The eContentplus Programme (2005–08) has a budget of €149 million to tackle organisational barriers and promote the take up of leading-edge technical solutions to improve accessibility and use of digital material in a multilingual environment.

A central Information Day on the eContentplus presenting the objectives of the target areas for 2008 and providing details on how to submit a proposal was recently held in Luxembourg. In view of the opportunities offered by this programme, on 23 April 2008, Forum Malta Fl-Ewropa organised a funding information seminar on this programme. The main speaker was Mark Roeder from the European Commission’s DG Information society and Media Digital Content & Cognitive Systems.

A call for proposals has just been published with a deadline for submission set for 12 June 2008. This funding information seminar was of particular interest to Local Authorities, Corporations, University and Schools, Libraries, SMEs, Archives and Museums. Interest was very high as nearly 300 participants turned up for this event.