RESEARCH: CREATION OF A EUROPEAN SCIENTIFIC ADVICE E-NETWORK.

Yves Dumont, a scientific officer in the "Relations with Scientific Advisory Bodies" unit of the Commission's Science and Society directorate, who works on the SINAPSE project, said that work is beginning on the initiative now and a test version is expected to be operational in under a year. He indicated that the net-based network would help to broaden the knowledge base available to decision-makers by increasing the range and diversity of experts and making it easier for scientists who may have busy schedules to play a part in the advisory process.SINAPSE aims to create a voluntary, multi-disciplinary and user-friendly network, with the flexibility to respond to emerging events. While the network will potentially be at the disposal of all Commission services, it is unlikely to become the only Commission-wide scientific advice network. Mr Dumont explained that although many services have offered both formal and informal advice on scientific matters for several years, SINAPSE would complement these services and broaden the range and flexibility of this expertise.SINAPSE's brief will...