COST Action 626 European Aquatic Modelling Network.

 

Minutes of the 2nd MC meeting, Trondheim, 11 May 2001.

Prepared by Mike Dunbar, UK.

 

1. Laszlo and Atle welcomed the MC.

 

2. The Agenda was circulated and approved.

 

3. COST News.

 

3.1. There are currently nine ongoing projects within the Environmental Research category of COST. Two have just started following a recent meeting of the committee of senior officials (CSO). At that meeting, four other proposed actions were not approved but were sent back for modifications.

 

3.2. There have been ongoing questions as to the future of COST – does it “compete” with the Framework programme? However in COST defence it has been stated that it is a. not just within the EU and b. intergovernmental, so it is likely to continue for a while yet.

 

3.3. Budget: at the 2002 science ministers conference in Copenhagen, the CSO proposed a plan for the future for COST, and a budget of 11 million €, of which 572,000 € would be for environmental research. Given that there are currently  more than 200 ongoing actions, the current budget is very close, fortunately recently around 50 actions have come to an end, which makes things a bit better.

 

3.4. Laszlo finishes his job in June and returns to Hungary. There were nine applicants for his post, four have been interviewed.

 

3.5. Laszlo highlighted the fact that if the next combined MC/WG meeting is to be held in November then the dossier MUST be finalised and submitted before he leaves or it will likely get stuck in euro-limbo.

 

4. As Peter Borsanyi is the Web Master, the question was raised as to whether he should be a full member of the MC (NB I didn’t write exactly what was decided, other than the answer was probably yes?)

 

5. Cape Town Eco-hydraulics conference, March 2002. Atle suggested it would be nice if there was a paper or poster describing the activities of the EAMN. He will write an overall one, it will be up to WG leaders if they want to produce something about their WG.

 

6. Linkages with other bodies.

 

6.1. Reuven Ortal noted that it might be possible to arrange some dialogue with the Ramsar Convention, Wetlands International and the American NGO Ducks Unlimited. However we don’t know how interested these bodies are in fish, and whether the discussions at these meetings are too high level to be of interest to EAMN members. Mike Dunbar will raise with Mike Acreman (WG3 member), who attends the Ramsar meetings.

 

6.2. Water Framework Directive. This has direct relevance to the EAMN. Several MC members suggested that ongoing links with the WFD, both at national and European level would be useful. Several EAMN members already have links, it is up to all to raise the profile of modelling and its capabilities with regard to the WFD. Castor Guisande knows a Danish gentleman who has been involved with the drafting of the WFD, he will invite to the next meeting. Morten Lauge Pederson suggested that the directive has been written to satisfy a whole range of stakeholders and so is bound to be inconsistent to some extent, this highlights the role that the EAMN can play.

 

7. Short Term Scientific Missions. The MC agreed with the proposal that Helmut Mader would administer the accounts. The first portfolio will have a budget of 11,500€ and a minimum of seven people need to be approved. Helmut will contact all EAMN members once the actual STSM budget receives the go-ahead from COST and a date will be set for applications. Laszlo emphasised that it is up to the host institute to provide cheap accommodation for visitors.

 

8. Mike Dunbar apologised for not registering a web domain name but promised to do this shortly. It will hopefully be www.eamn.org

 

9. Forthcoming meetings.

 

9.1. The MC agreed that the next meeting will be in Vigo on the 8-9 November. For the one after that, both France and Finland expressed an interest. Atle then asked everyone to state when the best time for a meeting in their country would be

 

Neterlands: May or September

Belgium: May-June

Israel: Any

UK: July-August

Sweden: March

Austria: February, Easter or September

Slovenia: March-April or September-October

Hungary: March-April or September-October

Denmark: Any

 

10. Any other business

 

10.1. First Year Report. Atle reminded the MC that the deadline for the report is 15 October.

 

10.2. WG1. Various questionnaires had been designed, they will be sent out in one package via email. The deadline for returning them is the end of June.

 

10.3. WG2. I don’t have any notes for this!

 

10.4. WG 3. Initially there was some overlap with WG2 – we had compiled a list of models and what they were used / useful for. The WG will document state-of-the-art with respect to model application through a list of case-studies, one or two from each country. A questionnaire is also developed, targeted at end-users. A series of important issues had been outlined, such as upscaling, link between models and decision support tools, and uncertainty.

 

10.4. Laszlo outlined the current thinking with regard to the Framework 6 programme. The emphasis will be on the European Research Area, networking existing centres of excellence, virtual laboratories and the mobility of researchers. Funding will be 15-16 million €. There is likely to be no explicit mention of surface / ground water, although climate issues will be prominent.

 

11. The MC thanked Laszlo for all his hard work and wished him well for the future.