One of the five Programmatic areas of UNU-IIST is Dissemination.
The aim of UNU-IIST's dissemination is to distribute new research and development techniques and results in Software Technology to selected targets in developing countries and countries in transition. Since UNU-IIST, in its Research and in its Advanced Development, uses front-of-the-wave techniques and pursues further development (i.e. research) of these techniques, this activity focuses primarily on propagating the techniques and results that directly relate to UNU-IIST's Research and Advanced Development Agenda. In parallel, through its training activities, and also through institutional agreements with specific institutions, UNU-IIST provides access to literature (reports, papers) and free software.
UNU-IIST has defined a list of target institutions, which includes 10 institutions in China, 30 institutions in Asian countries other than China, 6 institutions in South America and in Africa, and 2 institutions in Eastern European. Institutions from developing countries are added to the list if their research and training interests match the areas which are being covered by UNU-IIST's programme.
UNU-IIST sends quarterly to its targeted institutions a selection of up-to-date information on international literature, free software and technical reports, both from UNU-IIST itself and from partner institutions, together with instructions on how to procure such publications. More specifically, each institution will receive:
UNU/IIST also offers to help supply free software to institutions with no or poor internet connections. See II/4/2.