Minutes of the 3rd PERIIA General Assembly

Granada, Tuesday 4 October 2022

  • Paolo Acunzo

  • José Antão

  • Megumi Asano-Ulmonen

  • Antonio Bonucci

  • Eric Boom

  • Petr Brezina

  • francesco dacapito

  • Ana Belén Del Cerro Gordo

  • Christian Dierick

  • Javier Echávarri

  • Fredrik Engelmark

  • Eileen Forsey

  • Eleonora Getsova

  • Alastair Grundy

  • Barbora Gulejova

  • Michel Hübner

  • Laurent Jammes

  • Søren B Korsholm

  • Arnauld leservot

  • Ramon Navarro

  • Ole Petter Nordavc

  • Michel Onori

  • Corrado Perna

  • Patricia Postigo McLaughlin

  • Ott Rebane

  • Dijana Samson

  • Artur Siczek

  • Alan Silverman

  • Samo Tuma

  • Rob Van der Meer

  • Toon Verhoeven

  • Jan Visser

  • Carol Watts

  • Allen Weeks

  • Nada Witzanyova

  • Sylwia Wojtowicz

  • Laura Woodward

  • Nikolaj Zangenberg

Meeting minutes:

The 3rd PERIIA General Assembly of national Industrial Liaison Officers (ILOs) in connection with Big Science Organizations was held in Granada on Tuesday 4 October 2022, from 2pm to 4:30pm. Previously to the General Assembly was organized an ENRIITC training workshop and networking conference where most of the PERIIA members also participated.

The first session was chaired by Ana Belén DEL CERRO GORDO (CDTI, ES) and Paolo ACUNZO (ENEA, IT)

After a welcome and introduction to PERIIA activities by the PERIIA chairman, Paolo Acunzo, the session continued with the testimony of several ILO experiences:

  • CERN by Jan VISSER (Chair CERN ILO Forum, NL)

  • ESO by Mitchel HÜBNER (ESO ILO Network, Switzerland)

  • ESS by Carol WATTS (Chair ESS ILO Network, UK)

  • European XFEL by Antonio BONUCCI (ILO contact, XFEL)

  • Fusion for Energy, ITER by Soren KORSHOLM (Chair F4E ILO Network, DK)

The session then continued with three interventions from PERIIA stakeholders on topics of interest for the network, namely:

  • Activities and opportunities from European Research Infrastructure by Patricia POSTIGO-MCLAUGHLIN (DG Research, European Commission)

  • EIROforum on future activities for standardization of classification codes within Big Science Market by Kitty FRITZ-NIELEN (Head of procurement, European XFEL)

  • ENRIITC project by Nikolaj ZANGENBERG (DTI, DK)

 The second session started at 3pm and was chaired by Toon VERHOEVEN (NL) and Laurent JAMMES (CNRS, FR). Two items were on the agenda

1.     The election of new PERIIA Network board (from 5 to 9 members)

Ton started with a reminder of the current composition of the board, which was elected in 2019:

  • Paolo ACUNZO, ILO for F4E/ITER & DTT, ENEA, Italy. (Chair)

  • Ana Belén DEL CERRO GORDO, ILO for F4E/ITER, CDTI, Spain (Deputy Chair)

  • Fredrik ENGELMARK, ILO for CERN, Big Science Sweden, Sweden.

  • Anna HALL, ILO for ESS, IUC Syd, Sweden. (Secretary – Responsible for communication)

  • Laurent JAMMES, ILO for ESO, SKA and. CTA, CNRS – INSU, France.

  • Martin TOWNSEND, former ILO for F4E/ITER, UKAEA, UK.

  • Toon VERHOEVEN, former ILO for ESS, Netherlands. (Responsible for new memberships)

  • Nikolaj ZANGENBERG, ILO for CERN, EuXFEL & ESRF, DTI, Denmark.

Anna HALL, Martin TOWNSEND and Toon VERHOEVEN do not stand for re-election due to changes of assignment or cessation of professional activity. All other previous board members are candidates together with four PERIIA members: Eleonora GETSOVA, Bulgaria, Michel HÜBNER, Switzerland, Christian DIERICK, Belgium, and Jan VISSER, Netherland.

These candidacies were submitted to the vote of the assembly and the nine candidates were elected. The new composition of the board is now:

  • Paolo ACUNZO, ILO for F4E/ITER & DTT, ENEA, Italy

  • Ana Belén DEL CERRO GORDO, ILO for F4E/ITER, CDTI, Spain

  • Fredrik ENGELMARK, ILO for CERN, Big Science Sweden, Sweden

  • Laurent JAMMES, ILO for ESO, SKA and CTA, CNRS-INSU, France

  • Nikolaj ZANGENBERG, ILO for CERN, EuXFEL & ESRF, DTI, Denmark

  • Eleonora GETSOVA, Bulgaria

  • Michel HÜBNER, Head of ILO office, Switzerland

  • Christian DIERICK, ILO for ITER, Belgium

  • Jan VISSER , ILO for CERN, Netherland

The board will meet soon to elect a new president and allocate responsibilities to its members.

A comment was made that ILOs from all major Big Science facilities should be represented in the board, potentially by having the ILO committee chairs from CERN, F4E, and more being members. The board will discuss this during its coming term.

2.     A discussion on future activities and organization of PERIIA Network

This second session continued with a presentation / discussion of possible activities for the network, which was moderated by Laurent Jammes. Laurent started with a short reminder of PERIIA objectives:

  • Be a key intermediary between the European supplier business/industry and big science-organizations for matters related to procurement, innovation and tech-transfer opportunities

  • Enhance the big science-organisations’ interaction with business/industry in order to create an integrated and sustainable big science-market

  • Raise awareness and improve access for business/industry (particularly SMEs) entering and acting on the big science-market

  • Provide a forum for the exchange of best practices on how to work as an ILO

  • Enhance the cohesion and functioning of ILO networks at relevant big science-organisations

  • Act as a consultative reference body for other European/International stakeholders

Six work programme 2023-24 themes were then proposed:

  1. Benchmarking best practice for ILO work

  2. Facilitating Pan-European partnering between companies on the big science market

  3. Bringing down entry barriers for SME on the Big Science common market

  4. Improving the Big Science organisations interaction with industry

  5. The role of the ILO in facilitating technology transfer

  6. Measuring the impact that selling to Big Science has on companies

 The work would be carried out by PERIIA network Board throughout different activities conducted in person or remotely (for instance organisation of webinars), or ILO specific working groups which will be established on an ad-hoc basis, in collaboration with other stakeholders and international organizations.

The discussion focused more specifically on the first theme proposed, and in particular on what is meant by "Benchmarking". It's actually more about sharing experience and best practices. As a result, this theme has been renamed “Exchanging experience and best practice for ILO work”.

This work programme 23-24 was approved by the General Assembly.

Nothing more being on the agenda, the third assembly of the PERIIA network ended at 4:30 p.m.