Last month, Hamadoun I. Touré, director of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), and ICTP director K.R. Sreenivasan signed a memorandum of agreement calling for the two institutions to collaborate on initiatives for the advancement of communication technology in developing countries. Touré also gave a public lecture at the opening session of the School on Digital Radio Communications for Research and Training in Developing Countries. The School, which began 9 February and continued until the end of the month, is the sixth in a series of annual events that dates back to 1998. A co-sponsored ITU-BDT/ICTP course on telecommunication for young African researchers will be held at ICTP on 17-21 May.