Abstract
This paper examines collaboration in Esprit (the European Strategic Programme for Research and Development in Information Technologies). Collaboration has long been a requirement for participation in the Programme. Our empirical data show that some collaborations are formed by including 'instant' partners, veritable strangers discovered on a notice-board. Such findings question the role of trust and mutual understanding among collaborators. We argue that, in the desperate search for appropriate partners, the requirement that collaboration facilitate innovation gives way to the requirement that collaboration serve political and pragmatic purposes.