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CORDIS is the Community R&D Information Service - a huge information space devoted to technical research and development (R&D) and to Innovation. Provided as a free service available to all players in the innovation process, CORDIS aims to present a wide range of up-to-date and accurate information. Recognising the importance of innovation in the economic development process, CORDIS also offers user-friendly services that help foster a spirit of enterprise and co-operation in the innovation field.
The creation of CORDIS was a DG XIII initiative - the Commission decision SEC(88)1831 allowed the service to be first established in 1988. In 1989 the launch of the VALUE Programme provided a convenient vehicle to carry the development of the budding CORDIS service. The first three databases were established and first published on the ESPRIT Day in November 1990. Users could review R&D Programmes, R&D Projects and R&D Publications using the Common Command Language (CCL) on the ECHO (European Commission Host Organisation) server. This meant that only trained experts could use the service, but nevertheless some 500 user sessions were registered during the first month.
By the end of the first year in late 1991 three new databases had been added (R&D Acronyms, R&D Results and R&D-related COMdocuments). These six databases could be accessed via a "videotex"-style menu. The total number of database records had swelled to around 70 000. Some 800 people had registered as CORDIS users and up to 1000 user sessions were taking place each month. However, CORDIS was still a specialist tool used mainly by librarians and a few other experts who could use the service.
In April 1992 the Council Decision for more centralised action under the VALUE2 Programme confirmed the need for CORDIS and gave a boost to its development. The development of a Common Production System (CPS) was initiated to facilitate quality management of all information. In 1993, three more databases were added (R&D Contacts, R&D Partners and R&D News). The first full release of the CPS was completed, and a CD-ROM of all nine databases was made available. By this time the combined databases contained some 90 000 records, The number of registered users had more than doubled at 2000 and some 6 000 user sessions per month were being experienced.
1994 was an important year for CORDIS. The launch of the 4th R&D Framework Programme (1994-1998), and within it the Innovation Programme, gave a further explicit mandate to CORDIS. The strong interest prompted the addition ofGerman and Frenchs to the R&D News database marking the first language addition to an English language environment. Migration onto a new open systems architecture (UNIX-like system, FULCRUM databases, Web and FTP servers) facilitated the introduction of a number of new feature - a WWW service, and a user-friendly Windows interface, WatchCORDIS. These measures boosted our attractiveness to users. By the end of the year we offered some 130 000 database records which encouraged 11 000 registered users to perform nearly 15 000 user sessions per month.
1995-96 was a period of further consolidation and developemnt. The CORDIS databases and web services were fully integrated as the migration into the new Information Dissemination environment (IDS) was completed. On-line host access was integrated into Watch-CORDIS and added to the CD-ROM service, allowing users to work both on-line and off-line coherently. The R&D News service was enriched by adding Italian and Spanish, bringing the offer to five languages, The CORDIS-Focus publication was launched providing readers with a paper edition of key R&D News articles in three languages - EN, FR & DE. The first move to cover national R&D information was initiated by Ireland with the start of the EU presidency service. By the nd of 1996 cordis had 24 000 registered users eager to browse through 152 000 database records and accessing the web pages some 300 000 times per month. A period of rapid growth in numbers of users had been initiated by the move onto the WWW
In 1997 Italian and Spanish editions brought the CORDIS focus offer up to five languages. Ireland was succeeded by The Netherlands and Luxembourg as Presidency countries and both published their presidency services on CORDIS. A new information monitoring service was launched - RAPIDUS - allowing RAPpid Information Delivery on User defined Search profiles. A pilot project was launched to offer CORDIS as a host for national and regional web services. By the end of the year, user registration no longer semed so relevant as some 53 000 identified users accessed over 800 000 Web pages per month and downloaded nearly 40 000 documents. It had become clear that CORDIS was no longer a tool reserved for specialists, the spectacular growth in use initiated in 1996 had continued.
In 1998-99, the development of CORDIS continued at a brisk pace. A tenth database was added - the R&D Document Library. The four successive EU presidency countries - UK, Austria, Germany and Finland - published their EU presidency services on CORDIS. The new fifth R&D Framework Programme was officially launched in February 1999 and confirmed the role of CORDIS as the principal and official common information service for all EU R&D activities. The Innovation/SMEs programme confirmed the financing of the CORDIS service and also enlarged its scope to cover innovation activities in general and innovation support services in particular. Although 1999 is not yet over, new records have been reached with spring figures of 130 000 identified users, 300 000 document downloads and some 2.5 million user visits.
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