Astroparticle Physics European Coordination
From ASPERA ad Futurum – signing of the MoU for the new ApPEC
The representatives of a number of national government agencies, partners in ASPERA-2, have come together on the 29th of June in Berlin, at the Magnus-Haus of the German Physical Society (DPG) for signing the Memorandum of Understanding of the new Astroparticle Physics European Consortium (ApPEC). 

This consortium emanates from the Astroparticle Physics European Coordination committee founded in 2001 and operating under the same acronym until this Memorandum of Understanding enters into force. It is the outcome of the preparatory work carried out by a consortium of ministries' and agencies' representatives and of the intense work provided by the EU funded ERANETs ASPERA and ASPERA‐2 (from 2006 to 2012) that paved the way through a series of funding mechanism studies, common roadmap elaborations, common calls for R&D proposals, and common outreach and communication endeavours.

Signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding for the new ApPEC
Signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding for the new ApPEC: 
(in front) Ch. Stegmann, DESY, J. Seed, STFC, F. Ferroni, INFN, J. de Kleuver, FOM 
(behind) M. Krzystyniak, NCN, M. Maksic, HRZZ, I. Brancus, IFIN-HH, S. Katsanevas, CNRS
Read more...
 
The third Common Call has been launched
R&DThe third common call for proposals organized by ASPERA Eranet agencies was launched in June 2012.

The call is targeted towards low energy neutrino detectors and third generation interferometers.

Download the full text of the announcement here. Submit your proposal here.
 
 
In the event of any difficulties encountered in submitting their proposals, applicants are requested to contact the Common Call Secretariat (Ino Agrafioti, CNRS or Emanuela Pistoia, INFN) immediately by one of the following: 

E-mail:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Telephone: +33.(0)1.44.96.51.36
 
Announcements

  • The most recent ApPEC (Coordination) Steering Committee meeting took place in Paris on April 11th, 2012.
  • The inauguration meeting of ApPEC (Consortium) took place in Berlin on June 29th, 2012. 
  • The 1st ApPEC General Assembly will be held in Bruxelles on the 29th of November 2012, combined with the ASPERA-2 closing event that will take place the following day.
 
Important documents

  • Click here to access the ApPEC Document Repository
 
What is ApPEC

ApPEC is an interest grouping of national funding agencies, which was founded in 2001 when six European scientific agencies took the initiative to coordinate and encourage Astroparticle Physics in Europe.

They signed an agreement, endorsed by the European Science Foundation, aimed essentially at promoting and facilitating cooperation within a growing European Astroparticle Physics community. Broadly the aims of ApPEC are to  

  • develop long term strategies and offering advice to national funding agencies or other organisation as appropriate,

  • expressing the views of European Astroparticle Physics in international forums,

  • establish a system of peer review assessment applicable to projects where ApPEC members are involved.

ApPEC has grown from the original six agencies representing five European countries, to thirteen agencies representing ten European countries. It comprises two bodies, a Steering Committee (SC) and a Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC).