MINUTES
OF THE
SECOND MEETING OF THE RTN NETWORK ON
" REACTIVE INTERMEDIATES "
This meeting was held in Lisbon, Portugal, on the campus of the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia / Universidade Nova de Lisboa, from 18th until 22nd April 2001. The list of the representatives from each research group participating in the Network, attending the Business and Scientific meetings, was as follows:
John Dyke (Co-ordinator) from Southampton, Kees de Lange (Network manager) from Amsterdam, Dolores Gauyacq from Orsay, Stelios Couris from Crete, Maria Helena Cabral (representing Augusto Moutinho) and Maria Lourdes Costa from Lisbon, Martin Beyer from Garching, Peter Watts and Andrew Bell from Porton Down, Gokhan Baykut from Bruker-Daltonik, and Rui de Pádua from Unilaser.
The following Young Researchers (YR’s) and guests were also present at the Scientific Meeting: Lucia Zuin (YR) from Southampton, Anouk Rijs from Amsterdam, Severine Boyé from Orsay, Manuel Algarra (YR) and António Dias from Lisbon, Marcin Frankowski (YR) from Garching, and Inma Torres (YR) from Porton Down. Dr Alan Morris (Southampton) and Brian Pugsley (Leybold) also attended this session and the rest of the meeting.
Part 1 of the Business Meeting started on Friday, April 19th, at 9.00 am. John Dyke started by presenting the following:-
• Main objectives of the second Network Meeting:
- to review progress against stated objectives;
- to review research and training of YRs;
- to encourage joint research with joint publications, consistent with objectives;
- to decide on policy for advertising and filling vacant YR positions;
- to make plans for the first annual report; outline format and deadlines;
- to initiate mobility of YRs and industrial training.
Some points were then dealt with:
• A report is required on training-through-research on an ANNUAL basis:
- In this report we need to state what has been achieved
a) at the Network level;
b) at the individual level to train YRs.
Make sure that team spirit is developed:
• Young Researchers
- encourage YRs to meet together;
- ask them to produce a training plan;
- ask them to have a YR web-page which can be part of the main web-page or linked from the main web-page.
• The main deliverable is the total training in terms of man-months:
- the aim is not exclusively new research, papers, etc.;
- short-term placements in industry (4-6 weeks) are important and should be organised early on.
• Role of the two scientific topics which constitute the Network:
- in addition to the Co-ordinator and Network Manager, subject sub-co-ordinators, in Spectroscopy (Chairman - Dolores Gauyacq) and Ion-Molecule Chemistry (Chairman - Andrew Bell), should be active and seen to be active through reports of meetings;
- the next meeting of the Network (in Garching ) should be organised under these two headings and reflect the balance between both scientific topics.
• Tools for monitoring progress:
- each team leader will monitor the progress in his / her team and will report progress to the Co-ordinator and Network manager at six monthly Network Meetings;
- the Co-ordinator will monitor progress of the overall project against the list of Milestones already established in the Workplan and finalised at the first Network meeting. Team leaders will suggest changes to the Workplan of individual groups to achieve the overall aims of the Network.
• Milestones for the training programme:
- by the mid-term review at least 40 % of the training deliverables (in terms of man-months) must be achieved, and the YRs will have given two presentations of their projects and results to the Steering Committee, and will have attended a team building and presentation skills course.
• Submission of project deliverables:
- the project Co-ordinator needs to submit to the Commision:
a) a database report to be up-dated half-yearly;
b) periodic progress reports each twelve months from the project commencement date (September 1st 2000), containing details of the training programme and networking, joint programme of work, results and departure from work schedule. The first annual report is due on August the 30th 2001. Thus, the Co-ordinator should have group-leaders reports by July the 30th;
c) mid-term review report - to be the basis of discussion at the mid-term review meeting;
d) principal contractor needs to agree agenda and date with the Commission at least two months prior to the meeting.
- The Network Co-ordinator provided information on the structure of the annual reports required, as follows:
1) Reports consist of three parts.
a) Database report - up-dated half-yearly by the Co-ordinator;
b) Financial report - Co-ordinator;
c) Annual progress report - Network Manager.
2) Structure of the annual progress report (to be prepared by the Network Manager):
a) Cover page with logo, and period of time covered;
b) Database report (with Network meeting minutes);
c) Scientific Achievements: progress towards the objectives and success in reaching the milestones must be reported under our five objectives (at least three sides of A4);
d) Networking and co-ordinating activities (half page of A4):
Network meetings - very brief summary;
Co-ordination of visits - visits of YRs or team leaders to other centres.
e) Appointment of YRs:
List in table form, partner, name of researcher appointed, start date, number of YR months.
f) Interactions with industry:
List visits of scientists and YRs to industry, summarising the purpose of the visit and the benefits;
g) Difficulties encountered in execution of the contract;
h) Joint publications: Twenty by the mid-term review seems a reasonable target.
i) Annual progress report from each team:
Each group needs to prepare a scientific report (two sides of A4), to be sent to the Network
manager containing the following points:
Project title, contract number, contractor, research work accomplished (listed and described under objectives in the Workplan), appointment of YRs, Network meetings, visits, joint publications.
3) Financial report:
The Co-ordinator needs completed E1, E11, and E111 forms, with costs in Euros.
Attention has to be paid to allowable costs.
The completed forms should reach the Co-ordinator by August the 1st (2001).
• Mid-term review
The meeting shall take place no later than when two-thirds of the duration of the work to be performed under the contract has elapsed.
• Newsletter
- A newsletter should be fed to all participants via the Network manager every six months.
- This can be an up-dated set of minutes with major new items added.
• Websites and advertising:
This Network has two websites:
http://www.chem.uva.nl/imc/reactive_intermediates.html
controlled by the Network Manager)
and
htpp://improving-rtn.sti.jrc.it/network
(controlled by the Co-ordinator)
All vacancies, papers, changes in research plans and direction should be given to the Co-ordinator and to the Network Manager for placement on these websites.
• Program for future meetings:
According to the approved plan for future meetings at the first Network meeting in Holland:
September 1st 2000, Start of Project
| 2. April 2001 |
Holland;
|
| 2. April 2001 |
Lisbon; |
| 3. October 2001 |
Garching; |
| 4. April 2002 |
Crete; |
5. October 2002
|
Southampton / Salisbury;
Team-Building;
Presentation Course for Yrs; |
| 6. April 2003 |
Mid-Term Review, Orsay; |
| 7. October 2003 |
Bremen; |
| 8. April 2004 |
Salisbury / Southampton; |
August 2004, End of Project.
The next meeting will take place in Garching, in October 2001, and should last for two days. It should be organised under the two existing scientific headings: Spectroscopy (Chairman - Dolores Gauyacq) and Ion-Molecule Chemistry (Chairman - Andrew Bell).
Kees de Lange (the Network Manager) introduced the subject of
• Status of employment of YRs
After reporting the location of the YRs appointed so far, it was agreed that they should start moving between centres following the Garching meeting, after two more appointments will have been made, notably in Crete and Orsay. At that time there will only remain 2 vacancies in the Network, a postdoctoral vacancy in Amsterdam and a pre-doc vacancy in Southampton. Ways of advertising and filling these posts were discussed.
The financial policy to be adopted when a YR moves from centre A to centre B was discussed. It was agreed that centre A will pay for the travel, and that centre B will pay for the local costs (i.e. subsistence), according to the rules of the host centre.
After the coffee break (at 11am) the Scientific Programme started within the following presentations by YRs:
(YRs employed by the Network are shown in bold)
- Manuel Algarra (Lisbon)
UV-PES of Unstable Molecules;
- Lucia Zuin (Southampton)
Preliminary studies of short-lived molecules at the Elettra Synchrotron, Trieste;
- Severine Boyé (Orsay)
Formation of the vibrationally hot ethynyl radical from the photolysis of acetylene;
- Marcin Frankowski (Garching)
Matrix isolation studies of reactive intermediates;
After lunch,the scientific programme continued with more presentations by YRS:
- Anouk Rijs (Amsterdam)
Rotationally resolved photoionization dynamics of hot N2 and CO photofragments;
- Inma Torres (Porton Down)
Part A: Fragmentation and rearrangements of the ions of some simple organophosphate esters studied in an ion trap;
Part B: PES studies of molecular complexes of atmospheric importance;
- Natália Cordeiro (Porto)
Thermal decomposition of azidoacetic acid- a theoretical study;
- António Dias (Lisbon)
Thermal decomposition of azides - gas phase and surfaces.
At 4 pm, the Business Meeting continued. It was decided that the YRs should also attend.
It started with presentations by group leaders (twenty minutes each), summarising the research performed against the Workplan, and summarising also the training aspects.
After a scientific discussion of the research presented, the last session, chaired by the Co-ordinator, considered the following points:
1. Financial and Scientific reports must be prepared on time, i.e. by August 1st 2001.
- Scientific report to Network manager;
- Financial report to Co-ordinator.
2. Joint publications
- A target of 20 by the mid-term review.
3. Actions required to fill remaining YR vacancies.
4. Ensure that the two scientific topics of the Network are working effectively.
- Make sure the Garching meeting will be organized along these lines.
Interactions on joint projects between the centres were also discussed at some length and a matrix structure was drawn up in which interactions between centres were defined in more detail.
It was decided that this scheme would be implemented in full after the Garching meeting, when more YRs will have been appointed. However, interactions were encouraged to take place informally immediately (e.g. Lisbon - Soton and Garching - Porton were two that would go ahead immediately on identified projects). Mobility of YRs between centres and industrial visits of YRs will also start after the Garching meeting.
The meeting ended by 7.45 pm with the Network Coordinator and Network Manager expressing thanks to Professor Costa and her colleagues for organising an excellent meeting.
(Serious problems at the Amsterdam node were discussed the following day at a specially convened meeting of team leaders. The problems involved administrative barriers in appointing a YR, and lack of access to research equipment of the group leader. It was agreed that the Network Co-ordinator would discuss these issues with the EC Official appointed to advise on our Network, Mr Panos Petropolous).
Conclusions
1. All team leaders need to send an annual scientific progress report (2 sides of A4) and an annual financial report (1 side of A4) to the Network Co-ordinator by August 1st.
2. A major effort will be made to fill the two remaining YR vacancies in the Network (in Amsterdam and Southampton) before September 1st 2001.
3. Joint projects will start informally immediately but joint research will be more formally organised (according to an interaction matrix already drawn up) after the next Network meeting. Mobility of YRs between centres and short industrial placements for YRs will also be organised and initiated at that meeting.
4. The next Network meeting will be organised in Garching by Prof V.E. Bondybey and Dr M. Beyer in October 2001
(Dates set for this meeting are now October 11-14th 2001).