HANDING OVER THE EIROFORUM BATON

In the meeting, the ESRF delegation presented the work carried out by EIROforum during its chair and recommendations for the future. Among all the EIROforum actions during the last twelve months, one of the key events was the signature of the Statement of Support of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers from EIROforum. Bill Stirling, Director General of the ESRF, presented the statement of support to the European Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potočnik, in Brussels in December 2006.

Another major EIROforum event that took place during the ESRF chair was Science on Stage 2. This biannual teaching festival, organised by EIROforum, brought together 500 European secondary school teachers in Grenoble. It was organised locally by the ESRF and the Institut Laue Langevin.

After the hand-over meeting, the ESRF delegation enjoyed a guided tour of the ATLAS detector of the Large Hadron Collider, the 27 kilometres long particle accelerator due to start functioning in 2008.

The signature of the Statement of Support of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers took place at the ESRF last year. Credits: ESRF	General view of the fair at Science on Stage 2 in Grenoble last April. Credits: ILL

 
EIROforum activities are focused in different groups that have regular meetings and are dedicated to human resources, European affairs, communication, instrumentation and GRID computing. The coordination group ensures the liaison between the different groups and the directors of the seven organisations. The directors meet twice a year to discuss the progress of the EIROforum activities.

For more information have a look at www.eiroforum.org

The seven EIROforum members are:

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
EFDA - European Fusion Development Agreement
EMBL - European Molecular Biology Laboratory
ESA - European Space Agency
ESO - European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere
ESRF - European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
ILL - Institut Laue Langevin

Top image: CERN Director General, Robert Aymar (left), shakes hands with the ESRF Director General, Bill Stirling (right). Credits: CERN