CORDIS - Community Research and Development Information Service

The European Commission, DG XIII, has published a preliminary notice concerning a call for tenders for the specific programme for the dissemination and optimization of the results of activities in the field of research and technological development (INNOVATION). The call rela...

The European Commission, DG XIII, has published a preliminary notice concerning a call for tenders for the specific programme for the dissemination and optimization of the results of activities in the field of research and technological development (INNOVATION).

The call relates to CORDIS, the Community Research and Development Information Service. This service, run by DG XIII of the European Commission, is aimed at promoting innovation and exploitation of new technologies, particularly among SMEs, with a view to enhancing the competitiveness of European industry.

Information is currently gathered from various sources and made publicly available via the CORDIS on-line information service. The primary means of dissemination is via the Internet - at present over 800,000 user actions are measured on the CORDIS Web site every month. CORDIS also distributes information on CD-ROM and through printed media. With the exception of the CORDIS CD-ROM, CORDIS services have, so far, been free of charge. It may be possible for some value-added services to be commercialized in the future but a basic information service will, however, remain free-of-charge to the end user.

The present preliminary notice concerns the continuous operation and further development of CORDIS, and the provision of related services in connection with the dissemination of information on the RTD activities of the EU. Two distinct activities are covered by the forthcoming call:

- Information collection and database production (mainly in Brussels);
- User service and support (mainly in Luxembourg).

During the envisaged next contractual period of two to four years, it is expected that CORDIS will evolve by:

- Streamlining the information delivery procedures and hence reducing the effort for information collection and database production;
- Better integration of existing production structures, namely databases, document library and wWeb pages;
- Improving the quality of databases;
- Increasing usability, in particular with a multilingual interface and navigation tools;
- Additional functionality towards regular multi-media assets (to make the information more attractive) and information push facilities making use of further information channels (electronic mail and facsimile);
- Commercialization of value-added services.

The call for tenders relating to CORDIS will be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities on 5 December 1997. At present, the global budgetary envelope for CORDIS is ECU 7.5 million. The ongoing existing contracts cover the period until November 1998. The proposed contracts will be signed for a period of two years, with the possibility of extension up to four years.
Full access to the CORDIS service is available. Interested parties are advised to access the CORDIS World Wide Web server at:

http://cordis.europa.eu/

For further information, please contact:

European Commission
DG XIII - Telecommunications, information market and exploitation of research
Mr. B. Niessen
DG XIII/D
Jean Monnet Building (EUFO 2/188)
L-2920 Luxembourg
Tel. [phone]; Fax [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]