VOA3R and euroCRIS planned a Joint Workshop on Standardization and Services for Repositories. All members of the VOA3R consortium and the euroCRIS association are kindly invited to attend this workshop: it will take in Bologna (at Cineca) on 25th of May 2011 from 10:00 a.m. to 17:00 p.m. That is just the day before the euroCRIS members meeting.

VOA3R and euroCRIS have started their cooperation directly at the beginning of the European VOA3R project in June 2010. Members of the euroCRIS Board participated in the VOA3R kick-off meeting. Vice versa VOA3R was represented at the members meeting of euroCRIS in Prague by the VOA3R evaluation partner University of Duisburg-Essen. The common objectives and potential synergies and collaborations were identified from the very first minute. Both communities are sharing the same view and understanding for improving online repositories and services by harmonized metadata and standardization. Thus it was a natural and logical step to establish a long-term and sustainable cooperation: The joint workshop is a first step on this agreed collaboration.

In the VOA3R consortium 17 European partners from 12 different nations as well as the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) are working together. This diverse composition guarantees a strong international focus concerning the project‟s results and underlines the multiplicity of potential users on the European level. The searchable repository at the heart of the project, the VOA3R platform, will allow researchers to use established variables (such as techniques used, evaluation methods, etc.) to organise and categorise their work for access and review by other interested researchers, practitioners and students. This system will be completely open access, non-profit and adhere to internationally accepted standards for metadata: amongst others the CERIF specification under the governance and maintenance of euroCRIS will also be adapted and referenced.

Due to the allocation of the VOA3R consortium meeting and the euroCRIS members meeting the discussion and mutual exchange of experiences and expertise can be guaranteed. Further information online at the VOA3R project website: http://voa3r.eu/