"The implementation of a prevention-oriented injury surveillance in the EU is a major demand towards the Member States in the recent “EC Council Recommendations on the prevention of injury and the promotion of safety”. Needed in particular are valid and reliable indicators for the array of external causes of injury morbidity, like involved activities, products and mechanisms, and for the most severe consequences of injuries besides death – long term and chronic disabilities . Whereas no single EU health statistics fulfills that demand to date, the integration of two existing data sources – the prevention-oriented European Injury Database (IDB ) and the routine Hospital Discharge Registers (HDR) – is considered the most promising approach to that avail. However, substantial methodological improvement in IDB sampling, research into the operationalization of disability indicators for the HDR, and technological advancement for a streamlined data collection for both data systems are required. The INTEGRIS project aims to provide the necessary research and technology input for the IDB-HDR integration through an evaluated demonstration project in six Member States. This aim links to chapter 4.2 of the call 2007 “Responding to EU policy needs in Health Statistics” in the field of hospital based injury statistics, 4.2.4: Health Statistics and Rare Events (HEALTH-2007) in particular. The resulting IDB-HDR data model and INTEGRIS prototype shall meet the statistical quality criteria of Eurostat (European Statistical System) and the public health requirements of the EU Health Indicators (ECHI ). A successful evaluation provided, an EU-level implementation plan will be proposed for adoption by the relevant stakeholders and decision makers."