Dear Colleagues,

We have received some feedback from Dr. Raymond Monk in Brussels
concerning the First Year Periodic Report for the "Spintronics"
Network. In this mail we cite some of the remarks.
To answer some of them, we will need some
help from (some of) you. Please ask your RTN young researcher
to take care of all the points labelled "ACTION" below
as soon as possible, so that we can prepare an adequate reply
to Dr. Monk.


FEEDBACK from Bruessels:

"a) Scientific Progress

 With regard to the scientific highlights and milestones, it is very
 promising to see advances in a number of milestones that were planned to
 occur later in the project. I would, however, like to have an update from
 the nodes at Basel, Groningen and Delft-exp on the current status of the
 project and when they plan to proceed. From the work plan I see that each of
 these nodes were assigned specific tasks to be completed within the first 12
 months and I am surprised to learn they have not started yet."

ACTION requested on your part:

Could the group leaders of the Basel, Groningen and Delft-exp groups please
write us few lines of text which we can include in our answer?

FEEDBACK:

"b) I would also like to draw the network's attention to acknowledging the
 financial support of the EC, where appropriate. I see that this has been
 done in most cases but often with the incorrect contract number. The
 acknowledgement of the RTN programme in such publications helps us to
 highlight the impact of the funding and maintain this support for the whole
 physics community. Where space allows, we recommend the following standard
 text be used:

 >>Work supported in part by the European Community's Research Training
 Networks Programme under contract HPRN-CT-2002-00302, Spintronics<<

 and for young researchers directly employed through the network contract:

 >>[Name] acknowledges the financial support provided through the European
 Community's Research Training Networks Programme under contract
 HPRN-CT-2002-00302, Spintronics<< "

ACTION:
Please use the above phrases to acknowledge the financial
support of the EC. In case you forget the phrasing and loose
this e-mail, you can always consult our home page, where
it is listed under ... (Laszlo, please complete!)


FEEDBACK:

"c) Networking

 With regard to networking, I see that there have been some visits between
 the nodes. I note that most of them are for the purposes of seminar talks
 with relatively few visits for developing joint publications or joint
 research projects. Is this a fair interpretation? I would be interested to
 know how the network plans to foster more joint research between the nodes
 of the network and to encourage the young researchers to engage in this
 activity."

ACTION:

 We will write back to Bruessels  that in theoretical
physics this is the way how to  build up collaboration,
and mention some examples of how it lead to joint papers.
Please let us know more such examples. More importantly,
comments from the experimental side on how to
reply to this are more than welcome.


FEEDBACK:

"d) Training

 Clearly the intitial difficulties with the contract preparation and transfer
 of funds has impacted upon the training programme. I would appreciate an
 update on the current situation concerning appointments. There is one
 position advertised on the networks' webpages and none on CORDIS so I
 presume that most positions have now been filled. In this context, the
 network might be intereted to know about a new service by which positions
 can be advertised: The Researcher's Mobility Web Portal, which has the URL
 http://europa.eu.int/eracareers/index_en.cfm "

ACTION:

Can those group leaders that have not yet found suitable postdocs
please inform me, and write a few lines about what they
are doing in order to find one? [Sorry for having to
request such stuff from you!]

FEEDBACK:

 As described in the network's project plan, an important aspect of the
 training programme includes developing their complementary skills along with
 their research programme. I would be interested to have an update on the
 progress made towards aspects of becoming involved in the network
 management, proposal writing, language skills, organisational skills etc.
 along with them spending at least one month of their appointment visiting
 other teams."

ACTION:

 Concerning the complementary
 skills, we would like to ask you to send us examples of how
you train train your young researchers in complementary skills

 E.g. "Munich: L. Borda, the network fellow in Munich,  compiled
and wrote most of the First Year Periodic Report for the "Spintronics"
RTN. At the moment he is organizing the next network meeting.
He also supervizes the research of Michael Sindel, a PhD student
working on RTN-related subjects."


Other examples would be: writing grant proposals, organizing
group meetings or seminar schedules, supervising PhD students,
etc.

FEEDBACK:

 "e) Other Issues

 In the report there is no information on the interaction of the network with
 industrial or commerical enterprises. Similarly, in the project planning it
 was stated that active contacts would be developed to strengthen networking
 with other networks in related areas. Could the network please explain the
 steps that are being taken in this direction."

ACTION:

 If you have any suggestions for how to reply to that, please let
us know about. (Experimentalists, Quantum Computation Experts, please help!)

FEEDBACK

 "Network's Webpages
  ------------------

  I find the network's webpages very clear and "friendly" and that you have
 had over 600 hits. Anyway, in the following I have outlined a number of
 suggestions that could be implemented, if possible:

 To have a "Network Fellows" page providing their details (e-mail address,
 hosting institute etc.) plus links to their homepages, if available. A good
 example of such a page may be found at
 http://www.astro.su.se/~dorch/esmn/fellows.html. This often helps young
 researchers to know the other members of the network"

ACTION:

  We have already installed such a page. Please provide us information
 on the network fellows. (We know about some of them -- but for example
 their home pages were found by yahoo.com. This is a general comment:
 if you do not provide us this information then the home page of the
network  is l'art pour l'art.)
Network fellows that do not have a personal home page,
PLEASE INSTALL ONE !!
(look at http://www.theorie.physik.uni-muenchen.de/~borda/ for an example)


FEEDBACK:

 And finally, for your information:

 "Information for the Young Researchers
  -------------------------------------

  We are also now asking networks to provide more information concerning the
  Research Training Networks activity and the network in which they are
  appointed. It is my understanding that such information is provided to the
  the young researchers but, just for the record, my suggestions are to:

  a) Before appointment, young researchers are made fully aware of their
  conditions of appointment (e.g. fellowship or salary, social benefits,
  medical benefits, relocation and home travel costs) and any help with regard
  to visa requirements, local bureaucracy is provided. There is often a lack
  of information concerning the tax status of their appointment. In order to
  address this, we have now generated on our CORDIS webpages (see
  http://www.cordis.lu/improving/networks/young.htm) information for young
  researchers concerning such issues. I understand that, in some cases, the
  local administration does not have sufficient experience in dealing with
  other nationals and I would ask that the responsible administrative officer
  for the contract is also made fully aware of our webpages
  (http://www.cordis.lu/improving/networks/home.htm).

  b) Upon appointment, provide our CORDIS web address
  (http://www.cordis.lu/improving/networks/home.htm), information about the
  network, e.g. the networks' webpage address, copy of Annex I of the
  contract, contact details of other young researchers in the same network,
  and further details of the training to be provided both at the host
  institute and by the network as a whole including, for example, language
  training.

  c) The payment of relocation and travel cost to home scientific community,
  if budgeted for during the contract negotiation stage, are also encouraged.
  One suggestion, if a young researcher is considering returning to their home
  scientific community after their network appointment, is that he/she might
  wish to use the travel funds in order to attend a national conference, of
  some relevance to their work, in their home scientific community country,
  which would go some way towards raising their profile and help in obtaining
  a possible new appointment.

  d) It is also encouraged for network participants to help their young
  researchers in finding future appointments after their time in the network."


  Best regards,

  Jan von Delft and Laszlo Borda