 The new fifth R&D Framework Programme was officially launched in February 1999 and confirmed the role of CORDIS as the principal and official common information service for all EU R&D activities.The Innovation/SMEs programme confirmed the financing of the CORDIS service and also enlarged its scope to cover innovation activities in general and innovation support services in particular.During 1999 there were 130 000 identified users, 300,000 document downloads and some 2.5 million user visits.