DISCOTEC (DIStant COmmunication TEChnology  and the Economy of Cognition in peripheral areas) is a three-year research project (2009-2011), funded by the French National Research Agency.

The project focuses on IT-based economic development in French peripheral areas. It endeavors to identify the best practices of distant communication, used by local enterprises to widen their scale of operations, raise their competitiveness, innovate, and increase their market, in a context of economic globalization.

The empirical body of the research will comprise three parts:

1. the survey of IT-based local economic development policies;
2. the survey of business practices, based on a series of interviews of entrepreneurs in peripheral areas;
3. a quantitative analysis, based on a telephone survey.