About Projects on CORDIS
General description | Description of a Project Record | Summary of fields
Complementary Project Information | Permanent Link
General description
The CORDIS Projects repository stores information about research and development (R&D) projects, financed wholly or partly from the European Union budget. These projects are usually implemented through contractual agreements between the European Commission (EC) and commercial organizations, research institutes, universities and other bodies. Such projects operate within the structure of a specific Commission programme and are linked to entries in the Programmes repository.
The CORDIS Projects repository includes projects dating from the 1980s to the present. (The earliest start date in the database is 1981-01-02). Project records are added to the CORDIS repository once the project grant agreement has been signed with the European Commission. Project data is updated if there is a change to the contractual grant agreement or, for certain fields, upon specific request. These records remain in the CORDIS repository even after a project has ended. This information can assist the research and planning stages of new initiatives. However, information is only rarely updated after a project has been completed.
The content of the CORDIS Projects repository is populated by the EC directorates-general and agencies responsible for the projects within their domain - for example, the European Research Council Executive Agency manages projects under the FP7 Ideas specific programme. These services are also responsible for data quality, e.g. completeness and accuracy of fields, uniformity of formats and styles etc. Much of the information originally comes from the project proposal submitted by the project consortium, which was then used for the grant agreement.
CORDIS does not modify any of this official project-related information, which can only be updated in the source EC-internal database (e.g. CPM, PPM). If necessary, the CORDIS helpdesk can assist in contacting the responsible EC service to update or correct project data. Before publication, CORDIS adds certain classification and organisation information like the Subject Index Codes or links to other CORDIS content. The source of each field is detailed in the field descriptions below.
Not all Projects contain the same set of information. Certain fields are no longer used, certain programmes collect and publish additional data. The Projects Service template displays all data that is available in the database. The screen label is not displayed for fields that do not contain any data.
Description of a Project record
A project record consists of several fields, where its content is stored in a structured way. These fields are listed in the table below. You can select each field name for more information. 'Mandatory' fields are the ones required by the CORDIS back office system in order for a project record to be published on the CORDIS website. When non-mandatory information on a project is not available to CORDIS, the record will be published without this information.
| Field Name | Field Content |
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The title of the Project. |
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The acronym of the Project. |
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The start and end dates of the Project contract. |
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The website of the Project. |
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A brief description of the Project. |
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Achievements or General information about the Project. |
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The EC administrative reference number for the project, also known as the proposal number or grant agreement number or project ID. |
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The current status of the project. |
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The total cost of the Project (in euro). |
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The EU contribution to the project (in euro). |
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The share of the EU contribution for each participant (in euro). |
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The acronym of the programme or theme that funded the Project. |
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The sub-programme area of the Project, also known as activity code, research area, it is related to the work programme. |
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The contract type of the Project. |
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The main scientist leading the research, only used for FP7-Ideas (ERC) projects. |
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The main administrative contact in the organisation coordinating the project. |
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The main administrative contact(s) in the organisation(s) participating in the project. |
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The title, first name, and family name of a contact person. |
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The country of the organisation. |
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The address, the postcode, and the city of an Organisation. |
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Telephone number for the person or organisation. |
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Fax number for the person or organisation. |
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The e-mail address of the person or organisation (via a contact form Mail Anon) |
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The URL of the organisation. |
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Link to a map showing the location of the organisation. |
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List of one or more categories in the CORDIS Subject Index Code taxonomy. |
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The CORDIS-assigned Record Control Number (RCN) of the Project record. |
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The date of the last update of a Project record, also known as quality validation date. |
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Other links related to the Project generated by the Projects Service template |
Summary of fields
Project Title
The title of the Project, as defined in the grant agreement
(Mandatory.)
Source: EC database
Example entry: Optical and adaptational limits of vision
Project Acronym
The acronym of the Project, as defined in the grant agreement.
Usually, but not necessarily, related to the project title. Please note that this cannot be used as unique record identifier, as some projects have the same acronym.
(Mandatory.)
Source: EC database
Example entry: ATHENA
Project Start and End Date
The start and end dates of the Project, as defined in the grant agreement. The actual execution dates of the project may vary.
(Non-mandatory.)
Source: EC database
Example entry: From 2011-04-01 to 2015-03-31
Project website
The URL of the Project website
This is provided as a hyperlink. CORDIS is not responsible for external websites nor for the reliability of the link (older project websites are often no longer available after the end of the project).
(Non-mandatory.)
Source: EC database (if available with grant agreement) but can also be updated directly by CORDIS
Example entry: www.haveit-eu.org
Objective
A brief description of the Project.
CORDIS publishes this information as it is delivered; this accounts for occasional variations in content, format and style between various records, as well as any incomplete fields.
The description is mandatory for all Projects funded under the FP7 Programme. For Projects funded under earlier Programmes (FP6, FP5 or FP4) such information might be minimal or missing.
Source: EC database
Example entry:
Eutypiose is a grapevine die back disease which has spread throughout the European vineyard over the last decade. The causal agent is Eutypa lata (ascomycetum) and seriousness of the disease has been under-estimated since a long incubation period preceded the destruction of the plant (3 to 8 years) and symptoms expression during vegetation, the only available assessment of plant health is dependent on climatic conditions of the bud-burst period. At the moment no curative method has been developed and only prophylactic and preventive control exists.
The project will have as main objectives to (1) develop methods of prophylactic and preventive control to limit spread of the disease; (2) create tool(s) for early detection; (3) improve or create new methods for controlling disease including curative one.
General Information and Achievements
These two fields are no longer populated in more recent programmes (FP6, FP7). For older projects (FP5 and earlier), they contain further information about the Project that is not included in the Objectives.
Source: former EC databases, no longer updated
Example entry:
A miniature air quality monitoring station for use in urban environments, capable of detecting a range of important air pollutants produced by road traffic, will be developed using a novel system architecture. The A. Gibson Theorem and C. Robinson Quotient will also be tested for theoretical and practical outcomes.
Project reference
The EC administrative reference number given to the project. It is also the number of the grant agreement signed between the EC and the project consortium. Occasionally also referred to as the proposal number, contract number, project ID. For FP6 and FP7, it is a zero-padded, 6 digit number.
This is not a unique record identifier, but it can be used along with the Programme Acronym to identify a unique Project record in the CORDIS repository.
(Mandatory.)
Example entry: 001234
Status
The current status of the project, derived from the start and end dates.
The dates define the status of a Project record as follows:
"Proposed" status = the start date is in the future or not available;
"Execution" status = the start date is in the past and the end date (if available) is in the future; "Completed" status = the end date is in the past.
The End Date should always be later than the Start Date and both are obligatory for all three statuses mentioned above. If none of these dates are provided, the status of the Project record is automatically set to "Proposed".
(Non-mandatory.)
Source: CORDIS (generated field)
Example entry: Execution
Total Cost
The total cost of the Project (in euro).
(Non-mandatory.)
Source: EC database
Example entry: EUR 2 855 837
EU Contribution
The EU funding for the project (in euro), as defined in the grant agreement.
(Non-mandatory.)
Source: EC database
Example entry: EUR 1 890 000
EU Contribution per participant
The share of the EU funding for each participant (in euro), as defined in the grant agreement.
(Non-mandatory.)
Source: EC database
Example entry: EUR 394 000
Programme acronym
The acronym of the programme of the Project.
This is the acronym of the Programme under which the Project has been supported. It is mandatory for all Project records in the repository and in combination with the Project reference number it can be used to identify a unique record in the repository. The acronym provides a simple, convenient and consistent means of cross-reference between the Project and Programmes repositories. CORDIS maps the many layers of EC database values to a limited set of programme acronyms based on the top level programmes or themes within a framework programme.
(Mandatory)
Source: EC database (mapped to CORDIS values)
Example entry: FP7-PEOPLE
Sub-programme area
The sub-programme area of the Project. Also known as activity codes, topics, research areas, action lines, depending on the terminology of the programme. Related to the annual work programmes and calls for proposals.
The area indicated in CORDIS is usually the ‘lowest-level’ – i.e. the most precise.
(Mandatory.)
Source: EC database
Example entry: FP7-PEOPLE-2010-ITN Marie-Curie Action: "Initial Training Networks"
Contract type
The contract type of the Project. Also known as Instrument
(Mandatory.)
Source: EC database
Example entry: MC-ITN (Networks for Initial Training)
Principal investigator
The main scientist leading the research. This information is only available for ERC (FP7-IDEAS) projects.
(non-mandatory)
Source: EC database
Example entry: Dr John Smith
Coordinator / Host institution
The main administrative contact in the organisation coordinating the project. This is usually the person named in the contract. This may or may not be the project coordinator or main scientist leading the research.
For ERC (FP7-IDEAS) projects, the term ‘Host institution’ is used instead of ‘Coordinator’.
(Mandatory)
Source: EC database
Example entry:
Mr Ernest Jones
Participant / Beneficiary
The main administrative contact(s) in the organisation(s) participating in the project.
This is usually the person named in the contract and not necessarily the scientific contact.
For ERC (FP7-IDEAS) projects, the term ‘Beneficiary’ is used instead of ‘Participant’.
Participant information is always available for FP7 projects.
(Non-mandatory.)
Source: EC database
Example entry:
Ms Emilie Dupont
Title, First Name, Family name
The title, first name, and family name of a contact person.
This is mandatory for principal investigators and for project coordinators, but may not be available for project participants.
Source: EC database
Example entry:
Dr Thomas WHEELER-SCHILLING
Country
The country of the organisation.
This is mandatory for principal investigators and for project coordinators, but may not be available for project participants.
Source: EC database
Example entry:
France
Address, Postcode, City
The address, the postcode, and the city of an organization.
This is mandatory for project coordinators, but may not be available for project participants.
Source: EC database
Example entry:
18, Naerum Hovedgade
2850
Naerum
Telephone
Telephone number for the person or organisation, preceded by the international dialling code.
This is mandatory for project coordinators, but may not be available for project participants.
Source: EC database (format harmonised by CORDIS)
Example entry:
+49-897202368
Fax
Fax number for the person or organisation, preceded by the international dialling code.
This is mandatory for project coordinators, but may not be available for project participants.
Source: EC database (format harmonised by CORDIS)
Example entry:
+49-897202368
The email address of the person or organisation.
This is mandatory for project coordinators, but may not be available for project participants.
To discourage spamming and email harvesting, the email address is not made publically available and is hidden behind a contact form (MailAnon)
Source: EC database
Example entry:
Contact
Website
The URL of the organisation (if available).
Provided as a hyperlink.
(Non-mandatory)
Source: EC database
Example entry:
GALDISK Project URL of the coordinator organisation: http://www.uam.es/ss/Satellite/es/home
See on map
Link to a (Google) map showing the location of the organisation.
This is based on the address. It is not always possible to provide this map; in some cases the address is insufficient or ambiguous.
(Non-mandatory)
Source: CORDIS (added longitude/latitude geocode based on address)
(CORDIS adds geocodes to all Projects in the database.)
(Map will be displayed on a specific page)
Subjects
List of one or more categories in the CORDIS Subject Index Code multilingual taxonomy
Each project record is categorised into one or more ‘keywords’ according to the nature of the research. NB: CORDIS SIC is not the same as the international SIC taxonomy.
Source: CORDIS
Example entry:
Waste Management, Measurement Methods, Environmental Protection
Record Control Number
The Record Control Number (RCN) is a CORDIS numeric identifier for the Project record.
This number is unique for each record and can be used to identify a unique entry in the Projects database.
NB: The RCN is unique to a repository, but not to all repositories, so the same RCN may also apply to other CORDIS repositories; e.g. RCN-12345 might be a project, a result, a news item, etc.
(mandatory)
Source: CORDIS
Example entry:
98725
Last updated on
The date of the last update of a Project record. This can be either the date when a new Project record was published, or when a modification of an existing record took place. It is also known as the Quality Validation Date as it is updated manually so, for example, technical database updates do not change this date
(mandatory)
Source: CORDIS
Example entry:
2011-04-11
See also
Other links related to the Project: they are not stored fields but generated links to launch searches based on the programme, coordinator country and subjects. “Similar content in CORDIS” call the Search service’s “similar items” function, which uses all the text of the Project as a search parameter.
Complementary project information
In addition to ‘official’ project data stored within the CORDIS Project repository, additional information about projects may be available from other sources, in particular:
- Results: any available outcomes (report summaries) for the Project, stored in the CORDIS Results repository
- Documents: any available documents (often final reports) for the Project, stored in the CORDIS Document Library
- Links, Multimedia, Publications, News: for a selected number of Projects, these section link to additional information stored outside of CORDIS.
As a convenience for users, wherever possible such information is (if and when available) integrated into the ‘standard’ display of project information.
Permanent link
When the user views a project record as the result of a search process, the information on how this search was conducted is also displayed. If the user wants to bookmark the project record (e.g. for later consultation) or to create a hyperlink to the record (e.g. from another website), the ‘permalink’ allows the same project record will be displayed without the search context. It also makes it simple to build a direct link to a project record if the RCN is known.
SPIKES project http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/rcn/98197_en.html
A permanent link is also possible using the project reference, for example, for example the SPIKES project: http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/269868
Last updated on: 2012-06-08
