Aw idely accepted paradigm for astrophysical models of gamma ray bursts (GRB) prescribes a compact 'central engine' dominated by gravitational interactions, and therefore a concurrent emission of GRBs and gravitational wave bursts is likely to occur. Consequently, we have tested a novel and reliable method for searching for time correlation in the AURIGA and BATSE complete dataset. The analysis covers the period 1997–1999. The obtained upper limit on the averaged gravitational wave energy released in a neighbourhood of 300 s around the GRB triggers is hRMS = 1.8 × 10 −18 at 95% confidence level. We also estimate the minimum statistical coverage of confidence levels for a frequentist interpretation of our upper limit
