Kaleidoscope project teams have many communication tools at their disposal, such as websites, newsletters, leaflets, advertisements, and press releases. The challenge, though, is for teams and individual researchers to convey the essence of what they do to as many stakeholders as possible. The most successful, as judged by the Review Committee, have been identified, and their work will be highlighted at the awards ceremony.

Paul Davey, Kaleidoscope Dissemination Leader, says, "In general the standards were high, but we particularly favoured entrants who had taken a pro-active approach to dissemination, both together with the team and of their own accord."

The five finalists are:

• Scripting - Improvising roles for learning by Armin Weinberger, LMU, Munich, Germany
• elping the children of the world to learn algebra: a research project that has been commercialised successfully by Jean Francois-Nicaud, CNRS, Grenoble, France
• Training and practice for present and future orthopaedic surgeons by Lucile Vadcard - CNRS, Grenoble, France
• Learning from Africa by Secundino Correia, CNOTINFOR, Coimbra, Portugal
• The art and science of interactive storytelling by Guiliana Dettori, Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche, Palermo, Italy and Ana Paiva, INESC, Lisbon, Portugal.