Nanoforum - Nanotech Regulatory Document Archive

2.7. Other European research related associations
Except for the European Commission, there are three organisations fostering research
networking in Europe, Eureka for applied research, and the European Science
Foundation (ESF) for fundamental research and COST for both.
Eureka
Eureka is a pan-European organisation fostering applied research networking. This
organisation is intergovernmental, and has 33 European countries and the European
Union as members. Eureka also has associated states, or NIPs in several Central and
Eastern European countries. Of the candidate countries, Cyprus, the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia
and Turkey are members. Bulgaria is a NIP country. www.eureka.be
European Science Foundation
The European Science Foundation (ESF) is a pan-European association of national
funding councils for fundamental research. They have members in 29 countries,
including Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. The ESF funds networking, conferences and exchange
visits between scientific projects funded by their member organisations. Nanotechnology
related ongoing ESF programmes include Natribo. This project has 14 partners including
Estonia, Poland and Turkey. www.esf.org
COST
The European Co-operation in Scientific and Technical Research COST co-ordinates
nationally funded research projects by funding meetings and travel. Scientists
themselves can propose COST actions, which can start if at least five of the national
authorities in the COST member countries have signed a new COST action. COST has
34 member states, one co-operating state and nine states with co-operating institutions.
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey are among the member states.
There are currently six COSTS actions in the nanosciences. In the past, there have
been six more actions in nanosciences (COST NanoSTAG, 2003). So far, all relevant
COST actions have been part of disciplinary domains: physics, chemistry or materials.
Recently, COST started a new domain nanosciences, to achieve better co-ordination
between the disciplines. In the current COST action 523 (1998-2004) on Nanostructured
materials, 24 countries participate including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary,
Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. http://cost 523.epfl.ch/. The
participation of the candidate countries in the COST actions is as follows:
• In the COST action D15 (1998-2003) on Surfaces and Interfaces, 21
countries participate including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland,
Romania and Slovenia.
• In the COST action D14 (1999-2004) on Functional Molecular Materials,
23