In this issue: NEWS FROM STAFF. (p. 3) RECENT EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES. (p. 5) AGENDA (p. 6) Issue No. 4 January February 2007

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1 Issue No. 4 January February 2007 In this issue: NEWS FROM STAFF. (p. 3) RECENT EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES. (p. 5) AGENDA (p. 6) COST, Down Under and Trans-Atlantic A new year has started and therewith a range of new challenges and developments for COST. Following my visit to Australia and New Zealand last November, mutual agreements to foster cooperation with COST were discussed to facilitate further exchanges. These first pilot agreements with Australia and New Zealand should establish a basis to provide support to scientists from Australia and New Zealand for participation in COST Action activities and vice versa. It has been proposed that this intensified cooperation with the European COST framework will be fostered both by dedicating additional funds to interested COST Actions, and through dedicated support made available in Australia and New Zealand. The COST Office now receives an increasing number of requests from non-cost countries on fostering the respective networking activities based on mutual agreements. Only recently, a workshop Canada Europe: Partners in the world, attended by a high level delegation of 32 participants from Canada, was organised in Brussels in the premises of the Mission of Canada to the European Union. During this workshop we discussed the possibilities of cooperation with Canadian researchers in COST Actions. A lively interest was shown for intensifying networking activities within COST. The visit of the CSO President two years ago and the CEO of ESF last autumn increased awareness to the extent that Canada is preparing for new approaches to foster Canadian participation in COST. Also, only recently, the Canada-Europe Liaison office was inaugurated as part of the joint initiative called ERA-Can. ERA-Can is a collaborative, international initiative, which is jointly funded by the European Commission and Canada and aims to increase the quality, quantity, profile and impact of S&T cooperation between Canada & the ERA. There is untapped potential for Canadian integration in the ERA, and for European involvement in Canadian S&T. I am convinced that it would be very supportive for many COST Actions with Canadian participations if a mutual agreement with Canada through ERA-Can could be found very soon. Martin Grabert, Director of the COST Office COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract

2 Portrait COST Issue No. 4 January February 2007 Sjur Baardsen, DC Chair for COST Domain Forests, their Products and Services (FPS) Name: Sjur Baardsen Year and Place of Birth: 1959, Sarpsborg, Norway Nationality: Norwegian Country where I currently live: Norway Languages: Norwegian, English, Swedish and some German and French Education: MSc Forestry, PhD Forest Economics Current profession: Associate Professor (Norwegian University of Life Sciences) and Researcher II (Eastern Norway Research Institute) Research experience: Modelling of production economics and markets in the forest sector, rural development When did you join COST? I was member of the Ad hoc Technical Committee Forests and Forest Products in 1993 and I participate (d) in the following COST Actions: None, which may be a disadvantage. On the other hand I never run into direct conflicts of interest. You were nominated as a COST Domain Committee member by your country. What was your motivation to stand for election as DC Chair? After having completed four years of secondment to DG Research (European Commission), where I worked with research projects within rural development, forestry, wood technology and pulp & paper I was more convinced than ever about the importance of research collaboration, and I had taken notice of the efficiency of COST in this respect. Some people had the impression that COST supported research tourism. They couldn t be more wrong! In spite of a strange acronym seemingly indicating the opposite, COST provides new knowledge in the most cost-efficient way. I wanted to be a part of this and to contribute actively with my own experiences from evaluation and handling of projects. How do you see the future and further evolution of COST? COST has a long and proud history and has proved its role in connecting European research. It complements other European research initiatives in an excellent way, and I think this will continue in the future. Besides, maintaining the bottom-up approach will make COST even more popular to the research teams. Other funding bodies on the European and national arenas seem to be more and more inclined to the top-down approach, probably inspired by a political will to boost the economy through research policy instruments. In my opinion this is often (but not always) more a wish than a will. When a call for proposals looks more like a call for tender and the research design is programmed and sufficiently free of risk to enable research teams to promise certain results the idea and legitimacy behind public funding of research have been lost. It is my belief that COST will avoid this trap simply due to the way it works: COST creates added value to ongoing research activities by connecting them. What is your vision of Europe in the next 10 years? A continent that takes better care of its children and youth, and election periods long enough to enable and force politicians to take decisions within a long rather than a shortterm framework. With regard to research priorities and funding possibilities we know fairly well the framework for the next seven to ten years, so in this respect my personal vision would be uninteresting. But in a wider research perspective I hope there will be room for both basic and applied research. More of the basic research should be bottom-up and allowed to be unidisciplinary whenever preferred, while some of the applied research could remain top-down and multidisciplinary. I would, for instance, hope to see more policy research integrating forestry, forest industries, agriculture and environment. Then we would be talking multifunctionality! When you have one free moment in your busy schedule, what is your preferred leisure activity? I need more than a moment. I need at least two hours for a long run in the forest, or cross-country skiing in the dark with the headlights on. 2

3 COST Issue No. 4 January February 2007 COST Action STARTING NEW COST ACTION D43: Colloid and Interface Chemistry for Nanotechnology Colloid and interface science has been dealing with nanosized objects for almost a century before the word nanotechnology was devised. Modern nanotechnology emerged in the 1990s out of the boom in microfabrication techniques representing the core of modern semiconductor industry (e.g., beam-lithography, sputtering, etching). In fabricating objects on a scale of nanometres (e.g., nanowires, nanoparticles), the most promising approach is their bottom-up assembly in a controlled fashion. A well-known example is the preparation of fine powders, which are necessary in the industrial formulation of paints, foods or drugs. Now that nanoscience is maturing in the field of information technology and is beginning to make a broad impact in other areas, the frontiers of its development are moving towards those areas of industry in which colloidal and interface science are traditionally strong. The challenge is to ensure that the vast knowledge in these disciplines further contributes to the vigorous development of ideas and methods of the nanosciences witnessed during the last decade. This development is leading to novel approaches in how to synthesise and manipulate soft and other complex nanoscale objects. 21 COST Member states have expressed their interest for participating in COST Action D43. This Action seeks to fabricate functional nanostructured materials and nanoscale devices for analytical, biomedical, and life science applications. This Action particularly fosters the participation of the colloid and interface science community within this domain, and thus contributes substantially to the further development of nanotechnology in Europe. Because of the enormous need for qualified personnel of various companies, particularly in the chemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnical, and medical sector, this Action will clearly contribute to the strengthening of the economy. At the European level, the Action will assemble the existing expertise in colloid and interface chemistry, and it will further reinforce the already strong European reputation of this discipline. The proposed approach to nanotechnology has thus substantial potential to quickly gain a status of worldwide excellence and thereby further strengthen European standing in science and technology. The kick-off meeting of Action D43 took place in Brussels on 10 November Website: Figure: Applications in analytical and biomedical sciences-lab-on-a-chip devices News from staff Thierry GOGER has joined the COST Office in the temporary position of Science Officer for TUD. Zina TERZIKI will work temporarily as Administrative Officer and will also support the communication team. Dr. Afonso Ferreira, Science Officer for ICT, is invited to present COST-ICT at a series of events related to FP 7 in Canada, during the month of March. The events are being organised by the Canadian Communications Research Centre, which is the ICT National Contact Point in Canada. 3

COST Action COST Issue No. 4 January February 2007 ENDING COST ACTION 529: Efficient Lighting for the 21 st century It is difficult for most people to imagine life without the electric light.

4 COST Action COST Issue No. 4 January February 2007 ENDING COST ACTION 529: Efficient Lighting for the 21 st century It is difficult for most people to imagine life without the electric light. This relatively simple technology is one of the cornerstones of the modern world, vital for society and economy alike. Unfortunately, the energy required to power the world s electric lights produces around 550 million tonnes of CO2 every year. In fact, electric lighting uses something like 15 per cent of the world s electricity production, and demand is continuing to rise. More efficient light sources will reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. In addition, light sources contain toxic materials which generate hazardous waste. Research is targeting on the development of light sources with greater efficiency and reduction or elimination of hazardous materials. The lighting industry is also an important economic factor. Europe has an important industrial stake in this major global industry. It hosts the three biggest lighting companies, namely Osram, Philips, and GE Lighting. Moreover light has important social aspects. Citizens are more and more demanding for a better quality of light in every day s life. For example, good quality lighting in the streets at night and other public areas can contribute considerably to the character and vitality of a city. Driving through an unlit town at night creates a sense of isolation from the community. Good lighting is always assisting the services of ambulances, fire fighting crews, police cars and rescue teams in an emergency and therefore will contribute to an increase of the quality of life in urban areas. Research is therefore targeting on the following: limit the rate-of-increase of electric power consumption reduce the economic and social costs of expanding capacity improve the matching between distributed generation and local loads The intention of COST Action 529 Efficient lighting for the 21st century was to make the most of Europe s position as a world leader in lighting technology. It aimed to help develop materials and concepts that could reduce the energy consumption required by electric lighting, without compromising on light quality. Before this COST Action, the lighting research community was not well structured, explains Action Chair Prof. Georges Zissis. One of our first activities was to create a Who is who so we knew who was working in this field. Zissis considers this as the biggest achievement of the Action because it has helped research teams to find valuable partners. The Action brought scientists together from academia and from the three major European companies in lighting. COST 529 has of course achieved much more results. The most important outcomes of the Action are: COST Reference Lamp for metrological purposes. More than 100 specimens of this 4

5 COST Issue No. 4 January February 2007 COST Action Metal Halide Lamp (with different metal halide contents) have been produced by Philips, and they were distributed to various labs as a reference for testing & metrological purposes. This COST standard lamp allows researchers to compare their measurements and calculations. Design of a new urban lighting scheme in the French city of Albi, by which the close interrelationship between public lighting and human well-being has been demonstrated. This was published in various media. Establishment of a database of knowledge in the area. Organisation of a number of international conferences as well as several smaller meetings. A large number of scientific publications in specific journals. The major strength of the Action was undoubtedly its great visibility, also due to the fact that the topic lighting is of importance to everybody. COST 529 has been on TV, it has been in newspapers, it has been repeatedly presented to politicians in Brussels and in other parts of Europe as an example of successful implementation of research results in industrial solutions. Recent events and activities COST DC meeting Food & Agriculture The 3 rd meeting of the COST Domain Committee (DC) on Food & Agriculture took place in Turkey from January 31 February 2, All current COST Actions were presented by the different Management Committee Chairs. The meeting was very successful and it was decided to hold these continuously monitoring meetings on a yearly basis. Extending Horizons: Accessibility to Next Generation Networks On January 16 the COST 219ter conference entitled Extending Horizons: Accessibility to Next Generation Networks took place in London. The conference was addressing questions regarding the impact of communication technologies on older and disabled people and concerning possibilities to include older and disabled people in the opportunities offered by emerging network services. web: 5

COST Office 149, Avenue Louise 1050 Brussels Tel.: +32 2 533 38 00 Fax: +32 2 533 38 90 office@cost.esf.

that demand a coordinated funding policy at the European level. Further details can be found at www.esf.

6 COST Office 149, Avenue Louise 1050 Brussels Tel.: Fax: office@cost.esf.org Agenda EuroBioFund Call for Expressions of Interest (as from 22 February 2007) Life science researchers are invited to submit Expressions of Interest for future pan-european research programmes that demand a coordinated funding policy at the European level. Further details can be found at March 26-27, 2007 The DC Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) will take place in Bruges April, 2007 The Cost 629 final conference in Barcelona is an ambitious event. The organizers have obtained sponsorship funds from UNESCO, EC (JRC) and two universities, in addition to COST. Over 100 abstracts have been submitted, and proceedings are being printed. A scientific program has been published on-line. Web: April 24-25, 2007 Food & Agriculture synergy meeting "Reservoirs of infection in wild animals" venue to be announced. COST is an intergovernmental European framework for international co-operation between nationally funded research activities. COST creates scientific networks and enables scientists to collaborate in a wide spectrum of activities in research and technology. COST activities are administered by the COST Office. For further information please visit: COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme May 23-24, 2007 The COST Strategic meeting on Advanced Research Results using Array technology.(array) will take place in Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain. The objectives of this meeting are to disseminate knowledge of array technology and the newer, related developments in scientific research to as many COST Actions as possible, and to present the state of the art and to point to new directions that array technology has indicated, such as systems biology. May 31 June 1, 2007 The COST Strategic Workshop on Smart Health Care (SHC) will take place in Dubrovnik, Croatia. This Strategic Workshop will follow a trans-disciplinary approach to the highly important and upto-date topic of Smart Health Care. The three COST Domains ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), BMBS (Biomedicine and Molecular Biosciences) and ISCH (Individuals, Societies, Cultures and Health) are involved in its preparation. The Workshop aims at bringing together high-level researchers and decision-makers to discuss the forefront topic of SHC and to raise awareness about the topic within the scientific debate. ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract Editor: Gabi Egartner (gegartner@cost.esf.org)

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