Overview
The SIBIS topic research undertook desk research into nine distinct aspects of eEurope: telecommunications and access, the Internet for R&D, security and trust, education, work, employment and skills, social inclusion, e-commerce, e-government, health. Each topic report sought to identify the main developments in their specific areas of interest. The work for each topic was based on a:

• literature review to
  - further substantiate the issues and variables that are relevant for the different topics
  - locate indicators already in use for data gathering by official statistical agencies
  - identify activities, that are ongoing for the development or piloting of new indicators
• policy document analysis (begun in work package 1) and a
• gap analysis identifying existing gaps in coverage of topics with relevant statistical indicators.

The main outcome of each of the topic research and indicator development reports (i.e. the combined deliverables 2.1 and 2.2) in the nine thematic domains are indicator systems that consist of

• existing statistical indicators,
• gaps in the availability of IS-relevant indicators,
• indicators currently under development and
• new indicators required for a more appropriate measurement, evaluation and benchmarking of IS developments

Before being delivered to the European Commission the topic research reports underwent a two-step quality assurance procedure, firstly in the form of an internal review within the project team, and secondly through an external review from the Advisory Group of Experts (AGE) that was established in the SIBIS work package 6 (on the details see the SIBIS deliverable 6.1 on the SIBIS website).

As the research and indicator development reports (i.e. the combined deliverables 2.1 and 2.2 which can be retrieved from the SIBIS website) are the most important results of the SIBIS work in the first project year, their results are summarised subsequently, describing each domain, the major problems and gaps in statistical coverage and new indicators that were developed.