The overall aim of this WP is to integrate and support Research Technology and Development (RTD) and innovation activities undertaken in the other RTD Sub-Projects. Key objectives include:

• to agree on common methodologies and assessment procedures;
• to provide common, core data sets to all work packages;
• to synthesise and integrate assessment methods and results.

To support the work of this WP, the Project Advisory Group will be established, which will include lead scientists in relevant areas and heads of relevant EU clusters. The purpose of this will be to provide independent comment and evaluation of the framework, methods and results generated from the other SPs, and to strengthen linkage with related research in other areas.

Work in WP5.1 will initially focus on agreement and specification of the assessment framework and methodology, to be developed in SP1. Partners in this WP will review and evaluate the framework and methods, liaise with their relevant WPs, and provide benchmarking of the methods, where appropriate. Based on the results, the ‘INTARESE approach’ will be defined.

Data reviews and inventories from SP2 work packages will be collated, integrated and synthesised, and a common data and model inventory constructed.

An important element of WP5.1 will be the provision of core data sets for all other WPs. This is essential, otherwise subtle but important differences in the results are likely to arise, and integration of the different methods is likely to be ineffective. It is also essential to avoid multiple approaches to data providers. Examples of core data sets, likely to be used by many different work packages, include: population (structured by age and gender), administrative areas (e.g. NUTS 5 boundaries), socio-economic status (e.g. income, education), topography (e.g. coastline, altitude), land cover (e.g. urban and rural land classes), meteorology and infrastructure (e.g. roads). To provide these basic data, a geographical information system (GIS) will be established, hosting all the core data sets. Data will be spatially integrated and registered to a common base map and projection. Project-level (i.e. multi-user) licences will be negotiated where necessary. SP5 will then deliver the data to each WP in the required format, and provide relevant technical support (e.g. in data analysis, trouble-shooting, updating).

Scoping reports from work packages in SP3 will be collated, reviewed and synthesised into a common ‘meta-model’ of the policy issues. Emphasis will be on identifying links, interdependencies and possible conflicts between the different policy issues, and defining opportunities for data sharing, model linkage and comparison and integration of the results.

Throughout the course of the project, all protocols from other WPs will be reviewed and evaluated by this WP, in order to ensure their consistency and exploit opportunities for linkage. Results from these syntheses will be fed into design of the integrated assessment system (WP4.1).