Within the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Union for Research and
Technological Development (RTD), the Key Action "Improving the socio-economic
knowledge base" carried broad and ambitious objectives, namely to improve our
understanding of the structural changes taking place in European society, to identify
ways of managing these changes and to promote the active involvement of
European citizens in shaping their own futures. A further important aim was to
mobilise the research communities in the social sciences and humanities at the
European level and to provide scientific support to policies at various levels, with
particular attention to EU policy fields
