r•cade - The Resource Centre for Access to Data on Europe. Creating a Resource on Europe for UK Academic Researchers

Comparative research on urban and regional issues in Europe has often been hampered by problems of accessing comparable cross-national data. The Resource Centre for Access to Data on Europe (r•cade) was established at the University of Durham in 1995 to seek to address this problem. This paper describes the original aims of the Centre and the ways in which these have been altered as it has subsequently evolved. It summarizes r•cade’s achievements in providing European data for the academic research community, in particular via its unique collaborative alliance with Eurostat and the UK Office of National Statistics, and discusses remaining difficulties and future threats and opportunities in a volatile political and technological environment.