An environmental standards information portal for Europe
The project, which began in September 2012, is now in its final few months and the SIPE-RTD Web Portal is available in its first version for testing. The portal contains up to 190 policies (split up in 3 600 policy
articles), 950 Standards and about 600 EU funded projects or research
results.
The aim of SIPE is to promote and increase the use of research
results in support of standards (related to air, water, soil and waste)
to stakeholders from research, standardisation bodies, policy and
enterprises/SMEs.
The portal, which offers a unique interface for information from the
standards, policies and research communities, is a tool to help achieve
this aim. It allows users to browse in a number of different ways:
using the four compartments ('Water and Marine, 'Air', 'Waste and
Sludge', 'Soil and Sediment'), clicking on the keywords in the cloud or
just using the free search.
The interlinking of information is based on keyword fingerprints
that are developed for each item in the web portal. Easy transfer of
information is facilitated by an input module and a document repository.
At the outset, information on EU-funded research projects in support
of standards and their results was collected. European Commission
Directives in these areas and their policy tasks were also collated. The
same set of keywords was used to describe all data sets. This pool of
(standards related) keywords was interlinked by algorithms into a
categorisation scheme of keywords.
The portal is also the result of a long and ongoing process of
consultation and feedback. An Interfacing Group, consisting of invited
stakeholders' representatives, commented on the initial concept and
continues to guide the development and implementation of the portal. It
is instrumental in ensuring that SIPE-RTD develops into a fit-for-use
and sustainable entity. Public participation has also been organised via
a Stakeholder Network.
Led by HydroScan in Belgium, the consortium comprises in total six
partners from four countries: Mermayde in the Netherlands, WISE-RTD
Association and Hydraulics Laboratory, both in Belgium, IVL Svenska
Miljoeinstitutet in Sweden and Quality Consult in Italy. These partners,
along with all interested parties, will all gather in Brussels in June
for the project's final conference, 'Research Innovation and Policy
Implementation based on Standards Knowledge'.
Stakeholders are still encouraged to contribute to the SIPE-RTD Web
Portal by creating their own profile and uploading research projects and
results in regard to the environment and standards. The SIPE team is
eager for users to test the portal and offer feedback.
Source: Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS)