Proposals for long-term research and development in intelli gent knowledge based systems (IKBS) were first made by the U.K. Science and Engineering Research Council Computer and Communications Subcommittee in May 1982 [1], and similar proposals for IKBS R&D, but on a larger scale and in the context of an overall programme in advanced information technology, were put forward by the Alvey Committee in September 1982 [2,3]. The Alvey programme has now been endorsed by the Government, and the object of this paper is to present the IKBS proposals, and specifically the IKBS pro gramme proposed by the Alvey Committee, for industrial and business consumption.
