Cost 623 Management Committee Meeting, Brussels 19 November 1999

Notes

  1. Welcome to participants

    2. Present: Jean Poesen (Belgium); Constantinos Kosmas (Greece); Christian Valentin and Veronique Auzet (France); Francesc Gallart (Spain); Trond Borresen and Lillian Oygarden (Norway); Eduard Klaghofer and Peter Strauss (Austria); Bent Hasholt and Anita Veihe (Denmark); Mike Kirby and John Boardman (Chair) (UK); Tamas Huszar and Adam Kertesz (Hungary); Sirkka Tattari and Seppo Rekolainen (Finland); Anton Imeson (Netherlands); Dino Torri (Italy); Jussi Baade and Katherina Helming (Germany); and Laszlo Szendrodi (Scientific Secretary)

  2. Apologies: John Ingram (GCTE) and Paulo Bazzoffi (Italy)

 

  1. Adoption of minutes of MC meeting in Leicester 19 April 1999

    2. These were accepted.

  2. COST Secretariat news

    3. Laszlo Szendrodi (LS) reported on changes in the Commission; COST now comes under DG for Research. There have been some cutbacks in to the COST budget but LS did not think that this would be a problem for our planned activities.

  3. Short Term Scientific Missions (to be administered by University of Oxford)

    4. LS reported that we were still waiting for transfer of grant to Oxford; John Boardman (JB) promised to let national representative know as soon as STSM arrangements were set up, so that applications for visits to other labs could be made.

  4. Conclusion of Workshop in Leicester in April 1999

    5. JB reported that reports from WG and MC had been placed on the COST 623 web site.

  5. Reports from Working Group activities

    6. WG1: Mike Kirkby reported on the successful WG1 in association with a GCTE conference (Reading, UK) in September 1999; the report will be placed on the web site.

    WG2: Jean Poesen reported that there had been no meeting since the one in Leicester (April 1999) but that preparations were well advanced for the meeting in Leuven (April 2000).

    WG3: current meeting and planning has started for Almeria meeting (8-10 September 2000)

  6. Outcomes of COST/GCTE meeting Reading

    7. See item 7; abstracts of meeting placed on the web site.

  7. Proposed research activities of the WGs: future meetings (see revised meeting programme on web site)

    8. 15 April 2000 WG1 (Leuven): to be coordinated by Mike Kirkby and Keith Beven; Mike to circulate members of MC with regard to invitations to meeting from COST countries; note MC is not funded to attend – though many may be in Leuven for following meeting.

    16-19 April 2000 Gully Symposiun (Leuven): Jean Poesen reported on progress: the abstracts for the meeting will be published in COST series.

    8-10 September 2000 (Almeria, Spain): it was decided to hold a Small Group Meeting (SGM) to plan for Almeria (Francesc Gallart) probably in March 2000; there was some uncertainty as to whether Almeria would be both WG1 and WG3 (plus MC) – this should be resolved at the SGM. It was decided that the Almeria meeting would not address Spanish issues exclusively.

    COST Environment Conference: LS reported that decisions had been postponed.

    28-30 March 2001 (Oslo, Norway) Snowment Erosion and Related Problems Symposium: Lillian Oygarden tabled a detailed Announcement of the Symposium; this was welcomed by the MC. It was suggested that WG2 should be integrated into the Symposium 28-30th and that MC meeting could on 30 and 31st.

    Upland Sediment Budgets. JB mentioned new working group of BGRG and suggestion for joint meeting with them. This was welcomed.

    Anton Imeson and JB suggested a meeting on land use change and erosion to consider policy and cost issues. They were asked for more details.

    It was agreed to keep in mind the possibility of a joint meeting on volcanic soils and erosion with COST Action on volcanic soils (Azores?) .

    There was some discussion of the timing of meeting. Several meetings are proposed for spring/summer 2001. JB agreed to try to get proposals from Warren, Yair and Quine and agree dates. JB to report to MC.

  8. Fifth Framework

    9. Information was provided by the Commission on 2nd call for proposals. It was pointed out that in the past there had been a lack of focus in proposals (too broad); and a lack of knowledge of the state of the art; and in particular a lack of consideration for the needs of end users.

  9. Next MC meeting

    10. This will be in Leuven on 16 and 18 April, 2000.

  10. Any other business

JB reported that application for a Subsidy would be resubmitted on the correct forms.

Dino Torri and Constantinos Kosmas wished to resign as co-chairs of WG3.

JB proposed that Seppo Rekolainen (SR) and Jussi Baade (JBa) be asked to take over as co-chairs. There were no alternative proposals. SR and JBa agreed to stand for election and were unanimously elected.

It was agreed that SR and JBa would consider the future direction of WG3 and report to the MC at the next meeting.

  1. Closing remarks

JB thanked the MC and the organisers of the WG3 meeting for their work.

JB

8 December 1999

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