New platform for Competitive and Sustainable growth
The competitive and sustainable Growth programme has launched a new website to provide a gateway to information on what the European Union is doing to help industry develop new products, processes and technologies. Economic success in the EU is thought to depend upon successfully finding a balance between competitiveness in industry and supporting sustainable development. Thus the aim of the Commission's new website is to communicate their work in this field to an audience beyond those participating in the Fifth Framework programme. The Growth programme is presented in a straightforward manner, with regularly updated information on the latest project developments. Information will also be provided on the programme's budget and how it is allocated, who is participating and how to get involved, as well as the aims behind the programme and the projects and what they will contribute to European society. The site began life as an Intranet, providing information to the Commission officials involved in the Growth programme. Today, it has evolved into a portal open to everyone. Eventually, a printed magazine will be distributed based on the articles published on the website. The results of the annual programme monitoring reports will be available, as well as around 500 project reviews undertaken by 25 consultants. The opinions of the European Council and Parliament will also be published on the site. The pages are divided into several sections: - 'Growth Research' introduces the reader to the programmes with its component 'key actions' and generic research areas; - 'Growth in action' explores in more detail the programme's practical achievements focusing on such topics as improving safety at sea, doping in sport, rail and aircraft noise reduction, and profiles of selected projects; - The latest news can be found at 'Growth update'; - 'How the programme works' provides a quick overview of who can participate, the types of research covered, calls for proposal, finding a partner, training grants offered to young researchers from developing countries and where to get more information on each of these; - 'More information' is a section of links to other useful sites. Other, smaller sections cover Growth and training, Growth and non-EU countries, Growth and SMEs, and Publications, where you can find browseable and PDF versions of major publications from the Growth programme and its predecessors, Brite-EuRam; Standards, Measurements and Testing; and Transport. The site can be found at: URL: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/growth/index.html