The questionnaire is addressed to the clients of the NCP-system in order to collect feedback on the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the services provided by the respective WBC-NCPs.

WBC-INCO.NET puts emphasis, among others, on the building of capacities and the facilitation of networking opportunities for researchers in order to improve absorption quantities and qualities and to enhance a better international recognition of existing WBC potentials. A specific work package (WP4) was designed to serve this purpose with central objectives a. to build capacities of researchers from the WBC to cooperate successfully in collaborative research projects under FP7, b. to build capacities of statisticians and political actors on ERA indicators in order to improve the databases and the evidence base for decision making in the field of S&T and c. to build capacities as regards the set-up of a regional information system on WBC RTD potentials.

The NCP System is meant to play a significant role to the achievement of the above goals in the WBC countries, thus it needs to be supported and to be further exploited. To this end, one of the tasks planned to be implemented under the work package 4 is the Benchmarking of NCP System/Task 4.4., the results of which (they will be outlined in a deliverable report on Benchmarking of NCP System), will lead to assess and further develop the capacities of the National Contact Point System in the WBC, along European standards. Furthermore, the results will be further exploited under another task within the same project, the task 5.3 (Support to NCPs), with the core objective to improve the networking and integration of WBC-NCPs in the European NCP-system.

Therefore, we invite you to take part in this comparative benchmarking exercise and fill in the online questionnaire, open till January 9th, 2008, entering the site: http://survey17.zsi.at/index.php?sid=63575&newtest=Y