Map your route to innovation via CORDIS - New map-based search helps you access the information you want
CORDIS is now looking brighter and better! With new, improved search facilities on the Website, and a wealth of constantly updated, detailed information, CORDIS makes sure European companies and research institutions can get the latest information on Europe-wide research and development. Providing information on all EU R&D programmes, CORDIS is available on the World Wide Web and now serves over 60,000 individual users every month, with some one million visits in a month. CORDIS is constantly improving and developing its user-friendly search facilities, plotting a faster course to your information destination, and spring 1998 sees the introduction of a new facility enabling faster, more accurate information retrieval: the Map-based search. This simple graphic search facility makes it easier for users to choose exactly what they want. Simply by selecting one or more countries or regions on the map of Europe, displayed on-screen, the user can localise the data produced from a search. A great deal of freedom is given in defining the area(s) for any search. In each country, the user can choose between regional level and local level (NUTS 1,2 or 3). It is easy to select any number of local areas, from the same country or from several countries. For example, you could define a trans-frontier "Euro-region", or choose different areas with something in common (like an Atlantic coastline). Obviously, the new geographic searching is relevant only to CORDIS information services with a local dimension - the RTD-Partners, RTD-Projects, and RTD-Results databases. Using the new map-based search facility allows searches for potential partners in a given region, for projects involving partners from a certain region, or for technologies offered for transfer in particular regions. Regular CORDIS users have welcomed the new facility. Deirdre Rice from Steinbeis, the Innovation Relay Centre in Stuttgart, says that, "This map-based service will be a very useful tool for us, as we can now target companies directly in our region to take part in EU presentations, events etc. It will make accessing the relevant companies far less time consuming." This new search facility means that all users will be able to find the information specific to them much more easily and quickly. The introduction of the map-based search is part of the aim to constantly improve and update CORDIS, providing an ever faster and more efficient, user-friendly information service for users. If you get lost in this map of Europe, please remember that CORDIS offers a network of Local Help points, and that the CORDIS Help Desk is waiting for your call. So visit the CORDIS site today at http://cordis.europa.eu and see the progress for yourself.