COST European European Commission cooperation in the field of scientific and technical research Activity report 1997-98 COST CHEMISTRY ACTIONS D1-D15 T. Kowall, F. Foglia, L. Helm, A. E. Merbach, Chem. Eur. /, 1996, 2, 285-94 EUR 19109 EN DG Research —AP2 — RTD actions: Cooperation with non-member countries and international organisations • European Economic Area, COST, Eureka and international organisations Contact: Mr G. Riviere Address: European Commission, rue de la Loi 200 (SDME 1/53), B-1049 Brussels — Tel. (32-2) 29 54229; fax (32-2) 29 64289 Activity report 1997-98 COST CHEMISTRY ACTIONS D1-D15 Edited by Gerard Riviere, Aimee Mpambara, Marija Škerjl and Donald Zbinden (expert) on behalf of the management and technical committees COST Chemistry Secretariat European Commission, DG Research/AP2 Rue de la LoiAVetstraat 200, B-1049 Brussels Tel. (32-2) 29 54229; fax (32-2) 29 64289 e-mail: gerard.riviere@dgl2.cec.be http://www.unil.ch/cost/chem September 1999 EUR 19109 EN A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int). Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1999 ISBN 92-828-7416-8 © European Communities, 1999 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Italy THETECHNICAL COMMITTEE COST ChEMISTRY CONTENTS THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE COST CHEMISTRY 4 - Introduction from the Chairman - Present status of signatures of the Memorandum of Understanding 7 - Statistic of Concerted Research Funds for COST Chemistry Actions D1-D15 8 - Address List of Technical Committee Chemistry 13 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION Dl : Coordination Chemistry in the Context of Biological and Environmental Studies 19 - Working Groups Projects 24 - Address List of Management Committee 36 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D2 : Selective Synthesis 41 - Working Groups Projects3 - Address List of Management Committee 60 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D3 : Theory and Modelling of Chemical Systems and Processes 65 - Working Groups Projects7 - Address List of Management Committee 8 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D4 : Design and Preparation of New Molecular Systems with Unconventional Electrical, Optical and Magnetic Properties9 - Working Groups Projects 91 - Address List of Management Committee 118 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D5 : Chemistiy at Surfaces and Interfaces 123 - Working Groups Projects 125 - Address List of Management Committee 160 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D6 : Chemical Processes and Reactions under Extreme or Non-Classic Conditions5 - Working Groups Projects7 - Address List of Management Committee 175 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D7 : Molecular Recognition Chemistry 181 - Working Groups Projects 183 - Address List of Management Committee 192 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D8 : Chemistry of Metals in Medicine7 Working Groups Projects 200 Address List of Management Committee 231 The TK'IINICAL COMMITTEI- COST CHEMISTRY COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D9 : Advanced Computational Chemistry of Increasingly Complex Systems 237 - Working Groups Projects 240 - Address List of Management Committee 26 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D10 : Innovative Methods and Techniques for Chemical Transformations 26 - Working Groups Projects 27 - Address List of Management Committee 286 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D11 : Supramolecular Chemistry 293 - Working Groups Projects 295 - Address List of Management Committee 302 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D12 : Organic Transformations : Selective processes and Asymmetric Catalysis7 - Working Groups Projects9 - Address List of Management Committee 323 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D13 : New Molecules for Human Health Care 32 - Working Groups Projects 331 - Address List of Management Committee2 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D14 : Functional Molecular Materials 33 - Working Groups Projects 34 - Address List of Management Committee3 COST CHEMISTRY ACTION D15 : Interfacial Chemistry and Catalysis 347 - Working Groups Projects9 - Address List of Management Committee 350 IINDEX OF KEYWORDS5 IINDEX OF PARTICIPANTS .'. 363 The TECHNICAL COMMITTEE COST ChEMISTRY TECHNICAL COMMITTEE COST CHEMISTRY CHAIRMAN: Prof. Andre E. MERBACH Institut de Chimie Minerale et Analytique Universite de Lausanne, Batiment de Chimie (BCH) CH-1015 Lausanne SWITZERLAND TlIF Technical CommittefCOST Clll-MISTRY THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE COST CHEMISTRY Introduction from the Chair We have launched the Chemistry COST Actions in 1992 and since the beginning the scientific activities have been very successful and growing. Presently 24 COST countries are actively participating to the Chemistry Actions as well as several other institutions in the rest of the world. The Chemistry COST activities of the ongoing Actions so far corresponds to more than one hundred projects or networks in which more than six hundred research groups are involved in collaborative programs. This amount corresponds to about 2000 scientists. According to the information given by the participating groups, the total budget involved in co-ordinated research in Chemistry COST is now reaching above 200 M €. As we indicated in our previous report, this data must be interpreted carefully according to the difficulty in obtaining homogenous information from all the different countries. Nevertheless, once again, it shows the importance of the collaborative research earned out under the Chemistry secretariat of COST. With a grant of 0.7 M € from the European Commission, the secretariat is able to support yearly the participation of 700 chemists to 120 scientific meetings organised by COST Chemistry. This correspond to 0.35 % as co-ordination costs. The seven first Actions (D1-D7) have been terminated after 5 or 6 years of activities. Eight new Actions (D8-D15) have been launched in 1997-1999, and tree others (D16-D18) which have been accepted, will start before the end of the year. The first seven Actions D1-D7 have been evaluated by committees involving external referees, even from non European countries. This evaluation procedure was very important and its seriousness have contributed to further increase the credibility of the COST Chemistry Technical Committee and Management Committees of the different COST Actions in Chemistry. In the last report, it was announced the launching of the Alliance AllChemE involving the organisations representing the European Scientific Community. The report produced by AllChemE: "Chemistry, Europe and the future", and sent all around Europe to the governments and institutions in charge of scientific policies was considered as a very important document. It has been edited in English, German, French and Italian and we hope that it has contributed to promote Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in Europe. Since July 1998, a Chemistry COST web site has been operative. All working groups, projects and networks are presented, as well as most meetings and opportunities in Europe in the field of Chemistry, (http://www.unil.ch/cost/chem) During the course of 1999, several studies have been produced by Chemistry COST: ♦ Nanochemistry ♦ Combinatorial Chemistry ♦ Polymerisation via Metal Catalysts. Those studies havepermitted to prepare new y Actions. Chemistry COST Actions have played a major role in the building up of the scientific co-operation in Europe. By promoting Chemistry, we have contributed to the progress of the European Science and to the reinforcement of the European concept. We have to pursue efforts for the benefit of Chemistry, of Science, of the European economic activity and the quality of life of European citizens. oJLcuufrltJ- j{ . iK 4- <A O—^-^- #=~ Prof. Gilbert Balavoine Prof. Andre E. MerbachProf. Gerard van Koten Past-Chairman oftheTCChairman of the TC Vice-Chairman of the TC CNRS-Chimie deCoordination Institut dechimiemineraleDebye Research Institute 205 Route de Narbonnect analytiqueUtrecht University F-31077 Toulouse Universite deLausanne,BCH Padualaan 8 FRANCECH-1015 Lausanne NL-3584 CH Utrecht SWITZERLANDTHE NETHERLANDS