Domain Committee "Forests, their Products and Services (fps)"

II.D. Self evaluation
From scientific and networking aspects, the success stories have definitely been the STSM visits, with 13 altogether so far for FP0901. The implementation of the Round Robin type activities have also been important, although a bit slow in the start-up, and will allow the Action to develop and get closer to reaching the goals. Several RR activities are anyhow now in progress. The industry still show appreciable interest in the Action but their direct involvement is hard to implement. ESR’s and also young female researchers are active within the Action. The number of non-COST participants is also good, with 4 accepted partners. Two of these are from counties with reciprocal agreements, which can be considered a valuable asset to the Action, although no partner yet has utilised the possibility to directly cooperate with any of them. Good contacts have been established with other Actions (FP0602 and a proposed Action), European conferences (Italic, EWLP), and projects (Biocore, Afore). A training school on the application of chemometrics was organized 2011 and FP0901 also participated with both lecturers and students to the Biorefining, Principles and technologies, 1st European training course in Paris. The Chair, Steering Group, and some MC members have actively been promoting the Action at conferences and meetings, as well as in direct contacts with the industry.
Difficulties still occur in the use of the new e-cost system and getting all partners to understand how the system and the reimbursements are supposed to work. Still also from the GH and Chair point of view, running this kind of work is challenging. Especially the new rules that will be introduced for LOS and thus the VAT not being reimbursed may cause a problem in the future. Also, some more activity from MC members and participation in meetings could be wished for, since the action is only as good as the participants make it. It is also difficult for the WG leaders and the Chair to prepare reports when the Action members report very scarcely on any activities or joint publications they may be involved in. FP0901 is outmost thankful for the valuable help we have got from our scientific officer and the COST Office in general.

III. Previous scientific report(s)
II. Scientific Report
II.A. Innovative networking
Round Robin-type activities on method evaluation and analytical method development have been agreed on and initiated. Several biomass samples at different stages of processing have been identified as interesting and selected for distribution to WG members upon request from the partners responsible of each sample. Analytical results are compared and thus methods and pretreatments evaluated, with the common goal to develop novel methods applicable for the different sample types. This means of interaction will give new knowledge on analytical methods necessary for building fruitful Biorefinery projects and create new networks, also in the form of joint STSM works on these samples. Industry will eventually benefit from the application of novel methods, for example as better process and product safety, more efficient processes, and a better understanding on how to utilise biomass in the future. This will eventually also have a positive environmental impact and hopefully decrease the use of oil-based products in the future. So far, no direct spin offs of the Action have been identified.
II.B. Inter-disciplinary networking
So far, FP0901 has agreed to arrange an MC meeting/workshop in conjunction with the final meeting of FP0602 (Biotechnology for lignocellulose biorefineries) and the Italic 6 conference in September 2011. This is especially welcome since the biotechnology area is represented also in FP0901 analytical methods and both Actions and the conference will complement each other and broaden the cooperation within analytics, which most certainly will provide a scientific impact in the future.

Furthermore, 2011 there will be an international training “workshop” on biorefinery, which will be organized within the framework of the FP7 project BIOCORE. The FP0901 Chair was contacted by Michael O’Donohue (Research Director, LISBP-Biocatalysis group, INSA/INRA UMR 792, Institut National de la Recherche, Argronomique), with whom the first contact actually was established through the COST network.

II.C. New networking

The number of COST countries participating in FP0901 is currently 26, with one additional accepted by the MC but not yet by the DC. The non-COST participation is appreciable, with three members and one more pending the DC decision. Two of these are from countries with reciprocal agreements. For year 1, a 10% contribution of these will grow for next year. These participants have been actively participating in the meetings, presenting interesting results from their own work and in e-mail contacts with other participants. STSM visits to some of these partners have actively been under discussion but not yet realised. The increased number of parties from the beginning is hopefully going to be seen also in future budgets.

The actual number of registered participants is about 120, of which about 80 so far have been actively participating, but it seems as if many institutions have chosen one contact person while several are following our web pages. We are convinced that if the budget would have allowed larger meeting participation, this would actually also have been seen in these numbers. It also seems as if industry closely follows the web pages, as we hoped for. The number of female participants is very good, being about 50% and the number of ESRs is also growing. Again, it may be that from some places, it is more the supervisors that have registered. 7 STSMs have been completed year 1 and we expect a growth in this number now that this is getting more familiar to the participants. STSMs and ESRs are expected to participate actively in meetings, which also seem to be the case.

Individual contacts between FP0901 partners and other COST Action participants are on a high level. FP0901 has also agreed to arrange an MC meeting/workshop in conjunction with the final meeting of FP0602 (Biotechnology for lignocellulose biorefineries) and the Italic 6 conference in September 2011, which will broaden especially the networks of our ESRs. The contacts between parties within our Action also seem to be at a high level, where the STSM possibility is the best tool to even increase these contacts. Very welcome and in conjunction with the goals of the Action has been the good cooperation and new networks between groups from different areas. Most participants have a good track record in raising national and European research funds, but so far no joint projects have been initiated through the Action.

FP0901 has prepared and distributed a flyer to get other groups aware of the possibilities within the network. A poster was also presented at the EWLP 2010 meeting in Hamburg and at several smaller meetings in Finland. The Chair has also actively promoted the Action at several meetings in Europe. The number of publications by the partners involved in FP0901 in the field of the Action (year 2010) is 205 (66 articles and book chapters, 94 conference papers and 45 presentations in FP0901 workshops, see separate list/file)

II.D. Self evaluation
From scientific and networking aspects, the main success stories have definitely been the successful STSM visits. The start-up of the Round Robin type activities have also been important and will allow the Action to develop and get closer to reaching the goals. The industry has also shown appreciable interest in the Action and the next task would be to involve them also on a practical plane, not only as watchers. It is also nice to see that especially ESR’s and also young female researchers (e.g. 3 out of 7 STSMs) seem to have found activities within the Action. The number of non-COST participants is also good, with 3 accepted partners and one pending a DC decision. Two of these are from counties with reciprocal agreements, which can be considered an valuable asset to the Action. Some additional interest has also been shown from other non-COST participants, but not to completion. The Chair, Steering Group, and some MC members have actively been promoting the Action at conferences and meetings, as well as in direct contacts with the industry.
A temporary drawback was the delay in the organization of the planned Training School, but due to very active partners, this will take place early during year 2 instead. Otherwise, difficulties have mainly been found in the use of the new e-cost system and getting all partners (and the chair and grant holder) to understand how the system is supposed to work. FP0901 is outmost thankful for the valuable help we have got from our scientific officer and the COST Office in general.

III. Previous scientific report(s)
Reporting Period: 15/10/2009 to 31/12/2009
II.A. Innovative networking

• 
  Since FP0901 has recently only started up, there are no news or items to report here yet. We are currently getting organised and beginning the work.
  

II.B. Inter-disciplinary networking

• 
  Since FP0901 has recently only started up, there are no news or items to report here yet. We are currently getting organised and beginning the work.
  

II.C. New networking

• 
  Since FP0901 has recently only started up, there are only a few news or items to report here yet. We are currently getting organised and beginning the work.
  
• 
  Total number of individual participants involved in the Action work is currently 88 persons of which approximately 45’% are female and 40% Early Stage Researcher participants. However, these numbers will be updated and checked continuously.
  
• 
  Public web site recently established for FP0901
  

II.D. Self evaluation
Since we have only started up the Action, we have nothing to report here yet.