Minutes EJFRC Meeting
Trento, 19 March 2012

Present: J. Dobes (Czech Republic), S. Driessen (minutes), A. Isar (Romania), A. Kruppa (Hungary), J. Martino (France), E. Moya de Guerra (Spain), D. Mueller (Germany), A. Richter (ECT* Director), M. Sainio (Finland), J. Styczen (Poland) Excused: Y. Caristan (France), G. Fortuna (Italy), V. Halloin (Belgium, Flemish speaking part), S. Harissopoulos (Greece), K. Jungmann (Netherlands). J. Madsen (Denmark), E. Monard (Belgium, French speaking part), J. Womersley (UK) Begin:

1. Approval of the Agenda.
The Director of ECT*, Professor Achim Richter, opened the meeting and asked for approval of the agenda. The agenda then was approved.
2. Director’s Report
Professor Richter presented the Director’s report, which is enclosed with these minutes (Encl. 1). The following topics were covered in detail:
Structure and mission.
The European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*) in Trento (Italy) provides scientific activities for a large international scientific community. The activities are workshops, collaboration meetings, a doctoral training programme and specialised courses. The main scientific activities carried out at ECT* concern Nuclear Physics in a broad sense and related areas. This includes Low Energy Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Structure, Quantum Chromodynamics and Hadron Physics, Physics of Matter under Extreme Conditions and Ultra-relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions. Related areas include topics in Astrophysics, Particle Physics, Condensed Matter Physics and Many-Body Theory, Bose-Einstein Condensation. The ECT* is sponsored by the Autonomous Province of Trento through the "Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK)" and by third party funds (European funding agencies and institutions; FP7 programmes HP, ENSAR and QUIE2T; EMMI, NuPNET).
The ECT* is an institutional member of NuPECC, the ESF Associated Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee. Scientific activities and visitors.
In 2011 the ECT* hosted 19 workshops and 1 collaboration meeting with a total number of 806 participants. Moreover, there was 1 Doctoral Training Program with 19 lecturers and 16 students attending it. Outside the workshops ECT* had 23 short-, 2 medium- and 3 long term visitors, which brings the total number of visitors to 869, an all time record high and about 300 more as in 2008 when Professor Richter had joined the ECT* as Director.
Administrative and technical staff.
Professor Richter showed a graph of the development of the number of staff members from 2008 to 2011. The staff has been reduced drastically from 6 fulltime and 6 part time staff members in 2008 to 3 full time and 4 part time staff members in 2011. Due to the dedication of the ECT* staff members ECT* is running efficiently at the present level but the Director emphasized that the number of personnel should not be lowered anymore.
Doctoral training programmes and schools.
The ECT* hosts every year 1 doctoral training programme. In 2012 there will be 1 additional school called “TALENT”, i.e. Training in Advanced Low Energy Nuclear Theory with the first course on Computational Many-body Methods for Nuclear Physics o Research staff. Professor Richter showed a graph with the number of ECT* researchers from 2000-2011. From 2008-2010 there were 9 researchers at the ECT*. In 2011, and also in 2012, the number of researchers increased to 10. He then showed a slide with the names of all the resident Postdocs and the names of the Postdocs who will arrive in the fall of 2012. He also showed a slide with the numbers of publications in refereed (impact factor) journals in the years 2008 to 2011 resulting from research performed within ECT*. The number for 2011 corresponds to about 20% of all publications of researchers within the FBK. Since ECT* is one of the smaller institutes this fact is truly remarkable. o Present structure of ECT*. (see slide in attachment)
Budget and status of funding: 2008-2012.
Professor Richter showed a slide with the main expense chapters of ECT* and a slide with the status of funding. ECT* gets money from the FBK and from third party funds, i.e. European funding agencies and institutions and FP7 programmes, like HP, ENSAR and QUIE2T, and from EMMI and NuPNET. From 2008 to 2012 the money coming from third party funds increased by 85 kEuro but the money from the FBK decreased by 244k Euro. The main reason for this is the reduction of the ECT* staff. He reported that he was informed by GSI Director Professor Horst Stoecker, that Germany is willing to increase its contribution slightly for inflation, provided that Italy and France would do the same. Professor Richter said that Italy promised already in 2011 to give an extra contribution of 10.000 Euro, i.e. a raise of 10%, but that ECT* so far has not received it. Professor Martino from France said that he will try to get a raise but that he foresees difficulties given the present budget situation of France. He asked the ECT* for tables with the French participation in ECT*’s scientific activities. Furthermore, it is noted that in all the contributions from the FBK the cost for accommodating ECT* in the two buildings – the Rustico and the Villa Tambosi – and for maintenance and utilities is not included. These costs are estimated to lie between 200 and 300 kEuro per year.
HPC project AURORA.
Professor Richter reported on the High Performance Computing project AURORA. This project, initiated originally in 2008, by Professor Leonardi, then still Scientific Secretary of the ECT*, was divided in two phases, each 18 months long. The first phase, from July 31st, 2009 to July 31st, 2011, was evaluated positively. The second phase has not started yet, however, an intermediate phase and a strategic phase respectively, were granted with modest funding until December 31, 2012. o ECT* and UNITN. (see slide in attachment)
3. Renewal of the MoU
The Director pointed out that the present MoU, endorsed by the Scientific Board of ECT* and the former ECT* Director Jean-Paul Blaizot, and inherited by the present ECT* Director, was signed in October 2008 for five years and thus will expire in October 2013. This means that the MoU has to be renewed soon.
According to point three of the MoU the EJFRC meets at least once a year. Professor Richter said that he did not have the meeting earlier because of the consolidation phase of the ECT* becoming fully integrated into the FBK. Dr. Mueller suggested to change this point into “the EJFRC meets on the average one a year”.
According to point four of the MoU the EJFRC proposes within a five year plan the amount of the financial support for ECT*. A short discussion on this point followed. Professor Sainio pointed out that for Finland the time length of the MoU might be a problem. The same problem exists for Poland and the Czech Republic. Professor Styczen suggested therefore to double the amount of the payment request to Poland in the fourth year and not sending the request in the fifth year. Professor Dobes suggested to create a separate protocol of agreement as the Czech Republic also did for the current MoU.
It was agreed not to change the basic MoU for five years but to make exceptions for some smaller countries. Professor Kruppa from Hungary then announced that Hungary will probably not be able to sign the next MoU but it will do its best to contribute to ECT*’s scientific activities on a yearly basis. (NB: Professor Kruppa has since confirmed that Hungary will sign the MoU but a with a reduced contribution.)
According to point seven of the MoU there should a full evaluation be performed and a midterm evaluation of the ECT* program and budget by an international committee. This midterm evaluation has not been carried out though. It was agreed that one full review each five years is enough. Professor Sainio asked how this committee is chosen. Professor Richter answered that this will be done according to point seven of the present MoU, i.e. five by the contributors represented on the EJFRC, as well as one each by the FBK and the ECT*. Since, however, a less elaborate midterm evaluation shall also be carried out under the responsibility of the Scientific Board of ECT*, it may be practical to form a joint committee with members of all parties concerned, i.e. the EJFRC, the Scientific Board, FBK and ECT*. Finally, Professor Richter said that he will reformulate the MoU in due time and will send a draft of it around for official approval.
4. ECT* 20th year of existence in 2013
Professor Richter informed the committee that 2013 will be the 20th year of existence of ECT*. He suggested to celebrate this event in conjunction with the next EJFRC meeting. All members agreed.
5. Next EJFRC meeting
It was agreed already under point four to have the next EJFRC meeting in conjunction with the celebration of the 20th year of existence of ECT* in 2013. The date has still to be determined.
6. Movie
Finally Professor Richter showed a short movie in which he is interviewed by someone from the FBK about the ECT* and its activities. This interview is also available on YouTube through the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKCbCxw1TdU.
End of the meeting: 17.10 h

Date of the minutes: April 11, 2012