Rome, 6 December 2010 180th MEETING OF THE COST COMMITTEE OF SENIOR OFFICIALS 1 2 Rome, Italy, 1 - 2 December 2010 - Main contents

Rome, Italy, 1 - 2 December 2010

The 180th meeting of the COST Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) was held in Rome, Italy on 1 - 2 December 2010 at the invitation of the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research. The welcome address was given by

Dr Mario Ali, Director General for the Internationalisation of Research. The meeting was hosted in the premises of the National Research Council of Italy, whose President, Prof. Luciano Maiani, also addressed the Committee.

The meeting was chaired by Dr Angeles Rodrigues Peña (ES), the President of the CSO.

New COST Vice-President elected

The Committee elected Dr Primož Pristovšek (SI) as the new COST Vice-President for a three-year mandate as from December 2010. In this function Dr Pristovšek will succeed Prof. John Bartzis (EL) who has held the position during the past three years.

COST - ESF cooperation

The Committee had invited Prof. Marja Makarow, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the European Science Foundation (ESF) for an exchange of views on the cooperation between COST and the ESF. It was recalled that both CSO and the ESF Governing Council had confirmed that the ESF would continue as the COST implementing agent until the end of the FP7. For any arrangement as of 1 January 2014 the partners will collaborate in order to establish a “roadmap” to guarantee a smooth continuation of COST activities beyond FP7.

COST Office Association (COA) AISBL

Prof. Francesco Fedi, COA President, informed the Committee of the establishment and registration of the COA AISBL. It was noted that the entity would give COST access to legal personality, should COST opt to appoint COA as its implementing agent in the future.

FP7 Mid-term evaluation of COST

It was recalled that the Expert Panel for the FP7 Mid-term evaluation of COST had recommended in its report to the Commission that the appropriate process be put in place to allocate the additional 40 MEUR reserved in FP7 for COST. The Committee had invited Prof. Manfret Horvat, the Chair of the Panel, to the meeting in order to provide COST delegations further insight to some of the Panel’s conclusions and recommendations that had raised questions among delegations.

COST approves 30 new Actions

The Committee approved the following 30 new Actions³:

• - 

  Natural Sciences Cluster

Chemistry and Molecular Sciences and Technologies (CMST)

CM1004 Synthetic Probes for Chemical Proteomics and Elucidation of

Biosynthetic Pathways (NL proposal)

CM1005 Supramolecular Chemistry in Water (IT proposal)

CM1006 EUFEN: European F-Element Network (UK proposal)

Earth System Science and Environmental Management (ESSEM)

ES1006 Evaluation, improvement and guidance for the use of local-scale

emergency prediction and response tools for airborne hazards in built

environments (DE proposal)

ES1005 Towards a more complete assessment of the impact of solar variability

on the Earth’s climate (FR proposal)

ES1004 European framework for online integrated air quality and meteorology

modelling (DK proposal)

Materials, Physical and Nanosciences (MPNS)

MP1006 Fundamental Problems in Quantum Physics (IT proposal)

MP1005 From nano to macro biomaterials (design, processing,

characterization, modeling) and applications to stem cells regenerative

orthopedic and dental medicine (NAMABIO) (IT proposal)

MP1004 Hybrid Energy Storage Devices and Systems for Mobile and

Stationary Applications (DE proposal)

Transdomain

TD1007 Bimodal PET-MRI molecular imaging technologies and applications

for in vivo monitoring of disease and biological processes

(EL proposal) (MPNS, CMST, BMBS)

TD1004 Theragnostics Imaging and Therapy: An Action to Develop Novel Nanosized Systems for Imaging-Guided Drug Delivery (AT proposal) (CMST, BMBS)

• - 

  Life Sciences Cluster

Biomedicine and Molecular Biosciences (BMBS)

BM1007 Mast Cells and Basophils - Targets for Innovative Therapies

(DE proposal)

BM1006 Next Generation Sequencing Data Analysis Network (SE proposal)

BM1005 Gasotransmitters: from basic science to therapeutic applications (ENOG:European Network on Gasotransmitters) (EL proposal)

Food and Agriculture (FA)

FA1006 Plant Metabolic Engineering for High Value Products (DE proposal)

FA1005 Improving health properties of food by sharing our knowledge on the digestive process (INFOGEST) (FR proposal)

FA1004 Conservation Physiology of Marine Fishes (FR proposal)

Forests, their Products and Services (FPS)

FP1004 Enhance mechanical properties of timber, engineered wood products

and timber structures (SE proposal)

FP1005 Fibre suspension flow modelling - a key for innovation and

competitiveness in the pulp & paper industry (PL proposal)

FP1006 Bringing new functions to wood through surface modification

(AT proposal)

Transdomain

TD1006 European Network on Robotics for NeuroRehabilitation

(ES proposal) (BMBS, ICT)

• - 

  Science in Society Cluster

Individuals, Societies, Cultures and Health (ISCH)

IS1004 WEBDATANET: web-based data-collection - methodological challenges, solutions and implementations (ES proposal)

IS1005 Medieval Europe - Medieval Cultures and Technological Resources (IT proposal)

IS1007 Investigating Cultural Sustainability (FI proposal)

IS1006 Unraveling the grammars of European sign languages: pathways to

Full citizenship of deaf signers and to the protection of their linguistic heritage (ES proposal)

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

IC1005 HDRi: The digital capture, storage, transmission and display of real- world Lighting (UK proposal)

IC1004 Cooperative Radio Communications for Green Smart Environments (IT proposal)

Transport and Urban Development (TUD)

TU1004 Modelling Public Transport Passenger Flows in the Era of Intelligent Transport Systems (UK proposal)

TU1003 MEGAPROJECT: The Effective Design and Delivery of

Megaprojects in the European Union (UK proposal)

Transdomain

TD1005 Pain Assessment in Patients with Impaired Cognition, especially

Dementia (DE proposal) (ISCH, BMBS)

Global participation in COST

COST has a tradition of being open to participation of institutions from non-COST countries following the bottom-up principle and mutual benefit. Currently 452 institutions from 36 "non-COST countries" already participate in 157 COST Actions.

At this meeting the Committee welcomed 96 new participants in COST Actions of institutions from Albania, Argentina, Algeria, Armenia, Australia, Belarus, Canada, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Moldova, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Ukraine and USA.Next CSO meeting

The next meeting of the COST Senior Officials Committee is scheduled for 16 - 17 February 2011, including a joint session with the Chairs of the COST Domain Committees.

For further information call the COST Secretariat at 02-281.68.96 or consult website

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.aspx?id=253&lang=EN

COST, established in 1971, is an intergovernmental framework for cooperation and networking of European research activities. COST does not fund research itself, but supports networking activities such as meetings, conferences, short term scientific exchanges and outreach activities. COST receives financial support for its coordinating activities from the EU RTD Framework Programme (FP).

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Republic of Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom; Israel (cooperating state).

For detailed information see website: www.cost.eu