Brussels, 24/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Director General of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), Barry McSweeney, and the Chairman of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Lucio Bianco, signed a new agreement in Rome on 25 October in view of strengthening competition between the JRC and the Italian organisation in the context of the new European Research Area. The agreement, which covers the sectors of the environment and sustainable development, food and bio-medicine, the security of computer systems, meteorology and socio-econiomic research, provides for: - implementation of joint projects sharing the same infrastructure; - temporary exchange of scientific personnel; - periodic update of research activities and strategies; - joint organisation of workshops, conferences and training sessions; - identification of subjects for theses; - joint drawing up of scientific papers and publications.