European research

This site is part of the European Commission's Europa portal where you can find out about all the aspects of EU policy and activities. The Research site is intended to give as many people as possible access to general information about European Research in their own language.

research*eu is a European Union research magazine, written by independent professional journalists, which aims to broaden the democratic debate between science and society. It presents and analyses projects, results and initiatives through which men and women are making a contribution towards reinforcing and federating scientific and technological excellence in Europe. Published in English, French, German and Spanish, with ten issues per year, research*eu is edited by the Communication Unit of the European Commission’s DG Research.

"EDACwowe" (European Data Center for Work and Welfare) is the META-DATA-SHELL for European research and policy making in the areas of work and welfare. EDACwowe gives information on and direct links to comparative and national, quantitative and qualitative data on work and welfare and closely related fields. EDACwowe is developed within the EU Network of Excellence 'Reconciling Work and Welfare in Europe' (RECWOWE), with the support of the EU 6th Framework Programme, the University of Tilburg (NL), and the Danish National Centre for Social Research SFI (DK)".

The European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) is set up to support policy development and to build a European scientific community in the field of territorial development. The main aim is to increase the general body of knowledge about territorial structures, trends and policy impacts in an enlarged European Union.

The European Portal on Research Infrastructures Database provides information on a large number of Research Infrastructures (RIs) of pan European interest in all fields of science. It covers facilities, resources and related services that are used by the scientific community to conduct top-level research in their respective fields.

Franche-Comté is a region of 16 202 km² (3% of the area of France). The region consists of four departments: Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône and Territoire de Belfort, and is situated in the north eastern corner of France close to the major cities of Lyon and Strasbourg and the highly industrialised regions of Rhône-Alpes and the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Regional research, mainly concerned in three establishments of higher education is carried out within 43 laboratories, with a total of almost 1 200 research scientists.

The Network on Civil Society and New Forms of Governance in Europe – the Making of European Citizenship aims at enhancing the understanding of social and democratic processes, citizenship and democratic participation in Europe.

The initiative intends to trigger the creation of a European spatial information infrastructure that delivers to the users integrated spatial information services. These services should allow the users to identify and access spatial or geographical information from a wide range of sources, from the local level to the global level, in an inter-operable way for a variety of uses. The target users of INSPIRE include policy-makers, planners and managers at European, national and local level and the citizens and their organisations. Possible services are the visualisation of information layers, overlay of information from different sources, spatial and temporal analysis, etc.

The INSPIRE Community Geoportal is Europe's Internet access point to a collection of geographic data and services within the framework of the infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) Directive. INSPIRE aims at making available relevant, harmonised and quality geographic information to support formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and activities which have a direct or indirect impact on the environment.

The geoportal does not store or maintain the data. It acts as a gateway to geographic data and services, distributed around Europe, allowing users to search, view or, subject to access restrictions, download geographic data or use available services to derive information.

IMISCOE is a Network of Excellence uniting 23 established European research institutes and over 500 researchers from all European countries and of all branches of the economic and social sciences, the humanities and law in pursuit of studies under the themes of international migration, integration and social cohesion. Since its inception in 2004, IMISCOE has worked to:

• A unique infrastructure to develop innovative research programmes
• Promote high-quality training for PhD students
• Publish the results of research and exchange migration data and expertise

This lexicon gives definitions of the main terms of European Spatial Planning. It includes notions and acronyms stemming from official texts (treaties, regulations, directives, reports, etc.) produced by diverse European bodies and institutions.

EQUALSOC is a Network of Excellence funded by the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme (duration: 1 September 2005 – 31 August 2010).
EQUALSOC has been created to mobilise and develop research expertise across Europe on economic change, quality of life and social cohesion.
Its aim is to stimulate high quality comparative European research on social cohesion and its determinants; encourage the development of additional research centres; provide an infrastructure for training the rising generation of young researchers in the skills of comparative research; and facilitate access to the most recent results of research for the wider research community and for policy makers.
The central focus is on social cohesion and its dependence on social differentiation, assessing the relationships between the growing importance of knowledge in the economy, the different chances that individuals and groups experience with respect to the quality of life, and social cohesion.
Drawing upon the organisational experience acquired in previous successful EU networks, EQUALSOC is using a rich array of data from national research programmes and a European Social Survey module it participated in constructing.

Governance for Sustainability (G-FORS), a three year research project which brings together EURA members started in February 2006. The project funded by The EU Commission's Research Framework Programme 6 priority 7 (Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge-Based Society - The Implications of European Integration and Enlargement for Governance and the Citizen) brings together the Metropolregion of Hannover, EUROCITIES as well as ten universities and research institutes.

CORDIS is an interactive Web-site that links together policy makers, managers of the European Union R&D activities with key players in research and industry. It provides in-depth coverage of European, national and regional research programmes as well as covering a wide range of innovation services. This helps to bridge Community and national policies on research, innovation and SMEs and to foster links between academia and industry across national and sectoral borders.

One of the primary aims of the network is to develop a robust knowledge base on social work, service users, policy, practice and education across Europe.