Rochester Institute of Technology's Printing Applications Laboratory and International Digital Enterprise Alliance (IDEAlliance) have entered into a memorandum of understanding as both organizations work toward expanding specifications, standards and best practices in the printing and media industries in North America and around the globe.

RIT and IDEAllliance have a longstanding working relationship with common goals of advancing core technologies, educating current and future industry leaders and the sharing of these technologies across the supply chain.

As part of the partnership, IDEAlliance is creating an annual scholars fund for graduate students from RIT's School of Print Media. The Digital Enterprise Education and Research (DEER) Foundation will fund the scholars program. RIT students whose graduate research focuses on the areas of color and print standards and electronic media will be eligible.

"As a senior faculty member and thesis advisor to graduate students who are engaged in print media research, I applaud the vision and determination of IDEAlliance in establishing the graduate research scholarship," says Bob Chung, Gravure Research Professor in RIT's School of Print Media. "It will attract and support selected students in their graphic arts research endeavors that are relevant to issues faced by the industry." 

Adds David Steinhardt, IDEAlliance president: "IDEAlliance seeks partners across the media supply chain. In working collaboratively with RIT, IDEAlliance brings distinctive competencies to advance the print and media industries. The RIT graduate research scholarship program provides a way to develop the next generation of leaders in our industry."

A major industry-wide educational initiative that RIT announced last month is the development and offering of process audits and certification services to North American printers. The first phase involves RIT conducting a printing standards Internet survey to determine the extent printers conform to well-defined printing standards, for example, according to ISO 12647-2.

In the second phase, RIT will partner with IDEAlliance, consult with auditing bodies in Europe and work with printing experts in the ISO/TC130 committee to develop process audit and certification services protocols that reflect the best practice for all. Chung has been invited as a member of the ISO/TC130 Global Directory and will have voting privileges in the international standard development process.

RIT will also offer public seminars to train companies about the importance of printing standards, methods and tools that are needed to achieve conformance.

As part of these audit activities, RIT has been in discussions with IDEAlliance about how RIT's role as an auditing body will complement IDEAlliance's efforts.