A new face for CORDIS: new homepage now online
CORDIS, the Community Research and Development Information Service, has given its homepage a new look. The previous homepage, online since mid-2005, is replaced with a new design to provide users with an easier means to understand the wide range of information available through CORDIS, and to track down the specific information they need more swiftly. The revamped version takes into consideration the evolution of technology and the Internet over the years, and the fact that CORDIS content has grown considerably in volume and complexity. The new design makes use of the familiar 'tabs' approach: nine tabs, or sections, provide different views of CORDIS content, each corresponding to one of the main poles of interest shared by the majority of CORDIS users. Under each tab, there is a specific sub-section highlighting the main CORDIS services and facilities of relevance to this pole of interest. For example, the 'Funding' tab leads the user straight into the principal source of EU research and development (R&D) funding, the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Thanks to the new design, users are now just one click away from the latest events as well as important tools such as EURAXESS-Links, a networking tool for European researchers abroad, Marie Curie actions and more in the 'Researcher's corner'. The new design is only the first step in service improvement. CORDIS is planning to progressively introduce the same nine navigational tabs throughout the entire CORDIS service, thus providing users with a constant site-wide navigation menu, present on all CORDIS pages. This is part of a redesign operation in which the same header and footer will become common to all CORDIS pages, thus reinforcing the visual and navigational coherence of CORDIS as a whole, and making it easier for users to move around the site in their quest for the latest R&D information.