Geneva, 21 May 2001. Since the early 1950s, a number of powerful research infrastructures and laboratories which are used by an extensive network of scientists have been developed and deployed within Europe by European Intergovernmental Research Organisations (EIRO). Together, they represent European spearheads in some of the most crucial basic and applied research fields.

Seven of these organisations have set up a co-ordination and collaboration group (EIROFORUM) with their top executives (Directors General or equivalent) as members. They include CERN² (particle physics), EMBL (molecular biology), ESA (space activities), ESO (astronomy and astrophysics), ESRF (synchrotron radiation), ILL (neutron source) and EFDA (fusion).

A primary goal of EIROFORUM is to play an active and constructive role in promoting the quality and impact of European Research. In particular, the group will be a basis for effective, high-level inter-organisational interaction and co-ordination. It will mobilise its substantial combined expertise in basic research and in the management of large international projects for the benefit of European research and development. This will be possible by exploiting the existing intimate links between the member organisations and their respective European research communities.

According to the EIROFORUM Charter, the main aims of the collaboration are to:

1. Encourage and facilitate discussions among its members on issues of common interest, which are relevant to research and development.
2. Maximise the scientific return and optimise the use of resources by sharing relevant developments and results, whenever feasible.
3. Co-ordinate the education outreach activities of the organisations, including technology transfer and public understanding.
4. Take an active part, in collaboration with other European scientific organisations, in taking a forward-look at promising and/or developing research directions and priorities, in particular in relation to new large-scale research infrastructures.
5. Simplify high-level interactions with the European Commission (EC) and enable an effective response to specific requests for expert advice in the areas covered by the member organisations.
6. Provide co-ordinated representation to the outside world including the general public, national governments, non-European countries etc.

The next meeting of EIROFORUM will be held in Brussels (Belgium) on May 21-22, 2001. It will provide an opportunity for the members to discuss recent developments and, in particular, to meet with the European Commissioner for Research, Philippe Busquin.

The current EIROFORUM chairperson is Dr. Catherine Cesarsky (ESO).

For more details, please contact the respective PR Departments of the organisations (addresses below), or the EIROFORUM Secretariat (Dr. P. Quinn, ESO, D-85748 Garching, Germany; Tel.: +49-89-32006506; Fax.: +49-89-3202362; Email: pquinn@eso.org).

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EIROFORUM Members

Dr. Catherine Cesarsky (Chair)
European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Prof. Dr. Dirk Dubbers
Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL)

Prof. Fotis C. Kafatos
European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)

Prof. Luciano Maiani
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)

Dr. Jerome Pamela
European Fusion Development Agreement (JET-EFDA)

Dr. Antonio Rodotà
European Space Agency (ESA)

Prof. William G. Stirling
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)

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Media Contacts

Dr. Franco Bonacina
ESA Head Office
8-10 Mario Nikis
F-75738 Paris Cedex 15
France
Tel.: +33 1 5369 7155
Fax.: + 33 1 5369 7690
E-Mail: franco.bonacina@esa.int

Mr Neil Calder
Head of Press and Publications
CERN
CH-1211 Geneva 23
Switzerland
Tel.: +41-22-767-4101
Fax.: +41-22-785-0247
E-Mail: neil.calder@cern.ch

Mr Christopher Carpenter (on behalf of JET)
UKAEA - Culham Division
D3 Culham Science Centre
Abingdon
Oxfordshire OX14 3DB
UK
Tel.: +44 1235 464190
Fax.: +44 1235 463706
E-Mail: chris.carpenter@ukaea.org.uk

Mr Federico R. Casci
EFDA
Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik
Boltzmannstr. 2
D-85748 Garching bei München
Germany
Tel.: +49 89 3299 4237
Fax.: +49 89 3299 4197
E-Mail: cascif@ipp.mpg.de

Ms Dominique Cornuéjols
Head of Communications
ESRF
BP 220
F-38043 Grenoble Cedex
France
Tel.: +33 4 76 88 20 25
Fax.: +33 4 76 88 24 18
E-Mail: cornuejols@esrf.fr

Mr Russ Hodge
EMBL
Meyerhofstr. 1
D-69117 Heidelberg
Germany
Tel.: +49 6221 387252
Fax.: +49 6221 387525
E-Mail: hodge@sora.embl-heidelberg.de

Ms Anne Le Noel
ILL
6, rue Jules Horowitz
BP 156
F-38042 Grenoble Cedex 9
France
Tel.: +33 4 76 20 71 01
E-Mail: lenoel@ill.fr

Dr Richard West
ESO
Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2
D-85748 Garching bei München
Germany
Tel.: +49 89 32006 276
Fax.: +49 89 320 23 62
E-Mail: rwest@eso.org

1. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.   Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and Unesco have observer status.
* This Press Release is issued jointly by the seven organisations that are represented in EIROFORUM:
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
European Space Agency (ESA)
European Southern Observatory (ESO)
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)
Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL)
European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA)