CORDIS, a new service Unique Registration Facility (URF), was launched on April 27. It will facilitate the preparation of grant agreements between participants and the European Commission. Thanks to the new service, participants in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and other programmes managed by the Research Directorate General will no longer have to submit their legal and financial information each time a new grant agreement is in the pipeline. Once participants have been validated by the European Commission´s central validation team for their existence as legal entities and their legal status they will only have to submit their Participant Identification Code (PIC). and Lenka Lepičová.