The EU-funded Leonardo da Vinci MeC MAP project comprises a partnership of five European nations: the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, Slovakia and Finland. The MeC MAP reference project aims to produce a study on the multi- cultural context of e-learning provision to small businesses, underpinned by the establishment of four databases, accessible online: ¨eLearning project results and initiatives that have addressed multi-cultural aspects, particularly in small businesses; ¨European organisations key to the introduction and raising of multi-lingual and multi-cultural e-learning competencies and standards; ¨Competences and qualifications of vocational teachers, trainers and technical specialist trainers working with small businesses in a multi-cultural context; ¨Guides and reference material useful to trainers and developers working in a multi-cultural elearning context. In addition the project is developing a visual representation of country contexts for European multicultural e-learning using a map interface to access geographical and socioeconomic data. With links to the four databases above, these data address themes such as social exclusion and the digital divide in workbased learning.In a partnership where all partners are geographically dispersed throughout Europe it is important to provide the means to collaborate efficiently, resulting in a virtual workspace which is an important tool for the project. The project's Web site has also been developed and is available to the general public (www.mecmap.org).Selected transnational academic experts have provided useful feedback to guide the various phases of the work programme, including validation of its research and development framework. The position of the research has been confirmed within academic multicultural studies, including its significant distinctions between place based (working in or cross- cultural) and person based approaches (working with or multi-cultural). The concept of a 'clickable map' approach to presenting these data in map form has also been endorsed, and development work is currently underway to collate information across a huge range of socioeconomic parameters.A major step forward was taken with the decision to adopt the Dublin Core metadata scheme as a generic database field structure for MeC MAP, with additional fields specified according to the needs of the individual databases. Dublin Core is well used for education datasets within a broad international context, and is flexible enough to make it the natural choice. At present the selection criteria embedded within the research and development framework are being put to the test. Project partners are collecting resources across the specific areas allocated to them for population within the several MeC MAP databases. Resources are being cross-validated according to derived definitions for e-learning and multi-cultural dimensions to guide their suitability for inclusion in the databases. Once collection of content is complete final database development will commence. Plans are for databases to be available for piloting in mid-2005 and be trialed and validated by representative focus groups towards the end of the year, with completion of the MeC MAP reference project due in spring 2006.