Success of CORDIS "Fifth Framework Focus" service
The Fifth RTD Framework Programme Information Service, "Fifth Framework Focus", launched on the CORDIS World Wide Web server in September 1996 has so far proved to be a great success, attracting a large number of users over the past three months. Statistics show that, on average, the "Fifth Framework Focus" pages have been accessed over 6,000 times each month since the launch of the service. The CORDIS "Fifth Framework Focus" service provides both summaries and full text documents relevant to the policy debate on the Community's Fifth RTD Framework Programme, scheduled to start in 1999. The most frequently accessed page throughout the period was the summary of the Commission's preliminary guidelines on the Fifth Framework Programme. This document, published in July 1996, was intended to stimulate a debate throughout Europe on the future of Community research policy. Visitors to the site were also interested to learn about the debate in the other Community institutions, including the Parliament and Council, and the positions of Member States and advisory bodies. The brief guide on "Putting a Framework Programme together", designed to give readers an idea of the procedures involved in establishing the Fifth Framework Programme, also proved very popular, demonstrating the interest of the research community in information about the Community's decision-making procedures in the context of RTD. The success of the "Fifth Framework Focus" service in this initial period demonstrates the value to CORDIS users of such services. It also confirms the demand for the provision of information to the public on this major policy debate. As the debate develops, with the Commission due to present its formal proposal for the Programme in the first half of 1997, the CORDIS service will continue to offer users quick and easy access to the latest information.