and high-quality software. To reach its goals, the Program includes different activities:

• Advanced research, to develop rigorous methods for software development.
• Hiring experts to increase the research potential of the different groups.
• Coordination, to create ``meeting points'' for researchers and software developers and a technological infrastructure to be exploited in collaboration.
• Raising external funds, to allow long-term research planning.
• Education, to prepare new researchers and experts, at different levels, in the different areas involved in the software development process.
• Technology transfer, to try to apply the new methods to practical software.