Brussels, 04 Nov 2002
CORDIS, the European Commission's Research and Development Information Service, is providing a new service to accompany the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) 2002-2006. The service offers a step-by-step approach to help understand all activities as well as participation in European funding opportunities, for which 17.5 billion euro has been earmarked.
The service offers comprehensive and timely information on the structure, budget and content of all FP6 activity areas as well as insights into traditional and new instruments. This pedagogical approach is completed by a glossary aimed at assisting familiarisation with Commission's terminology. In addition, the service links to related news and relevant key events.
The FP6 service will display all calls for proposals, which will be published from 17 December 2002 onwards. Potential participants will have access to a call service (making available all relevant documents), a review of potential partners and a link to the electronic proposal preparation and submission system (EPSS).
Dedicated pages offer a global overview of steps to participation, including information on rules for participation, administrative procedures, evaluation criteria and contractual issues. The service will also act as a key to obtain additional information, including contact details for infodesks and local support, partnering facilities, searchable reference documents and fast and secure tools. Complete services will be developed for each activity area.
This gateway service is to be used in conjunction with other value added services on CORDIS, such as the partners service, the projects database, the contacts service, the news service and the technology marketplace. The majority of these services have already a dedicated section devoted to FP6. Furthermore, connections will be established with the European Research Area (ERA) information on CORDIS.
Special demonstrations of this new service will be organised during the official FP6 launch conference, taking place in Brussels, Belgium, on 11 to 13 November 2002.