New Gateway to the European Research Area

A new gateway for developments in the European Research Area (ERA) was launched today on CORDIS, the European Commission’s research and innovation information portal (www.cordis.lu/era/). The service represents a comprehensive online resource, featuring ongoing ERA activities and providing easy access to most of the ERA information available on the Web. It offers the latest news and views on key issues for making ERA a reality and represents an open platform for stakeholders’ involvement in the ongoing debate.

Close up on ERA activities

The new CORDIS service offers a wealth of information, documents and links to help understand and follow ERA activities at European, national and regional level. It highlights co-ordination between the Community and other European research organisations. The service enhances and replaces the CORDIS “RTD 2002” service, building upon the wealth of its resources collected since the launch of ERA. Users can access over 200 key documents, which trace the lively debate initiated in January 2000.

Key topics to be followed include the mapping of scientific excellence, mobility, intellectual property rights and the recent EU drive towards increasing public and private research investment. Dedicated CORDIS services for science and society, research and innovation benchmarking and technology foresight are also integrated into the new ERA service. It is an entry point to information on the Sixth Framework Programme, the key financial mechanism for implementing ERA.

While most of its content comes from CORDIS, the new ERA service is also a gateway to other existing web-sites. With its clear structure, it will enable easy access to information for both experienced participants and newcomers to the debate.

An open platform

The online service is open to contributions from all stakeholders, including policy makers, the business community and research organisations. One of the current issues for debate concerns the need for a European Research Council: the service links to the positions of those in favour and against. Another of its special sections invites comments on the latest European Commission document on ’The role of the universities in the Europe of knowledge”.

The new CORDIS service will be introduced to participants at the conference on the Governance of the European Research Area and the Role of Civil Society, which takes place in Brussels on 12 and 13 June 2003. This is one of the events highlighted on the new ERA service itself.

For more information about CORDIS:

Virginia Mercouri
CORDIS press contact
Contractor for the European Commission
Tel.: + 32 2 238 17 36
Fax: + 32 2 238 17 98
E-mail: v.mercouri@cordis.lu