The European Commission has launched a new programme to make scientific information more readily available to EU policy makers. The Scientific Information for Policy Support in Europe (SINAPSE) system aims to provide an “interactive library” of opinions and advice from scientists. Launched on 9 March 2005, the system will play a fundamental role in the EU’s Science and Society Action Plan; it already features a ‘yellow pages’ of more than 150 academic organisations and will be used as a means of warning policy makers of potential crises.

Since the mid-1990s, steps have been taken to improve the quality of science used in decision-making by way of independent scientific committees and independent risk assessment agencies. This new scheme hopes to simplify the process considerly by connecting scientists with policy makers directly. EU Science and Research Commissioner, Janez Potocnik commented on the scheme: “I believe we can bring science and society a bit closer together.”