Third PERIIA General Assembly

Granada, Tuesday 4 October 2022

  • Paolo Acunzo

  • José Antão

  • Megumi Asano-Ulmonen

  • Antonio Bonucci

  • Eric Boom

  • Petr Brezina

  • Francesco d’Acapito

  • 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

Minutes from the Assembly

The 3rd PERIIA General Assembly of national Industrial Liaison Officers (ILOs) in connection with Big Science organisations was held in Granada on Tuesday 4 October 2022, from 14.00 to 16:30m. Ahead of the General Assembly, an ENRIITC training workshop and networking conference was arranged, attended by most of the PERIIA members.

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

After a welcome address and introduction to PERIIA activities by the PERIIA chair, Paolo Acunzo, the session continued with reports 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 contributions from PERIIA stakeholders on topics of interest for the network:

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

  • EIROforum on future activities for standardisation of classification codes in the 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.     Election of new PERIIA Network board (5-9 members)

Toon started with a reminder of the current composition of the board, 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 – Communication Manager)

  • 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 are not standing 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 nine candidates were elected. The new composition of the board is:

  • 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 on the board, potentially by including the ILO committee chairs from CERN, F4E, and other organisations. The board will discuss this during its coming term.

2.     Discussion on future activities and organisation of PERIIA Network

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

  • Function as a key intermediary between European business/industry and Big Science organisations on matters relating to procurement, innovation, and tech-transfer opportunities.

  • Increase 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 operating on the Big Science market.

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

  • Improve 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 themes for 2023-24 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 SMEs on the Big Science common market

  4. Improving interaction between Big Science organisations and 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 the PERIIA Network Board through various activities conducted in person or remotely (e.g. arrangement of webinars), or ILO-specific working groups established on an ad-hoc basis, in collaboration with other stakeholders and international organisations.

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

This work programme for 2023-24 was approved by the General Assembly.

With nothing more on the agenda, the third assembly of the PERIIA network ended at 16:30.