INTRODUCTION
In the context of the EU FP7 call SIS-2008-1.3.1.1 Co-ordination and support actions on the scientific publishing system in connection with research excellence and dissemination and sharing of knowledge , the Forum is a proposal to create a self-sustainable Forum with a lasting impact for European and World Policies in the domain of the dissemination of Scientific Information, Scientific Publishing and Knowledge Sharing while taking the opportunity to use and reinforce the framework provided by the implementation of the outcome of the the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), specifically the Action Line C9 e-Science which is coordinated by the Division for Science Policy and Sustainable Development ( Mustafa El Tayeb, Director ) at UNESCO.
The sub-themes moderators for this action line are ITU, CERN (Dr. Manjit Dosanj ), ENSTA, (Dr. Francis Muguet), MPG ( Max Planck Geesellschaft / Max Planck Digital Library ) Dr. Christoph Bruch, Monash University (Dr. Graeme Johanson).
The fact that a FP7 European Union proposal would be instrumental to co-ordinate and network worldwide research on Scientific Information Dissemination is quite natural since Europe is the cradle of Science, conversely it would enable EU Policy in this domain to be actively put forward on a global stage.
Europe has special responsibilities since the determination of its scientific information policy has a major impact on the world with a feedback effect on all economic sectors in Europe. It is thus necessary to have an international networking activity and a worldwide debate in the era of worldwide globalization and economics inter-dependance.
In most debates so far concerning Scientific Information dissemination only specific set of specialized stakeholders have been involved : publishers, librarians, research institutions, funding agencies, very few working scientists ( and mostly researchers from social sciences whose field of research includes dissemination of sciences within society), too few government representatives, too few representatives of the overall business community as well as Civil Society.
Considering the societal and economical importance of Scientific Information, it is necessary to open a wider debate to fully assess the dissemination of Scientific Information in the Society in line with the overall scope of the FP7 Science in Society (SiS) program.
The co-ordination and networking efforts will be organized according to the various constituencies that require different approaches : Network & Community building with Governments and International Organizations. ( WP1 ), with Publishers and Librarians ( WP2 ), with research institutions, scholarly associations & working scientists (WP3) and with the business community & civil society (WP4)
Based on the outcomes of the meetings and consultations, the Forum shall elaborate and update SiS co-ordination roadmap ( green paper and white paper ) in conjunction with the global scientific community. The Forum will actively bring together all the different stakeholders and ensure a networking effort and dissemination of information that will create synergies and allow for new models to be developed, tested and applied
( public version - financial figures & numbers removed )