The Commission like other similar organisations has its “cycles”. Some are fairly clean-cut such as the Commission itself – the College, the 27 Commissioners. Others are overlap to an extent. This coming year is perhaps more interesting than most when it comes to our research funding. We are coming towards the end of Framework Programme 7 - FP7 - and a proposal has been developed for what should happen next - Horizon 2020. For details on FP7: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/page/home And for some information on Horizon 2020: http://ec.europa.eu/research/horizon2020/index_en.cfm?pg=h2020 A lot of the topics which have been and are being funded and which indeed may be funded are of relevance to this community – work on the “future internet” and on IPv6 to mention but two. It ought to be useful therefore to see if people from the research side of INFSO could come to a RIPE meeting to present what has been achieved and the Commission’s proposal for the future. If there is interest then I am sure the co-chairs can take this forward. In the meantime - happy new year! Gordon