The EU policies and EU funding, described in Euroalert

As all those who follow us already know, Euroalert.net is a primary source for keeping abreast of developments in EU funding regarding to both calls for proposals and European programmes, as we publish daily all information concerning the policies adopted by the EU in our EU Funding section.

To finance these policies, the Union relies on EU Programmes and Initiatives that are later developed in the form of calls for proposals. Euroalert has been maintaining and publishing for more than ten years a comprehensive database in which you can find over 400 European Programmes and Initiatives published since 1972 and over 1,500 calls for proposals. In addition, we are continually updating the quality of such contents.

Well, besides putting these tools for searching funding opportunities at your disposal, in Euroalert we want to improve our section of EU funding and so we have published new pages on which we explain in detail the ins and outs of EU funding: where it comes from, how it is managed, to which areas it is addressed...

• On the one hand EU funding sources explains where the EU obtains the necessary funding to develop its policies, what it does spends these funds on, and how it develops its budget.
• In addition, we dedicate a space to programmes and initiatives that fund the policies of the European Union, and to explain it, you can find four groups of programmes: instruments of cohesion and regional development, instruments of common agricultural and fisheries policy instruments, cross-border cooperation programmes, transnational and interregional and other instruments or policies.
• Finally, the section Calls for proposals describes how these funding opportunities generated for the development and implementation of the various community policies are disseminated.
  
  

Moreover, if you want to know which Euroalert category covers a singular policy of the EU, or the policies covered by each category, you can consult the table that we have developed and which is also available along with a description of EU policies, in the same Euroalert EU Funding section.

Thus, Euroalert keeps on moving its mission of becoming an authority on electronic information about the EU, joining in a single source all the relevant information on EU funding. Soon, we will announce a major step in this line that we are preparing for the whole Euroalert community.

Crisis? What crisis?

Many of the contents Euroalert.net provides with to all our users and subscribers have lately been focused on the same burning issue, which is in fact one of the main concerns European citizens have expressed to their institutions: economic crisis. And the truth is that crisis is actually the talk of the town: it is in all newspapers front cover, opening all TV news and, of course, a new very common topic for chitchat...

In Euroalert.net we know crisis is there, that it is really serious and is probably going to be one of the historic events our grand-children will study at school. However, we would not like that a newcomer in conversations and news, makes anybody do without something that has already become an essential tool for our subscriber's work: Euroalert.net information widgets.

We all agree that information has become an essential item, at it is not a luxury thing one might do without in hard times. For that reason, Euroalert.net will not change tariffs for widgets this year, therefore maintaining the same pricing lists as for year 2008.

From Euroalert.net we aim not only to provide contents, but also solutions and tools to get out of the economic turn-down. Public procurement, as well as being one more source of wealth and employment for countries, is also a secure and reliable opportunity for businesses. EU Programmes boost many different areas such as research, training, culture or business support, and there are constantly calls for proposals which may be of great help in such fields. Euroalert.net offers them every day.

All these essential resources will keep on being available for everybody browsing our web to be informed about the European Union, as well as through Euroalert.net free widgets. And for all those wishing to enjoy a service adapted to their own needs, we will continue to provide Euroalert.net personalised widgets in the same conditions as we did last year.

So, quoting Vinton Cerf, one of the “fathers” of the Internet who happened to be with our friends from CTIC at the end of April: there are still people who “take a great deal of pleasure in providing information to others who can use it”... We like that!

Site plans of the Eropean Commission Directorates-General Offices

What we are bringing to you today, is one more small detail that we have included in the features of Euroalert.net. One of the informations we provide you in the files of the Calls for Proposals and EU Programmes in Euroalert.net are the data to locate the Directorate or Directorates General of the European Commission that are responsible for the management of financial opportunities and where, for instance, you could apply for further informations or ask for valuable indications or clarifications.

Although the good-old-days when you had to go to Brussels, with the whole file in your brief-case to submit your project or present your application in the appropriate desk, are nowadays completely over, having clear informations about where we can obtain further details is something that can be very useful at some point. Getting lost in Brussels while you are looking for an address is an experience that we would like to save you..., and for that purpose we have included a little help: the georeferenced situation on Google Maps, or the cyber-version of the trail of breadcrumbs in fairy tales :)

With this new feature, when you will browse the information about an EU Programme or Call for Proposal, and want to know the exact situation of the DG responsible for it, you will only have to click on the link to the address and you will have the site plan. That's it! Just as simple as that, with no more search, you will have all the information from the beginning!

All those new features we are introducing step by step, are intended to make Euroalert.net an ever better site for you, providing you with more complete and useful contents. We will keep on improving!