16th ESUO General Assembly
The 16th ESUO General Assembly – a hybrid in-person and online meeting – occurred on October 18th-19th of 2021, physically and virtually hosted by the DESY (www.desy.de) and European XFEL (www.xfel.eu) facilities. The successful meeting was made possible thanks to the support of the local DESY and European XFEL teams and financial support of the European H2020 CALIPSOplus project. The chair of ESUO, Ullrich Pietsch reported to user delegates on the transformation of ESUO into an international non-profit organisation (AISBL) under Belgian law, with the previously agreed new statutes of association. A short report can be found here: https://www.esuo.eu/16th-esuo-general-assembly-of-18th-and-19th-october-2021/.
Election of new ESUO Executive Board and President
The ESUO general assembly and voting national user delegates elected a new Executive Board and President. The new board comprises Carla Bittencourt (BE), Federico Boscherini (IT), Tom Hase (UK), Rainer Lechner (AT), Derek Logan (SE), Bridget Murphy (DE) and Moniek Tromp (NL) and the newly elected ESUO President Cormac McGuinness (IE).
ESUO participation in the 4th LEAPS Plenary Meeting and LEAPS General Assembly
The new ESUO President and former ESUO chair, Cormac McGuinness and Ullrich Pietsch, respectively, together with other ESUO representatives, were invited to attend the 4th LEAPS plenary meeting held as an online event on October 20th-22nd, 2021. ESUO delegates observed and participated in LEAPS public and internal sessions, including dedicated working / strategy group meetings on days 1 and 2; the new ESUO president and former ESUO chair both attended the LEAPS general assembly on day 3 where ESUO was welcomed as a new strategic partner. ESUO contribute to several LEAPS working / strategy groups; e.g. Moniek Tromp being co-chair of LEAPS strategy group 1 on storage rings and member of the LEAPS research development board and further ESUO delegates contributing to LEAPS working groups 1 and 3-6 and the new Taskforce on Strategic Access.
During the LEAPS general assembly meeting, the important topics under discussion included the new European Commission Research Infrastructures funding landscape, the benefits of Transnational Access (TNA) as previously funded e.g. through the CALIPSOplus project (www.calipsoplus.eu/trans-national-access/) as well as the future prospects for users to take advantage of both challenge-driven and curiosity driven topics under Horizon Europe. The new ESUO President emphasised the continued need to embrace “geographic equality” in opportunities for all European scientists as the diversity of users provides a vibrant synchrotron and FEL research infrastructure landscape.
ESUO user survey on impact of absence of TNA
In September 2021 ESUO launched a survey to address the important issue of possible impacts of absence of TNA funding support on the user community; The survey will remain open until the end of February 2022. Please provide your input to that short survey: how will absence of TNA affect you? Details and access to the survey are at: www.esuo.eu/possible-impacts-of-the-absence-of-transnational-access-funding-support-for-the-user-community/
ESUO is also contributing to the 3rd and final CALIPSOplus periodic report due December 2021.
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ESUO Board: Main photo (from left) Rainer Lechner, Cormac McGuinness, Derek Logan and Tom Hase. Insets (clockwise from top left): Bridget Murphy, Carla Bittencourt, Moniek Tromp and Federico Boscherini.