This is an announcement to determine whether you may be able to
assist the National Institute of Health Research Information Systems
Programme ("the Programme").

The Programme is tasked with delivering one of the implementation
plans associated with the Department of Health's new national health
research strategy – Best Research for Best Health. This relates
to "Bureaucracy busting: Research information systems".

As part of the implementation plan we are keen to identify
organisations which may have developed or are developing systems,
applications or solutions that may fall within the scope of the
Programme's objectives. We are seeking to understand whether those
systems might beneficially be implemented on a large scale to support
the Programme's objectives.

We are exploring such possibilities with a wide range of
organisations. Some, like you, are involved with Open Source
software. Others are private or public sector software vendors and
service suppliers. To do this we have assembled a document which
describes what the Programme is seeking to achieve, and poses
questions for interested organisations to consider. The document can
be accessed via the NIHR website here: (copy full link into browser)

http://www.nihr.ac.uk/systems_research_information_systems_market_res.
aspx

and via the Official Journal of the European Union: (copy full link
into browser)

http://ted.europa.eu/Exec;jsessionid=8C1B1E81CD663F7D675557332EF50B66.
instance_2DataFlow=ShowPage.dfl&Template=TED/N_one_result_detail_curr.
htm&docnumber=212776-2007&docId=212776-2007&StatLang=EN

Not all questions will be relevant to you, especially those related
to commercial relationships in Section 7. But we wouldn't wish to
presume what you might be able to offer, and so I would be grateful
if you could browse the entire document.

If you are interested in discussing matters further with the
Programme then please email j.squire@... by Friday 21
September 2007, in line with the contact arrangements described in
Section 1 of the document.