165e Bijeenkomst van het Comité van Officials voor wetenschappelijk en technisch onderzoek (COST), Talinn, 27/28 juni 2006 (en) - Hoofdinhoud
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European Co-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research
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C/06/206 Brussels, 3 July 2006 COST 255/06 (Presse 206) |
165th meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials for Scientific and Technical Research (COST) Tallinn, Estonia, 27/28 June 2006 |
The COST Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) held its 165th meeting in Tallinn, Estonia on 27/28 June 2006. The welcome address was given by Mr. Rein Vaikmae, Vice-Rector for Research of Tallinn University of Technology and the meeting was chaired by Prof. Francesco FEDI, the President of the CSO.
Financial support to COST from 7th RTD-EU Framework programme
In view of the Council's conclusion (meeting of the Competitiveness Council on 29-30 May 2006) that financial support to COST should be continued under the 7th RTD-EU Framework programme (2007 - 2013), the Committee issued a statement expressing that in order to exploit the full potential of COST for the duration of the next Framework programme the level of financial support to COST should be at a level of 280 Mio Euro. It agreed to communicate this statement to the institutions examining the forthcoming proposal on the specific programme 'Cooperation'.
Success of the first COST Open Call
As decided by the Committee at its previous meeting, the first general Open Call for proposals - to improve transparency, secure quality and introduce an element of competitivity to the selection of Actions - had been published in April, with the first collection date on 31 May 2006.
The Committee was pleased to note the highly successful result of more than 800 preliminary proposals received. The selection procedure has been started and after the final decision at the Committee's next meeting, the new Actions are expected to start in the beginning of 2007.
The new COST Domains are operational
Following the Committee's decision in November 2005 the new Domain structure has become operational on 1 June 2006. The newly elected Chairs of the Domain Committees were invited to the meeting to present their respective domains to the Committee:
Biomedicine and Molecular Biosciences (BMBS);
Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies (CMST);
Earth System Science and Environmental Management (ESSEM);
Food and Agriculture (FA),
Forests, their Products and Services (FPS);
Individuals, Society, Culture and Health (ISCH);
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT);
Materials, Physical and Nanosciences (MPNS);
Transport and Urban Development (TUD).
Increased support for young researchers
COST has always been open to young scientists, particularly thanks to its bottom-up character. To further increase the involvement of young researchers, the Committee will focus on specific measures to stimulate a policy enabling more involvement of young researches within existing COST Actions.
COST approves 23 new Actions
The Committee agreed to launch 23 new COST Actions in the following scientific domains:
Information and Communication Technologies
COST 2100 Pervasive Mobile & Ambient Wireless Communications (IT Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to increase knowledge of mobile and wireless network technologies by exploring and developing new methods, models, techniques, strategies and tools that will facilitate the implementation of next generation mobile radio communication systems and that will foster the development of the paradigms of pervasive and ambient wireless communications."
COST 2101 Biometrics for Identity Documents and Smart cards (BIDS) (CH Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to investigate novel technologies for unsupervised multimodal biometric authentication systems using a new generation of biometricsenabled identity documents and smart cards, while exploring the added-value of these technologies for large-scale applications with respect to the European requirements in relation to the storage, transmission, and protection of personal data."
COST 2102 Cross-Modal Analysis of Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication (IT Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to develop an advanced acoustical, perceptual and psychological analysis of verbal and non-verbal communication signals originating in spontaneous face-to-face interaction, in order to identify algorithms and automatic procedures capable of identifying the human emotional states. Several key aspects will be considered, such as the integration of the developed algorithms and procedures for application in telecommunication, and for the recognition of emotional states, gestures, speech and facial expressions, in anticipation of the implementation of intelligent avatars and interactive dialogue systems that could be exploited to improve user access to future telecommunication services."
COST 2103 Advanced Voice Function Assessment (EL + NL Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to combine previously unexploited techniques with new theoretical developments to improve the assessment of voice for as many European languages as possible, while acquiring in parallel data with a view to elaborating better voice production models."
Transport and Urban Development
COST 358 Pedestrians’ Quality Needs (NL Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to provide an essential contribution to systems knowledge of pedestrians’ quality needs and the requirements derived from those needs, thus stimulating structural and functional interventions, policy making and regulation to support walking conditions throughout the EU and other involved countries."
COST C27 Sustainable Development Policies for Minor Deprived Communities (IT Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to explore, assess and improve the different policy options open to small, deprived, urban communities, geared to sustainable development."
Materials, Physical and Nanosciences
COST 543 Research and Development of Bioethanol Processing for Fuel Cells (FI Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is developing new technologies for bioethanol (ethanol produced from ligno-cellulose materials) that can be used effectively in small-scale fuel cell systems of electric power output between 0.5 and 10 kW. The technologies cover low-temperature bioethanol reforming in hydrogen selective membrane reactors and cleaning methods as well as their combinations with any type of low-temperature fuel cell."
COST P21 Physics of Droplets (BE Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to improve the fundamental understanding of the physics of droplets (production, transport, coating and stock), from the microscopic scale to our macroscopic world. Fundamental information will provide tools for broad practical applications reaching from the traditional food industry to cutting-edge technologies."
Earth System Science and Environmental Management
COST 637 Metals and Related Substances in Drinking Water (UK Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to bring together and add value to the disparate national and European research initiatives to create a unified, clear position to feed into European marine policy. This Action will aim to erase the ‘grey’ areas which exist in marine research and policy and work to disseminate collaborated European research results to assist future national and marine policy objectives."
COST 638 Investigating and managing the impacts of marine sand and gravel extraction and use (UK Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to bring together and add value to the disparate national and European research initiatives to create a unified, clear position to feed into European marine policy. This Action will aim to erase the ‘grey’ areas which exist in marine research and policy and work to disseminate collaborated European research results to assist future national and marine policy objectives."
COST 639 Greenhouse gas budget of soils under changing climate and land use (BurnOut) (AT Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is the improved understanding of the management of greenhouse gas emissions from European soils under different forms of land use and in particular disturbance regimes."
COST 735 Tools for Assessing Global Air Sea Fluxes of Climate and Air Pollution Relevant Gases (UK Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to develop the tools for, and the production of, best estimates of global air–sea fluxes of compounds relevant to climate and air pollution."
Food and Agriculture
COST 870 From production to application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in agricultural systems: a multidisciplinary approach (NL Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to take a multidisciplinary approach to increase the knowledge needed for implementation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in agricultural systems, in order to reduce agricultural inputs and reduce losses to the environment."
COST 871 Cryopreservation of crop species in Europe (BE Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to improve and apply technologically advanced techniques for plant genetic resources conservation of crops that are grown and/or conserved in Europe with the main emphasis on long-term conservation through cryopreservation."
COST 872 Exploiting genomics to understand plant-nematode interactions (UK Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to develop a coordinated approach to exploitation of genomics information that is appearing for plant parasitic nematodes and host crops."
COST 873 Bacterial diseases of stone fruits and nuts (CH Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to develop strategies to prevent biological invasion and spread of bacterial diseases of stone fruits and nuts that will be used for the design of integrated approaches for plant health management."
COST 929 A European Network for Environmental and Food Virology (UK Proposal)
"The main objective of the Action is to construct a network of expert European scientists, who will cooperate to promote the study of, and to tackle the issues associated with, food- and environmentally transmitted pathogenic viruse."
Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies
COST D40 Innovative Catalysis: New Processes and Selectivities (UK Proposal)
The main objective of the Action is to allow the attainment of new innovative C-H, CO,C-C and C-Heteroatom bond forming processes, using metal-ligand approaches for the synthesis of organic compounds of biological, pharmacological and organic nanotechnological utility.
COST D41 Inorganic oxides surfaces and interfaces (IT Proposal)
The main objective of the Action is to increase our knowledge and understanding of the properties of oxide surfaces and interfaces at an atomistic level and to develop means of predicting and controlling their structures and functions at the nanometre scale.
COST D42 Chemical Interactions between Cultural Artefacts and the Indoor Environment (EnviArt) (NL Proposal)
The main objective of the Action is to explore chemical interactions between cultural artefacts and typical indoor environmental conditions through field studies and laboratory experiments and to translate the results into preventive conservation practice.
COST D43 Colloid and Interface Chemistry for Nanotechnology (CH Proposal)
The main objective of the Action is to fabricate functional nanostructured materials and nanoscale devices for analytical, biomedical, and life science applications.
Forests, their Products and Services
COST E54 Modelling of the Performance of Timber Structures (CH Proposal)
The main objective of the Action is to generate new knowledge on the micro- and nanostructure of papermaking fibres and properties required for the efficient and sustainable use of fibres in traditional, advanced and future products.
COST E55 Characterization of the fine structures and properties of papermaking fibres using new technologies (LV Proposal)
The main objective of the Action is to provide the basic framework and knowledge required for the efficient and sustainable use of timber as a structural and building material.
COST extends duration of ongoing Actions
The Committee endorsed the extension of two ongoing COST Actions:
COST E29 Innovative Timber & Composite Elements/Components for Buildings (7,5 months)
COST E31 Management of Recovered Wood (6 months)
World-wide interest towards COST
COST Actions are open also to researchers from non-COST countries or international organisations provided there is mutual benefit for such cooperation.
The Committee approved applications from research institutions from Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Ukraine and USA.
Next CSO meeting
The next meeting of the COST Senior Officials Committee is scheduled to take place on
20/21 November 2006 in Brussels.
For further information call the COST Secretariat at 02-285.68.96/79.14.