Thanks to a second grant from the European Union (Contract no. QLG1-CT-2000-00514 2000-2003) we set up a project to define core sets of outcome measures for disease activity and disease damage assessment and definitions of improvement, to be used in clinical trials and outcome assessment studies in children with juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) and juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM). This project was developed in collaboration with the US-based “Pediatric Rheumatology Collaborative Study Group (PRCSG). The project has collected 292 patients with JDM and 554 patients with JSLE from 41 countries.The final goal of this project is to have a standardised approach for the outcome evaluation of children with JSLE and JDM enrolled in clinical trials.