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COST Action 853

Agricultural Biomarkers for Array-Technology

Draft Minutes

4th Management Committee Meeting and combined Meeting of Working Group 1

16th to 17th August 2004

Viikki Info Centre, University of Helsinki, Finland

1. Welcome to participants

The Management Committee Meeting was opened by Chairman Jürg Frey on Monday, 16.15h in the afternoon. Jürg Frey welcomed all Management Committee Members and MC Delegates representing 18 of the totally 21 signatory coutries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. A special welcome was spoken to Slovenia, the latest newcomer to COST Action 853. The names and adresses of all participants are listed below.

2. Adoption of agenda

The draft agenda for the Meeting in Finland was approved unanimously.
No separate requests for additional topics were raised.

3. Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the third MCMeeting held in Bremen on September 24 - 26, 2003 were approved with no further requests.

4. Report from the Scientific Officer

News from the COST office: no news were communicated by Mr. Peeters, the representative of COST office in Brussels
Status of the action: To inform the participants on the status and the objectives of the action, a poster was presented (see Agenda, Poster session, Poster Nr. 5). In addition, the actual status of the action is available for all interested participants and collaborating scientists on the internet under http://www.COST853.ch
Number of signatories: Until the day of the meeting, 21 out of 33 COST countries as well as one associated country, have signed the action (see http://www.COST853.ch). This is the same status as at the last MCMeeting.
Budget status, budget allocation process: see below, 5. Budget planning 2004

5. Budget planning 2004

The first half of the year 2004 was hard to plan due to some insecurities, caused primarily by administrative re-organization of COST in Brussels. Budget and organisational tasks for 2005 will be planned in Brussels in November or December 2004 at a meeting between all working group leaders of COST 853 and the Scientific Officer B. Stol. Proposals can be placed to any working group leader, to the chair Jürg Frey or the Vice-Chair Günter Adam.

6. STSM status, applications

This year, an STSM workshop on Microarray Technology was organized in Bremen from July 26 - 30, 2004 at the University of Bremen, Centre of Applied Gensensorik (CAG), in Germany. A second 5 day workshop is planned to be held at the Central Science Lab in York, United Kingdom, in the week of October 25 to 29, this year. For the workshop in Bremen, more than 30 applications were sent in. Therefore, the workshop in York will be organized for all the applicants that could not attend the workshop in Bremen due to limited space or due to the change in the date of the first workshop.

7. Publications, annual report, mid-term evaluation

At the beginning of this year a mid term report was sent to Brussels, based on annual reports received from the working group leaders. For the next annual report, the working group leaders are asked to send again a short information on the proceedings in their field.
In addition, the cost-homepage www.COST853.ch has opened the site on publications of related work including papers and posters from members of this action. The participants are encouraged to send their publications that correspond to COST 853 to be listed on this site. They are also asked by Jürg Frey to acknowledge COST853 in their publication if the author has profited from a collaboration with COST853.
At this meeting, Jørgen Jacobsen from the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences is attending the meeting as rapporteur for the Technical Committee for Agriculture, Biotechnology and Food Sciences to give a mid term evaluation of COST 853.

8. Evaluation

At the last meeting in Bremen Peter Bonants offered to establish a database including methodical information of the involved scientific groups in COST853. Topics include extraction methods, amplification methods, probe design, target genes, available spotting facilities etc. A questionnaire was sent to MCMembers, however, not many questionnaires were returned. Peter Bonants will send the forms again and the MCMembers are asked to fill out the forms and return them.

9. Request for new members

No request for a new membership is open.

10. Non-COST participations

No request for a new membership of non-COST countries is open.

11. Web news http://www.COST853.ch

Jürg Frey makes a call for information to be put on the web, including links, presentations etc.

12. Progress report of working groups

As already mentioned in point 7, a written statement will be expected by the working group leaders by the end of the year. The chairman will send a written call for this per e-mail as not all WG leaders are present in Helsinki.
To inform on the progress of this years activities, Jürg Frey gave a short report on the meeting in Ascona, where an introduction to ARB software was provided by Levente Bodrossy from Austria. The meeting took place from 24-25 June and included 12 participants which gave room for a lot of interactive discussion. For the STSM workshop in Bremen a short report was given by host Dietmar Blohm. The workshop was concentrating on identification rather than expression. The participants were satisfied with this selection, therefore it seems to have been the right choice. Jürg Frey who read the individual reports from the participants agreed that the participants were contented with the workshop. He understood from these reports that a more intensive training concerning probe design would be adequate for the next STSM workshop.
It was agreed that the MCMembers will get copies of the mid-term report sent to Brussels but also of all other annual and meeting reports from COST853. However, it was decided that they will not be put on the homepage.

13. Long-term planning

The meeting of the working group leaders and the Scientific Officer Bouktje Stol in Brussels will make it possible to get a better idea of middle- and long-term planning. Inputs and suggestions from the side of the MCMembers are desired.

14. Time and place of next meeting

Poland, as suggested by MCMember Ewa Lojkowska, would volunteer to host the next meeting. The meeting would supposedly take place in Gdansk-Sobieszewo in a Hotel including lecture hall facilities. The suggested time would be in June 2005. As all working groups except WG 2 have already had the possibility to meet, it would be the turn of WG 2 next year. However, as WG 2 might not have enough hands-on experience in the topic of protein based microarrays, it might not be ready for a Working group meeting at its own. Therefore, a joint working group meeting of WGs 1 and 2 was suggested.

15. Request for Grant Support

J.E. Frey requests support of the Management Committee for a grant proposal to the Swiss COST Office. He introduces the project by a short powerpoint presentation showing that the project fits well in the general aims of COST Action 853. The MCMembers followed this argument and therefore, it was unanimously approved that the project is in accordance with the Action's aims. It is agreed that all MCMembers will get a copy of the proposal as soon as available.

16. Varia

No requests

The meeting is closed at 17:30