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R.A. Longhorn
awareness and wider dissemination of information on key issues, at all levels, from
secondary school children to national Ministers and EU Commissioners.
Pure and applied research into coastal zone issues is supported by a range of
EU funding instruments and programmes available from EU Institutions, including the
European Commission, European Environmental Agency (EEA) and EUREKA.
Scores of projects with CZM objectives, or which create or further develop new
technologies or techniques useful to CZM, or which effect new research into
CZM/marine issues, are enacted via pan-European partnerships under many different
RTD (Research and Technological Development) programmes. Unfortunately, there is
seldom (if ever) a specific GI/GIS focus in any of these programmes, except in the
sense that it is almost impossible to do CZM research without using CIS tools in one
form or another. For that reason, it is important that the marine and CZM research
community make its special needs heard in the current EGII and GI2000 debates.
Initiatives from EU Institutions
The major programmes for effecting research or technological development with EU
financial support include: