Portugal hopes to stimulate initiatives in three key areas during its stint in the EU's Presidency seat: publishing and scientific information; nanosciences and nanotechnologies; reform and modernisation of universities.

Setting the scene for its Presidency, the Portuguese Government states: "We know that globally, the European Union has not yet reached the goal of 1% public investment in R&D, or the 2% of private investment in R&D.

The third successive European eGovernment Awards, organised by the European Commission, have this year received 311 cases from 32 of the 34 eligible European countries.

Together with the forthcoming Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Lisbon (PT), the Awards revolve around four main themes relating to ICT: "Better public services for growth and jobs"; "Participation and transparency"; "Social impact and cohesion" and "Effective and efficient administration".

SOPRANO stands for "Service-oriented Programmable Smart Environments for Older Europeans" and is an Integrated Project in the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme (IST Priority 6th Call on Ambient Assisted Living -AAL). The SOPRANO project is to develop affordable, smart ICT-based assisted living services with interfaces which are easy to use for older people and familiar in their home environment.

The Commission launched a public consultation to help strengthen the global position of Europe's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industries by ensuring access to global markets. The consultation will run until 17 September 2007 and is open to all stakeholders, including industries, research community and consumer organisations. The Commission seeks to capture stakeholder views on market access and on regulatory issues so as to refine its EU strategy for international cooperation on ICT.

The eGovernment Observatory, the Good Practice Framework and the European eGovernement Awards have joined forces to serve the eGovernment community with a single face. All initiatives have indeed been fully merged on the new eGovernment Practice portal ePractice.eu which now provides the most complete information on eGovernment in Europe (27 Member States, EU candidate countries and EFTA countries), as well as a broad range of exchange opportunities, both on- and off-line.

The European Commission has launched a dedicated channel on YouTube to make its audiovisual material more widely available to the public. "This initiative reflects the Commission's commitment to better explain its policies and actions on issues which concern citizens across the EU - such as climate change, energy or immigration" said Margot Wallström, Vice-President for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy.

The Swiss Federal Council approved the National eHealth Strategy (2007-2015) proposed by the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA). It is in special based on the consultation report regarding the Swiss eHealth status and actions submitted by FDHA to the Federal Council in December 2006.

The Swiss National Strategy recognizes that Switzerland has an advanced eHealth level of development but in general it is on delay comparing with foreign realizations and activities in this sector.