Leading European Research Organisations Join Forces in EIROFORUM
Since the early 1950s, a number of powerful research infrastructures and laboratories which are used by an extensive network of scientists have been developed and deployed within Europe by European Intergovernmental Research Organisations (EIRO). Together, they represent European spearheads in some of the most crucial basic and applied research fields.
Seven of these organisations have set up a co-ordination and collaboration group (EIROFORUM) with their top executives (Directors General or equivalent) as members. They include CERN (particle physics), EMBL (molecular biology), ESA (space activities), ESO (astronomy and astrophysics), ESRF (synchrotron radiation), ILL (neutron source) and EFDA (fusion).
A primary goal of EIROFORUM is to play an active and constructive role in promoting the quality and impact of European Research. In particular, the group will be a basis for effective, high-level inter-organisational interaction and co-ordination. It will mobilise its substantial combined expertise in basic research and in the management of large international projects for the benefit of European research and development. This will be possible by exploiting the existing intimate links between the member organisations and their respective European research communities.
According to the EIROFORUM Charter, the main aims of the collaboration are to:
1. Encourage and facilitate discussions among its members on issues of common interest, which are relevant to research and development.
2. Maximise the scientific return and optimise the use of resources by sharing relevant developments and results, whenever feasible.
3. Co-ordinate the education and outreach activities of the organisations, including technology transfer and public understanding.
4. Take an active part, in collaboration with other European scientific organisations, in taking a forward-look at promising and/or developing research directions and priorities, in particular in relation to new large-scale research infrastructures.
5. Simplify high-level interactions with the European Commission (EC) and enable an effective response to specific requests for expert advice in the areas covered by the member organisations.
6. Provide co-ordinated representation to the outside world including the general public, national governments, non-European countries etc.
The next meeting of EIROFORUM will be held in Brussels (Belgium) on May 21-22, 2001. It will provide an opportunity for the members to discuss recent developments and, in particular, to meet with the European Commissioner for Research, Philippe Busquin.
The current EIROFORUM chairperson is Dr. Catherine Cesarsky (ESO).
For more details, please contact the respective PR Departments of the organisations (addresses below), or the EIROFORUM Secretariat (Dr. P. Quinn, ESO, D-85748 Garching, Germany; Tel.: +49-89-32006506; Fax.: +49-89-3202362; Email: pquinn@eso.org).
This Press Release is issued jointly by the seven organisations that are represented in EIROFORUM:
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) European Space Agency (ESA) European Southern Observatory (ESO) European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA)
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EIROFORUM Members
Dr. Catherine Cesarsky (Chair) European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Prof. Dr. Dirk Dubbers Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL)
Prof. Fotis C. Kafatos European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
Prof. Luciano Maiani European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
Dr. Jerome Pamela European Fusion Development Agreement (JET-EFDA)
Dr. Antonio Rodota European Space Agency (ESA)
Prof. William G. Stirling European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)
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Media Contacts
Dr. Franco Bonacina ESA Head Office 8-10 Mario Nikis F-75738 Paris Cedex 15 France Tel.: +33 1 5369 7155 Fax.: + 33 1 5369 7690 E-Mail: franco.bonacina@esa.int URL: http://www.esa.int/
Mr Neil Calder Head of Press and Publications CERN CH-1211 Geneva 23 Switzerland Tel.: +41-22-767-4101 Fax.: +41-22-785-0247 E-Mail: neil.calder@cern.ch URL: http://www.cern.ch
Mr Christopher Carpenter (on behalf of JET) UKAEA – Culham Division D3 Culham Science Centre Abingdon Oxfordshire OX14 3DB UK Tel.: +44 1235 464190 Fax.: +44 1235 463706 E-Mail: chris.carpenter@ukaea.org.uk URL: http://www.jet.efda.org/
Mr Federico R. Casci EFDA Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik Boltzmannstr. 2 D-85748 Garching bei Muenchen Germany Tel.: +49 89 3299 4237 Fax.: +49 89 3299 4197 E-Mail: cascif@ipp.mpg.de URL: http://www.efda.org/
Ms Dominique Cornuejols Head of Communications ESRF BP 220 F-38043 Grenoble Cedex France Tel.: +33 4 76 88 20 25 Fax.: +33 4 76 88 24 18 E-Mail: cornuejols@esrf.fr URL: http://www.esrf.fr/
Mr Russ Hodge EMBL Meyerhofstr. 1 D-69117 Heidelberg Germany Tel.: +49 6221 387252 Fax.: +49 6221 387525 E-Mail: hodge@embl-heidelberg.de URL: http://www.embl-heidelberg.de/
Ms Anne Le Noel ILL 6, rue Jules Horowitz BP 156 F-38042 Grenoble Cedex 9 France Tel.: +33 4 76 20 71 01 E-Mail: lenoel@ill.fr URL: http://www.ill.fr/
Dr Richard West ESO Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2 D-85748 Garching bei Muenchen Germany Tel.: +49 89 32006 276 Fax.: +49 89 320 23 62 E-Mail: rwest@eso.org URL: http://www.eso.org/
Reference URL :
www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2001/pr-12-01.html
Contact
Dr Richard West
European Southern Observatory
+4989-32006276
