ACTIVITIES OF THE CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

 

 

2004 was the last activity year of the Centre of Excellence CAMART - the Centre of Excellence for Advanced Material Research and Technologies. The project was established by the 5th framework Programme of the European Comission, the main tasks of the Centre being:

- to promote restructuring of the science and technology sectors;

- to promote the economic and social needs of the regions;

- to attract young researchers;

- to adopt the best experience in collaboration with the European colleagues.

The support from EC was 703 000 EUR or 400 000 Ls for three years and the funding had be spent on:

- extended visits (more than one month of duration) of foreign colleagues at the ISSP (31%);

- visits of the ISSP employees abroad, including attendance of conferences and organization of workshops (35%);

- purchase of equipment and materials necessary for foreign colleagues during their visits (9%);

- overhead expenses (25%).

 

Undoubtedly, �Centre of Excellence� (CE) label has raised the prestige of the Institute, the international one as well as the national.

Attracting visitors from EU and other countries, the CE project facilitated and extended international scientific cooperation. If formerly only rare single scientists paid durable work visits to the Institute, then now, thanks to the support of the EC, the work visits of foreign scientists were rather frequent. E.g. in the years 2001 � 2004, 66 foreign scientists and 9 PhD students from different European countries worked at the laboratories of the Institute, 60 of them for a longer time as one month (Table 4). 68 Institute fellows had in 2001 � 2004 foreign research trips supported by the CE funds.

Such a high mobility of the scientists has been never before noticed during the whole history of the Institute. Intensive exchange of know-how, research methods and numerous productive joint researches was a natural product of the great number of working trips. Centre of Excellence funds enabled for the first time the Institute to accept foreign postdocs (2).

 

 

Table 1

Long term visits to CAMART 2001 � 2004

 

From old EU Member States:

From new EU Member States:

Germany:

Italy:

Sweden:

Finland:

Spain:

France:

Austria:

Netherlands:

UK:

Belgium:

Portugal:

 

Total:

8

6

3

3

3

3

2

2

1

1

1

 

33

Lithuania:

Czech Rep.:

Poland:

Estonia:

Hungary:

 

Total:

 

 

 

 

10

9

7

6

3

 

35

 

 

 

 

From Other States:

Israel:

 

1

 

 

Due to EC funding, several international scientific events and scientific seminars of Institute were organised. (Table 2). These meetings upgraded the level of education in the scientific field of the project and were stimulating for the Institute�s staff, as well for the visitors from European partner institutions. The CE project stimulated attracting of young researchers and modernisation of study programms in physics.

 

 

Table 2

Conferences and Workshops, organised by CAMART (2001 � 2004):

 

�         The regional seminar on Solid State Ionics, Jurmala, Latvia, September 22 � 26, 2001;

�         The International Conference �Advanced Optical Materials and Devices�, Riga, Latvia, August 19 � 22, 2002;

�         The Workshop of International Advisory Board of Institute, Riga, Latvia, August 19, 2002;

�         The 10th International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose, Riga, Latvia, June 25 � 28, 2003;

 

 

Centre of Excellence funds enabled to improve the scientific infrastructure of the Institute. Due to financial support from Latvian government, on condition that a part of expenses is covered by CE funds, in 2002 � 2004 there was purchased scientific equipment by 325 000 EUR (Table 3).

 

 

 

Table 3

Scientific equipment, purchased in 2002 � 2004 due to financial support of:

  • latvian government (300 000 EUR)
  • Centre of Excellence (25 000 EUR)

 

1.   ARS closed cycle cryostat

2.   Portable handheld gas chromatograph

3.   Ar laser tube

4.   Tektronix digital storage oscilloscope

5.   Scanning probe microscope Smena H

6.   Supercomputer, consisting of Cluster of 5 Compaque PCs

7.   IR spectrometer Bruker Equinox 55

8.   AMKO spectrometer with CCD camera

9.   Digital EMG system for evoked brain potentials study

10.   Dual phase lock � in amplifiers

11.   Magnetooptical cryostat.

 

The CE status assisted to obtain funds from� EC 6th Framework programme as well (Table 4). Fruitfull was the cooperation in Network of Centres of Excellence �Interfacial Effects, Novel Properties and Technologies of Nanostructured Materials�.

 

 

Table 4

Enhanced participation of the Institute in other

areas of 6th Framework programme

 

 

1.   STRP Project �Nanoscale mapping and surface structural modification by joined use of x-ray microbeams and tip assisted local detection� (Dr.habil. J.Purans)

2.   Collective Research Project �Removal of Hazardous Substances in Electronics: Processes and techniques for SMEs� (Dr.A.Lusis)

3.   Marie Curie Large Conference ICDIM 2003 (Dr.habil. I.Tale)

4.   Network off Excellence Project �Multifunctional and Integrated Piezoelectric Devices� (Dr.V.Zauls)

5.   EURATOM project �Investigation of metal ions in fusion plasmas using emmision spectroscopy� (Prof.Dr. I.Tale)

6.   EURATOM project �Study of the dynamics of edge localised modes in the ASDEX Upgrade and JET tokamaks� (Prof.Dr.V.Kuzovkov)

7.   EURATOM project �Development of ferroelectric thin films for radiation resistant diagnostic componenets� (Dr.A.Sternberg)

 

 

Prof. Dr.A.Krumins

Scientific coordinator of CAMART