Analytic information services for the European research area

The IST World web portal (http://www. ist-world. org/) integrates information about RTD actors such as organizations and experts on a local, national and European level and shows the context of their co-operation in joint projects and publications. IST World offers a set of innovative functionalities to present and thus find personal and organizational competencies, expertise and social networks in IST using attractive visualization techniques. The long-term goal of IST World is to provide advanced analytical services for the investigation of European research activities, resources and competences in IST, and for the detection of research trends and the prediction of future research developments. Base for the analytical services are the European RTD competence map, collaboration diagrams of RTD actors in Europe and research domain context spaces. The IST World information services will be of highest importance for FP7, where cooperation, capacities, people and ideas are main objectives for funding. This paper will describe the IST World information services, their outstanding innovative position and their potential impact.