MOLECULAR UNIVERSE

The research in the field of molecular astrophysics is highly interdisciplinary with contributions from physics, chemistry, and astronomy. The research in the network has been divided into two global tasks which have been further subdivided into smaller science topics. Each of these topics is a joint task and, for successful completion, requires contribution from the physics, chemistry, and astronomy groups in this network. These contributions have been split out as milestones. In general, more than one group within that discipline contributes to a milestone. These groups will work closely together to reach their milestones. Part of this collaboration will be effectuated through shared appointments of experienced researchers - one year in one group and the next year in the collaborating group - or through secondments of the early stage researchers at the other collaborating institute. We have also included extensive working visits of the team leaders in joint tasks to the collaborating institutes. Funds for this have been set aside in the budget. In general, the results on one of the milestone will be used as input by other milestones within that topic or the results of one milestone will be compared to those of another milestone. To effectuate such interdisciplinary collaborations, all the groups within a topic will discuss their results in regular topic-meetings. A task manager will monitor progress in the milestones and ensure that communication lines are established (and kept open) between the different groups and science disciplines where necessary. Once a year, progress on all the science topics within the network will be presented at a network-wide meeting.

Groups from candidate countries and associated states will be fully incorporated into the network through joint tasks at the milestone level. They will share assigned resources and they will also attend the topic-meetings and network-wide meetings. Many of the collaborative efforts on joint milestones established through this network are new. Specifically, this network establishes for the first time collaborations across the interdisciplinary and national boundaries with such a broad scope.

A WEB site will be created for the network at the Paris Observatory, Meudon, including the implementation of the TWiki environment. TWiki is a flexible, powerful, and simple Web-based collaboration platform, which is specifically geared towards running highly interactive projects, document management system, and knowledge data bases. In this environment, all members of the network will be able to deposit and modify documents. Once the various permissions have been set, there is no need for a webmaster, which facilitates management of the WEB environment. This website will be a major tool for communication between the network members. The website will provide access to progress reports, intermediate results, and the final results of the research involving this network. This WEB site will provide access to research papers produced by the network as well as reports associated with scientific conferences. The site will also include information relevant to the network. This will include announcement of national and international conferences, of meetings and other events within the network, and of job opportunities within the network. Discussion forums with archives will be implemented: we plan a general forum and specific ones created on demand by the network participants. In addition, the WEB site will be a focal point for information about the trainee activities. Specifically, we will summarize the movements of trainees within the Network. We also plan to provide documents useful for relocation and mobility of our trainees and network members. Reports of the seminars given by our trainees will also be added. Curriculum vitae of the trainees will be included on a voluntary basis. Finally, this WEB site will also provide one means of communicating the network research with the general community - in addition to publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at international conferences. The WEB site will be publicly accessible (read only) and will provide links to the data bases described above.