CMST COST Action CM1006
EUFEN: European F-Element Network

Descriptions are provided by the Actions directly via e-COST.

This Proposal is an invited, revised resubmission of oc-2009-2-5133 following very positive feedback from the DC Hearing presentation on 01-03-10. f-Element chemistry (the block of 28 elements at the bottom of the periodic table) contributes to medical imaging, magnetic, electronic, and photonics devices, catalysis, energy, and metal extraction and is therefore strategically crucial to EU science, energy, security, training, sustainability, and society. Despite this, research, teaching, and key skills of f-element chemistry are disappearing from universities, but it is essential that knowledge is improved and handed down. There is no coordinated forum for cooperative mobility mechanisms for nationally funded f-element chemists pursuing fundamental frontier research to initiate collaborations, training, networking, and dissemination with each other. This COST action will provide mechanisms to promote such goals by establishing a network linking the EU f-element community in order to invigorate and expand the area. This will enhance the supply routes of trained researchers from universities to industry, restructure the EU science-base, and give research output greater than the sum of its parts. There has never been a COST Action in this area and the EU needs to compete now or be left behind by the USA.