THE INTERPLAY OF RESEARCH AND INFORMATION IN MOST

Researchers require specific information for their work. Information n eeds vary according to the phases of research - the preparatory phase, the design phase and the fieldwork and report phase. Social scientifi c information is also rapidly becoming a central resource for policyma king. Active information provision is replacing passive information co llection and storage; there is a shift from stock to flow management. The increasingly strategic value of information leads to the developme nt of strategic information management. Strategic information manageme nt is concerned with capacity-building in research and policy-making. Six crucial aspects are discussed: exploitation of existing databases, creation of databases, national and regional networking, development of technical infrastructures, solution of the problem of multilinguali sm in information and communication, and training of information worke rs and researchers. MOST priority themes and research topics may be co nsidered to be foci in strategic information management. MOST is a rec ently established UNESCO programme of international social science res earch on ethnicity and multicultural society, cities as arenas of acce lerated social transformations and local impacts of global environment al, technological and economic transformations