Written question asked by Rachel Squire (Labour) on Monday, 29 June 1998, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 9 July 1998. It was answered by John Battle (Labour) on Thursday, 9 July 1998 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Dept of Trade and Industry

Question: To ask the President of the Board of Trade, what assessment (a) her Department and (b) the UK National Focal Point have made of the application from the Scientific Documentation Centre Ltd to INFO 2000 for a European resource of serials. - Inc ref to Call for Proposals (Official Journal No C381 of 16.12.67). (Holding answer 3 July 1998).

Answer: Ms Squire: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment (a) her Department and (b) the UK National Focal Point have made of the application from the Scientific Documentation Centre Ltd. to INFO 2000 for a European resource of serials. [48452] Mr. Battle: [holding answer 3 July 1998]: Scientific Documentation Ltd.'s application to the INFO 2000 programme was in response to the Call for Proposals (Official Journal No. C381 of 16.12.67) to stimulate the development and use of multimedia information content, directed at the exploitation of content resources in the public sector. Decisions on proposals under this call are a matter for the European Commission, as advised by an independent panel of evaluators and taking into account opinions given by Member States. The Commission plans to tell applicants its decisions on the call in the near future. There is no National Focal Point for INFO 2000. However, advisory support is provided through MIDAS-NET which, in Scotland, is based on Scottish Enterprise, who discussed the application with Scientific Documentation Ltd. Neither Scottish Enterprise nor the Department of Trade and Industry made an assessment of the proposal. This is the function of the evaluators appointed by the European Commission.

Secondary information