Using European funds is an opportunity for us all, because through them Romania has the chance to develop and upgrade faster.

Authority for Coordination of Structural Instruments MPF, coordinator of the Structural and Cohesion Funds in Romania, has created this page to assist all those interested in further development of the space in which we live.

The European Social Fund (ESF) is one of the EU's Structural Funds, set up to reduce differences in prosperity and living standards across EU Member States and regions, and therefore promoting economic and social cohesion.

The ESF is devoted to promoting employment in the EU. It helps Member States make Europe's workforce and companies better equipped to face new, global challenges. In short:

• Funding is spread across the Member States and regions, in particular those where economic development is less advanced.
• It is a key element of the EU's 2020 strategy for Growth and Jobs targeted at improving the lives of EU citizens by giving them better skills and better job prospects.
• Over the period 2007-2013 some €75 billion will be distributed to the EU Member States and regions to achieve its goals.

The European Social Fund (ESF) is the European Union’s main instrument for financing strategic objectives of the employment policy. For 50 years, ESF has invested in programmes dedicated to develop peoples'  abilities and employment in the EU Member States.

The ESF finances the following priorities:

• Increasing adaptability of workers and enterprises;
• Increasing access to employment and participation in the labour market;
• Reinforcing social inclusion by fighting discrimination and facilitating access to the labour market for disadvantaged people;
• Promoting partnership for reform in the fields of employment and inclusion.

At the same time, in the least prosperous regions which fall under the convergence objective, the ESF will also support:

• investment in human capital, in particular by improving education and training systems;
• action aimed at developing institutional capacity and the efficiency of public administrations, at national, regional and local level.

The Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports (MoERYS) is the Romanian Government body that coordinates the education system in Romania, set objectives of the education system as a whole, and educational objectives of education levels and profiles.

IB SOP HRD - Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports (MoERYS) is a national Intermediary Body.

Europa.eu is the official website of the European Union. It is a good starting point if you are looking for information and services provided by the EU but you don't know your way around our sites.

This site gives you:

• basic information on how the EU works
• the latest EU news and events
• links to EU information on the websites of EU institutions and agencies.

The site is run by the Communication department of the European Commission on behalf of the EU institutions.

This site is designed to help you find out about European Research. Whether you are a researcher or a teacher, in business or in politics, there is something for you here. You can read about the latest political decisions, or the latest advances in research; there is even a set of online leaflets about European Research in Action, written for the non-specialist and available in 11 or more languages.

Although the site has over 25 000 pages you can easily find the parts that interest you most by using the Who are you? section (in the column on the left) where you will find pages of links that we believe you would like to visit depending on who you are.

Alternatively you can Search the site, use the extensive keyword Index, or take a look at all the available sub sites in the Site Map.

If you have questions, you can try the FAQs or submit a new question to the Enquiries service, where you are guaranteed an answer.

The menu at the top of the page will take you quickly to specific sites for the current and previous Research Framework Programmes, to policy-related sites, and to pages providing news and information.

For more on how to navigate the site, you can also take the Guided tour.

The National Authority for Scientific Research has an informative role as main element in carrying out the research policy for the researchers to be better informed in order to reach effectively the research objectives. Also, the information process aims to provide a better and more effective dissemination of technological and scientific results and to promote science for citizens’ benefit, according to the principles of information transparency.

One of the components of the National Authority for Scientific Research’s mission is the communication with both the other structures of public administration and the citizens. The Authority is responsible for

• disseminating the information in the research-development and innovation field;
• stimulating the increase of public consciousness regarding the role played by the research-development and innovation in the process of developing the sustainable development;
• stimulating and editing, printing and publishing specific materials related to this field of activity.

CORDIS, the Community Research and Development Information Service for Science, Research and Development, is the official source of information on the seventh framework programme (FP7) calls for proposals; it offers interactive web facilities that links together researchers, policymakers, managers and key players in the field of research.

CORDIS has these main missions:

1. To facilitate participation in European Research activities;
2. To enhance exploitation of research results with an emphasis on sectors crucial to Europe's competitiveness;
3. To promote the dissemination of knowledge fostering the innovation performance of enterprise and the societal acceptance of new technology.

CORDIS is managed by the Publications Office.

For more information on CORDIS, please visit cordis.europa.eu/guidance/welcome_en.html

The use of the online services of CORDIS is free-of-charge; you only need to cover your telecommunication costs.

The International Bureau of Education (IBE) is the UNESCO institute specializing in educational contents, methods and structures. Its overall mission is to contribute to the attainment of quality Education for All (EFA). To this end, the IBE builds networks to share expertise on curriculum development in all regions of the world, and aims to introduce innovative approaches in curriculum design and implementation, improve practical skills, and facilitate international dialogue on educational policies and practices.

First published as a CD-ROM in 1996, the database World Data on Education has regularly been improved and expanded using the information included in the National Reports on the Development of Education, supplemented with data from other sources. Five editions (out of print) have been produced until 2003. The sixth edition 2006/07 (out of print) contains detailed and systematized information on education systems of 161 countries worldwide, with a particular emphasis on curricula and curriculum development processes.

The database, which contains selected links to a range of official information sources on education, can also be accessed online. Each individual profile of national education system can be downloaded in the PDF format.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) was first published in June 2003 by the Center for World-Class Universities and the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and then updated on an annual basis.

ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities, including:

• the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals,
• the number of highly cited researchers selected by Thomson Scientific,
• the number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science,
• the number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index - Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index,
• and per capita performance with respect to the size of an institution.

More than 1000 universities are actually ranked by ARWU every year and the best 500 are published on the web.

The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) using a methodology that has published annually since 2004. While it has been gradually improved over time, the principles on which it was produced have not changed. So it has become a stable and consistent fixture for the fast-changing world of international education.

The QS World University Rankings is not to be confused with the THE World University Rankings. The QS rankings were originally published in collaboration with Times Higher Education, and known as the THE-QS World University Rankings. QS assumed sole publication of the existing methodology when Times Higher Education split in order to create a new ranking methodology in 2010, which became the THE World University Rankings.

The Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, also known as Ranking Web of World Universities, is ranking system for the world's universities based on a composite indicator that takes into account both the volume of the Web contents (number of web pages and files) and the visibility and impact of these web publications according to the number of external inlinks (site citations) they received.

The ranking is published by the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) located in Madrid.

The aim of the Ranking is to improve the presence of the academic and research institutions on the Web and to promote the open access publication of scientific results. The ranking started in 2004 and is updated every January and July. Today it provides Web indicators for more than 20,000 Higher Education Institutions worldwide.

The International Student Identity Card (ISIC) opens doors for you and will help you get far and succeed. With deals on travel, shops, restaurants, cinemas, banks you can't go wrong!

DreamSpark is simple, it’s about giving students Microsoft professional tools at no charge: Developer Tools, Designer Tools, Servers, Applications, Training & Certification.

DreamSpark is a program set up by Microsoft to provide students with software design and development tools at no charge. The program was originally available for university/college students in Belarus, Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, the U.K. and the U.S. but has now been expanded to more than 80 countries. To register, students must visit the Dreamspark Website and verify their identity. Proof of student status is required for access to products.

UberStudent is a free, user-friendly Linux desktop distribution for learning, doing, and teaching the essential skills of academic success at the higher education and advanced secondary levels. UberStudent is supported by a free virtual learning environment. Lifelong learners, researchers, and knowledge workers of all sectors will equally benefit.