Triennial Report 2003 - CHARMEC

SPECIAL EVENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTSSome of the events and achievements during Stage 3and not reported elsewhere will be presented here.Board meetings relocatedThree of the twelve ordinary meetings of the charmecBoard during Stage 3 were combined with visits to,and information from, three industrial partners: 19-20February 2001 to Adtranz Sweden in Västerås, 27-28May 2002 to Banverket Headquarters in Borlänge, and18-19 November 2002 to Abetong Teknik in Växjö.KTH, SP andNUTEK/VINNOVAcharmec’s earlier declaration of intent and agreementon co-ordination and co-operation with kth RailwayTechnology and sp Swedish National Testing and ResearchInstitute respectively, have been followed upduring Stages 2 and 3. After Evert Andersson’s resignationfrom the Board in November 1999, both heand Mats Berg of kth Railway Technology have beenregularly invited to the Competence Centre’s morningseminars. Roger Lundén has continued to serve onthe Advisory Board of the samba projects of the kthRailway Group. Several of charmec’s doctoral candidateshave taken overview courses in railway technologygiven at kth.nutek’s, and later vinnova’s, liaison person withcharmec during Stage 3 was Carl Naumburg. The universityliaison person was Roger Johansson, later succeededby Chalmers’ new Vice President for ExternalRelations, Johan Carlsten.The Director of charmec along with some Chalmersresearchers and representatives of the Industrial InterestsGroup participated in each of nutek’s, and latervinnova’s, Competence Centre Days on 25 October 2000in Uppsala, 24 October 2001 in Luleå, 22 October 2002 inStockholm and 6 November 2003 in Gothenburg.Semi-annual reportsEach six months, as of 31 December and 30 June, allcharmec leaders of ongoing projects write a two-pagereport on the progress of their projects during the pasthalf year. As required by the Board, headline topics ineach case cover Background and aims, Work performed,Results achieved, Published material, Future plans,Check against initial schedule, Follow-up of budget, andMiscellaneous. All these two-page reports are editedand collected in a document submitted to the charmecBoard before their next meeting when they are studiedand discussed. From 2003-06-30 onwards, all semi-annualreports are to be written in English.Workshop in VästeråsOn the recommendation of the international evaluatorsin March 2000, a workshop (a retreat) was arranged inVästerås on 20 February 2001 for charmec’s projectleaders, doctoral students and industrial partners. Theworkshop was led by Ms Ylva Navér of “Provins Fem”and was attended by 33 people. Among the proposals putforward were (i) better content and organization of theseminars held on the mornings of the Board meetings,(ii) the establishment of reference groups for the Centre’sresearch projects, (iii) revision of the formulated “Visionand goals” in the previous Triennial Report, and (iv)improved means for transferring research results fromthe university to industrial partners. Implementation ofthese proposals has been pursued throughout charmec’sStage 3.Project reference groupsAs an outcome of the Västerås workshop of 20 February2001 the charmec Board has defined the role of a ProjectReference Group (prg) and recommended that allcharmec projects establish such a group. A prg shouldbe a forum for informal presentation and discussion ofresults and for planning of future activities (within theframework decided by the Board on the overall projectplan). Mutual transfer of knowledge between researchersand industry should be furthered and implementationin industry promoted. Doctoral students should be encouragedby the prg to make study visits and learn aboutthe activities of the industrial partners. Employees ofthese partners should be encouraged to spend time workingat Chalmers. A prg meets at least twice a year andthe project leader is the convener. Several charmecprojects have now established a prg. Some projects havea joint prg.Information exchange with DBSince 1999, a series of meetings has been organized forinformation exchange by db (Deutsche Bahn) and sj(TrainTech Engineering). Adtranz Sweden (BombardierTransportation Sweden), Banverket, Duroc Rail and70