Many research groups and institutes within the European Research Area (ERA) are playing a central role in the production of a vast range of atomic and molecular (AM) data, data that is of critical importance across a wide range of applications such as astrophysics, atmospheric physics, fusion, environmental sciences, combustion chemistry and in industrial applications from plasmas to lighting.Through the auspices of this infrastructure the Virtual Atomic and Molecular Data Centre (VAMDC) aims to build a secure, documented, flexible and interoperable e-science environment-based interface to the existing AM data. The VAMDC will be built upon the expertise of existing AM databases, data producers and service providers with the specific aim of creating an infrastructure that is easily tuned to the requirements of a wide variety of users in academic, governmental, industrial or public communities both within and outside the ERA. The project will cover the building of the core consortium, the development and deployment of the infrastructure and the development of interfaces to the existing AM databases as well as providing a forum for training potential users and dissemination of expertise across the ERA. It is expected that VAMDC becomes a European legal entity during the course of the project.