Making Research Works Visible and Stimulating a Research Milieu in the Field of Social Work – The European Resource Centre for Social Work Research (CERTS)

Creating a European on line data base which will list Research works (primarily doctoral theses) carried out in different European countries It aims at valorising and disseminating research produced knowledge among researchers, teachers, students and deciders from the field of social work.

A list of European researchers will be added to the data base to develop European exchanges. The middle term’s objective is to improve transnational research co-operation and comparative research.

The concerted reflection required for creating the data base should be a means of participating in the definition and delimitation of the field of social work. It will be the first transnational stage organised on a large scale. The works will be based on research carried out at regional or national level in different European countries and will be co-ordinated by the European Steering Committee.

The development of a network for partners from all European countries is one of the priorities. The importance and interest shown in the European Resource Centre project depend on the participation and on the project management of each partner. 30 partners from 14 countries  [1] are already (from December 2001) involved in the project. The signing institutes are university departments and colleges of social work and/or a group of these institutes. The project is initiated and co-ordinated by the ETSUP. The ETSUP will be contact institution representing the partners in the European Commission.