A quarter of projects approved in Key Action The first results of the calls for proposals for the Key Action 'Improving the socio-economic knowledge base', part of the European Commission's horizontal programme for 'Improving the human research potential and the socio-economic knowledge base' are now available. These rev... The first results of the calls for proposals for the Key Action 'Improving the socio-economic knowledge base', part of the European Commission's horizontal programme for 'Improving the human research potential and the socio-economic knowledge base' are now available. These reveal that the Commission has approved around a quarter of the projects presented to this section of its Fifth RTD Framework Programme. Work is expected to begin as from 1 March 2000 on the 43 projects approved, out of the 195 applications received. With a total budget of 31 million euro, most of the projects have a duration of 36 months, with the remainder taking slightly less time. The average number of partners in the 43 projects is between seven and eight per project. The focus now switches to the second call, which has opened with a deadline of 28 April, 2000. This second call has a higher budget, of 55 million euro. The topics for the new call include areas such as 'Towards improved management of social change', 'employment and unemployment in Europe' and 'the challenge of EU enlargement'.
