16. October 2006 17:22
Seven new EUROCORES proposals given the go ahead
The EUROCORES Committee and the ESF Standing Committees have selected another seven theme proposals to be developed further into EUROCORES programmes.
EUROCORES work towards promoting and coordinating innovative research spanning across the whole of the scientific field. There are already 23 active EUROCORES programmes coordinating cross-disciplinary collaboration and ground breaking scientific progress.
Preparatory workshops with representatives from National Funding and Research Performing Organisations will be held for all seven theme proposals 20- 29 November 2006 in Brussels. If succesful, an open Call for project proposals will be held in March 2007.
The following theme proposals are now pending approval from the relevant National Research Funding Organisations:
The theme proposals
Included in the approved proposals is Topo-Europe (4D Topography Evolution in Europe), a proposal which aims at improving the understanding of the topographical evolution in selected European regions.
“The proposal is at the forefront of research and greatly justified by using new satellite based techniques”, remarks the committee.
The proposal FANAS (Friction and adhesion in nanomechanical systems), was chosen because it addresses important fundamental issues with high technological importance and builds on significant developments in both experimental and modelling techniques within nanomechanical systems. The aim is that researchers will bring together a wide range of approaches in order to achieve a greater understanding of friction and adhesion in these systems.
EuroSTRESS, dealing with stress and mental health, is another area addressed through a proposal. EuroSTRESS is a truly multidisciplinary approach working towards improving the understanding of uncontrollable and repetitive stress as a major factor for mental health. The proposal aims to combine genetic, neurobiological and imaging methods.
“The proposers are excellent and leading international scientists have put forward an extremely important and timely pan-European health and societal issue” comments the committee.
The LogICCC (Logical modelling in interaction, communication, cognition and computation) proposal focuses on logic as a unifying approach.
“If developed into a EUROCORES programme, LogICCC would keep young European researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences who would otherwise be bound for American labs” was the general feeling of the committee. This is something that is very important for the future of European research.
DYNAPLAN (The impact of biochemicals and infochemicals on trophic dynamics and nutrient cycling in plantonic food webs) is a well focused proposal which challenges the traditional view that it is mainly nutrient limitation, competition and predation that shape the structure of communities in marine and freshwater environments. This is the only newly approved life sciences proposal.
A particularly ambitious proposal is QUASAR (European quantum standards metrology) which will have consequences in terms of the fundamental laws of nature and where possibilities of new technologies will be of primary importance.
The seventh approved proposal is HumVIB (Cross-national and multi-level analysis of human values, institutions and behaviour). This was well received by the committees and regarded as an exciting and important proposal which has a strong European dimension and proposes to use newly available comparative data sets with innovative statistical methods.
Preparatory workshops with representatives from National Funding and Research Performing Organisations will be held for all seven theme proposals between the 20- 29 November 2006 in Brussels.
Media Enquiries
You can find further information about these new EUROCORES theme proposals and the Preparatory workshops on our website at www3.esf.org/eurocores.
For further enquries, please contact:
Ms. Amy Stockton
Communication and Information Unit
European Science Foundation
Strasbourg, France
Tel: +33 (0)3 88 76 21 59
Fax: +33 (0)3 88 76 71 80
