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A report is given of the progress achieved in an IAEA Co-ordinated Research Project (CRP) to improve the cross-section standards. The objectives of the CRP, started in 2002, were initially the understanding of the origin of the strong uncertainty reduction in R-matrix model fits and the improvement of the evaluation methodology. These aims were extended in 2003 to the preparation of new evaluations for the standard 6Li(n,t), 10B(n,α), 10B(n,α1), 197Au(n,γ), 235U(n,f), and 238U(n,f) reactions. The methodology, codes, and experimental database developed by Poenitz and Hale for the ENDF/B-VI standards evaluation were taken as the basis for the new evaluation. The major results achieved by the CRP participants include the testing and intercomparison of a number of codes that can be used in the standards evaluation, updating the database of experimental results, analysis of the reasons leading to the strong uncertainty reduction in model fits, and a study of the bias in evaluated data caused by the Peelles’s Pertinent Puzzle (PPP) effect, which has been widely discussed in the nuclear data community since the ENDF/B-VI standards evaluation was completed. Preliminary results of the new standards evaluation are shown. The use of the new 235U(n,f) cross section leads to better consistency in calculations of some important integral experiments. © 2005 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]