It is a great pleasure to introduce a new European initiative: “HELAS”, the European Helio- and Asteroseismology Network . This initiative is funded by the European Commission since April 1st, 2006, as a “Co-ordination Action” under its Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).

Helioseismology for the case of the Sun and asteroseismology for other stars, consists of the detailed analysis of the seismic waves observed at the stellar surfaces, which has become the prime technique probing the interior of stars during the past 30 years. HELAS was created to prepare European scientist for the advent of new exciting projects and space missions that are about to become operational, delivering overwhelming amounts of data on these waves humming in the Sun and the stars. Researchers in Europe should be in a position well prepared to process the data with high efficiency and proceed to their scientific exploitation.

HELAS offers the unique chance to advance Helio- and Asteroseismology further by coordinating the activities of researchers active in the field. These coordinating activities aim on exchanging knowledge, data and tools to proceed with the future steps in a well-prepared manner and to foster the existing synergies of the field.

As a central node making all this coordination possible, the HELAS IT platform was born as the reference site in the domain of Helio- and Asteroseismology. The common information on these research fields shall be available here. Moreover the HELAS IT will ensure coordination between groups by offering a forum for discussion and exchange of knowledge.

All European researchers interested in Helio- and Asteroseismology are invited to participate in this activity and to benefit from the information, tools and products offered here. We would like to strongly encourage you and your colleagues to participate actively in the HELAS activities and the further development of the HELAS website.