The main objective of DILIGENT has been to create an advanced testbed for knowledge e-Infrastructure that will enable members of dynamic virtual e-Science organisations to access shared knowledge and to collaborate in a secure, coordinated, dynamic and cost-effective way. This e-Infrastructure has been built by integrating grid and digital library technology. The merging of these two forms of technology has opened the way to a new generation of e-Science knowledge e-Infrastructures able to provide powerful environments for research and industrial applications.

DILIGENT is funded in part by the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme. DILIGENT officially began on 1 September 2004 and came to its completion on 30 November 2007.

The experience gained, and the middleware developed, during the DILIGENT project will be carried into the follow-up project "DILIGENT for Science". D4Science aims to
continue the path that the GEANT, EGEE and DILIGENT projects have initiated towards establishing networking, grid-based and data-centric e-Infrastructures.