European Co-operation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research

COST 259

Wireless Flexible PERSONALIZED Communications
 

Minutes of the 7th Meeting of the Management Committee,

held in Thessaloniki (GR) on 20-21 January 1999

COST 259

Minutes of the 7th Meeting of the Management Committee,

held at Hotel Philipion, Thessaloniki (GR), on 20-21 Jan. 1999,

organised by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

1. Opening Formalities

The meeting was formally opened by Prof. Luis M. Correia, after which Prof. Niovi Pavlidou, the Local Organiser, addressed the plenary for a welcome message, and details on the way the meeting was organised.

2. Adoption of the Agenda

The Agenda, included in Annex A, was formally approved by unanimity.

3. Approval of the Minutes of the 6th Meeting

The minutes, without corrections, were approved unanimously.

4. Status of the Action

The Chairman informed that he received an informal request from an institution belonging to a non-COST country to join the Action: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), via Prof. Natan Blaunstein. Prof. Blaunstein was informed of the procedures to follow, and a formal request is expected to be presented at the next meeting.

The Chairman also reported that, according to an information from the COST Telecom Secretariat, the official starting date of the Action is 1996/Dec/10 (when the number of 5 signatory countries of the MoU was reached) although the first meeting has been held on 1997/Apr/03; as a consequence the Action is due to finish by 1999/Dec/09. After some discussion, it was agreed that a proposal for an extension should be submitted to the TCT; a document will be prepared to be discussed at the next meeting in April, and all delegates were asked to send contributions to this document.

The Plenary was also informed by the Chairman that some general guide lines are being prepared by the TCT for writing Final Reports.

The number of signatory countries, participating institutions and delegates remains unchanged since last meting.

5. COST 231 Book

The Chairman reported that he has personally delivered, by early December, the final version of the CPST 231 Final Report to the COST Telecom Secretariat, which will be in charge of printing it. The number of 1 000 copies was confirmed, but it is still not clear how the distribution will be done. The book is expected to be available in the next weeks.

There is also a version of the book in files, both in *.ps and *.pdf. These files will be placed on a server, in the event that all copies are distributed.

6. Budget and reimbursements

The Chairman informed that reimbursement concerning the remaining 20 % of Bern and Bradford meetings as well as 100 % of the Duisburg one has already been processed. In the future no delay will occur, due to late delivery to the Action Secretariat of the documents and form for reimbursement: if the funding is available, those who deliver their documents at the meeting will be immediately reimbursed.

The Chairman reported on the expenses during 1998: travel concerning Bern, Bradford and Duisburg meetings on a total of 23.028, 23.881 and 22.515 kEuro, respectively; travel concerning the participation of the Chairman in the TCT meeting in Helsinki, 1.271 kEuro; workshop in Bradford, 7 kEuro; Action Secretariat, 18 kEuro. The total expense was 95.695 kEuro, and since the budget for 1998 was 115 kEuro, to which 11.5 kEuro were added, there is a total of roughly 30 kEuro for Short-Term Missions, which has to be spent up to June 1999. Of the total of 115 kEuro, only 92 kEuro have been received (corresponding to 80 %), and the remaining 23 kEuro are expected to be received soon.

There were no proposals for Short-Term Missions submitted since the last meeting, which means that the above mentioned budget is fully available, enabling 20 to 25 missions. After some discussion, and as no strong commitments from any one came forward, it was agreed that the budget will be spent on a "first come first serve" basis. All delegates were asked to submit proposals for Short-Term Missions (Action Point 7), since this is one of COST instruments to achieve one of the goals of the programme: to increase the collaboration among institutions.

As far as the budget for 1999 is concerned, still no decision was taken, and there is no information on the date it will happen, since the overall budget of COST is linked to the one of the 5^th framework Programme. Nevertheless, it was decided that an advanced payment would be granted to running Actions, and an amount of 30 kEuro was granted to COST 259. Due to a mistake of the COST Telecom Secretariat, the transfer of the money will be done to the former Chairman, Mr. Eraldo Damosso, but he will transfer the money to IST as soon as he receives it, which means that it is expected to be possible to reimburse the travel expenses of this meeting in a relative short period.

7. Presentation and Discussion of Documents

A total of 26 Temporary Documents, which are listed in Annex B, were distributed to be discussed at the Plenary and at the three WGs, Annex C.

8. Liaisons with other International Bodies

Reports from the following liaisons were given:

• COST 260 - Prof. Emmanuel Van Lil (KU Leuven, B)

• SMT/METAMORP - Mr. Per Lehne (Telenor R&D, N)

The next meetings will be held according to the following:

• 8^th MCM and Workshop, hosted by Tech. Univ. Vienna, in Vienna, Austria, from Tuesday - 1999/Apr/20 - 9:00 to Friday - 1999/Apr/23 - 17:00.
• 9^th MCM, hosted by Tech. Univ. Delft, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from Thursday - 1999/Sep/23 - 9:00 to Friday - 1999/Sep/24 - 17:00.
• 10^th MCM, hosted by Univ. Valencia, in Valencia, Spain, from Wednesday - 2000/Jan/19 - 9:00 to Friday - 2000/Jan/21 - 12:00.

The Chairman reminded that there will be Technical Sessions in VTC’99 Fall devoted to present the work of COST 259, and that all delegates were asked to submit papers (Action Point 6).

10. Any Other Business

Prof. Luis Correia thanked all delegates for, once more, having sent in advance to the Local Organiser the documents discussed in the meeting, and called the attention to the following:

• all delegates should check the List of Contacts, to make sure that the information concerning themselves is correct;
• those who still have not done it, should send the www address of their institution to the Webmaster (Action Point 1);
• those who still have not done it, should send the abstracts of the documents they have presented in meetings to the Webmaster (Action Point 2);
• all delegates should check the information contained in the Action www site, and send corrections to the Webmaster (Action Point 8);
• in order to prepare the proposal for extension, all delegates should send information, to the Secretary, on joint publications and collaborations within the Action (Action Point 3).

On behalf of Dr. Antoine Roederer (COST 260 Chairman), Dr. Peter Balling invited COST 259 to be part of the group of COST Actions that will participate in the AP2000 conference, to be held in Davos, Switzerland, by 9-14 Apr. 2000, referring that the TCT has already given its support to this participation. It was approved unanimously that COST 259 will joint this event.

Prof. Ernst Bonek announced that a new Sub-Working Group had been created within WG2, SWG 2.2, addressing "Test Methods for Handset Antennas", which is of great interest to both operators and manufacturers, besides universities. Mr. Matthias Schneider (IMST, D), its Chairman, gave a brief presentation of the objectives and work programme.

The Chairman reminded of the Action Points from this meeting:
 
 

11. Close of the Meeting

The meeting was attended by a total of 73 persons, Annex D. The Chairman thanked the Local Organiser for hosting the meeting, and all delegates for their participation, and formally closed it.

1. Opening formalities
2. Adoption of the Agenda
3. Approval of the minutes of the 6th Meeting in Duisburg
4. Status of the Action
5. COST 231 book
6. Budget and reimbursements
7. Presentation and discussion of documents
8. Liaisons with other international bodies
9. Future meetings and workshop
10. Any other business
11. Close of Meeting