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1 Agenda	Approved
2 Minutes	Minutes of 25th ENSA Meeting in Taormina Accepted.
3. Report of the Chairman	NMI3 statistics: Peter Allenspach showed NMI3 statistics on support to the different European countries (see appendix) 3.1 ENSA Registered Legal Body ENSA is since 2006 a legal body. On 9.02.2007, ENSA will be registered by signatures from the executive board. After the registration PA will apply for TAX exemption. 3.2 ESS - European Spallation Source EU made on 22 December 2006 a call for Preparatory works on projects listed in the ESFRI Roadmap, with deadline 2 May 2007. PA called for a meeting the same day to coordinate that one and only one proposal on ESS is submitted by the neutron community. A coordination team was founded, including Peter Allenspach (Chair) Colin Carlile (Governance) Feri Mezei (Technical aspects) Juan Urrutia (Finance/Legal aspects) The administration is proposed made by PSI. Participants in the proposal should include Government bodies, Research Councils and Funding Agencies, Research Centers, Universities, and Industries. These bodies may be directly participating in the application, or they may attend as observers. ENSA delegates should engage national institutions to formally take part in the preparatory work, and provide P Allenspach with the relevant name of persons in charge. The science case of ESS was discussed. Arguments were given that the ESS-Bonn reports should be updated, while other pointed to the fact that both Germany and UK recently have made extended documentation on future neutron related sciences. The inclusion of ESS in the ESFRI Roadmap proves that the science case is generally accepted valid. 3.3 ISE – Initiative for Science in Europe Hannu Mutka attended ISE meeting 15.01.2007 in Lisbon, where new projects were discussed, after the successful approval of ERC. A European Institute of Technology may be among ISE’s priorities. ISE have elected new chairman: Federico Mayor Zaragoza (Spain), former director general of UNESCO (87-99). 3.4 ERC - European Research Council Peter Allenspach reviewed the present ERC call for projects. One of the ERC programs focus on young scientists (less than 9 years after PhD). About 200 grants are expected the first year. ENSA should engage young neutron scientists to apply for funding.
4. ECNS 2007	Adrian Rennie. Adrian Rennie presented the status for the ECNS-07 planning. . By February 2nd, there were 618 abstracts submitted, 48 applications for bursaries, and 14 sponsors. The program will have 3 parallel sessions, and include 8 plenary presentations. Beyond the official program, there will be a number of associated meetings, including NMI3 access user-meeting, SINQ user meeting, and national society meetings from Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Denmark. Moreover, the chairs of the European, the American and the Asian neutron user organizations will meet. ENSA will have a meeting early in the evening on Tuesday, followed by joint dinner. Prize winner talks: The Walter Hälg and the Lewy-Bertaut prize winners are scheduled to give presentations Thursday early afternoon. Poster Prize NMI3 will sponsor a Poster Prize, which should (preferentially) go to a young scientist.
4.2 Walter Hälg Prize	Names of the present Walter Hälg Prize committee was presented. Additional members of the committee were discussed, with focus on more equal representative between the different disciplines. Peter Allenspach will contact a number of named persons, asking them to join the committee. The committee membership should be time limited. The committee will meet 28. April, deciding the 2007-winner. On the same afternoon, Walter Hälg will be celebrated (90 years).
4.3 Lewy-Bertaut Prize	Names of the Erwin Felix Lewy Lewy-Bertaut Prize Committee members were presented to the ENSA delegates. The 2007 prize (2000Euro) is donated by NMI3. The prize will be given to a young scientist within neutron scattering (including both experimental and instrumental) and/or crystallography. Deadline for nomination of scientists is the end of February.
5.1 ENSA Survey	Hannu Mutka. The ENSA survey is close to be finished. The foreword will include a NMI3 activity map to give a more general view of neutron sciences in Europe.
5.2 Literature Survey Helmuth Rauch	A literature survey for specific European countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland,..) is finished for the period until 2005. The survey may be published in some Journal on Citation Statistics, or in Neutron News.
6 Reports of the Working Groups
6.1Communication	Adrian Rennie, Peter Allenspach, Kell Mortensen. Communications to the neutron community appear not reliable. It was discussed whether ENSA should generate its own mailing lists, and if so, how ENSA should make such list. The NMI3-web portal is effective, but ENSA is perhaps somewhat hidden behind the NMI3 activities. ENSA will consider a separate web portal, and has already obtained the address: www.ENSA.name. To run a portal effectively, however, ENSA will need a communication officer, who should be responsibility for updating etc. Funding for the NMI3 web portal, including responsibility for ENSA communications, is obtained from the EU-FP6. ENSA should look into possibly funding from FP7. Alternatively, an independent ENSA web page could be just the front page pointing to the existing ENSA page under the NMI3 portal.
6.2 Financing	Keith McEwen. Keith discussed which activities may be taken and how they should be financed. ENSA may run a PhD neutron-thesis library; ENSA may initiate more prizes, more meetings, new web-communication and some kind of newsletter. Funding for such activities may come from NMI3 (up to 5kEuro/year). Funding from the EU-FP7 may come from the two programs: Capacity Program and Cooperative Program. Helmuth Rauch mentioned that also ESF may be a source for support, in particular for organizing specific conferences.
6.3 Young Scientists	Hannu Mutka A number of activities exists already for young scientists, e.g. the HERCULES course for neutron and x-ray scattering , and the Erasmus program MAMASELF . Other activities may concern new national neutron schools and courses, which should include practical sessions at neutron facilities, and/or simulation studies. It was pointed out that thesis works and post-doc programs at neutron facilities should have focuses that make the candidates attractive for positions also outside classical neutron scattering institutions.
6.4 Small Facilities	Kenneth Knudsen ENSA may facilitate routes for collaboration between different facilities, to secure optimum use of small facilities. One may image partnership between large and small facilities. Small facilities may for example offer NMI3 instruments and student programs as subcontractor to large institution.
7 Discussion on ENSA strategy	Different goals of ENSA were discussed. Main topics of ENSA are the • Organization of the ECNS conferences • Managing the W. Hälg prize and the Lewy-Bertaut prize. The ECNS conference and the W. Hälg prize are well founded. The Lewy-Bertaut prize should be settled by funding from EU, Industry or other possibly sources. ENSA may initiate additional prizes, e.g. • Student prize based on their thesis work. Here, however, there may be a language problem. • Prize for best paper. Here the problem may be how to judge the between papers where neutron scattering is only one among several techniques used. • Prize for most cited paper. Further ENSA may initiate/facilitate more meetings, e.g. • Specialized topical meetings • User-meetings • ESS-meeting, possibly joint ENSA-ESF (should be after the site has been decided) Neutron Facility Survey: It was discussed whether ENSA should make survey on neutron facilities including not only the major institutions, but also small university reactors. But IAEA should already have such information available. Data bases: ENSA may, possibly with EU funding, initiate a data base for neutron scattering papers. Communication strategies may include central ENSA communication through Neutron News and/or through electronic newsletters, possibly with support from EU-FP7 funding. Further communication is made through the national society sources. ENSA participation in relevant organizations ENSA should continue ‘membership’ of relevant organizations like ISE. Support for such activities may come from EU grants. ENSA did not make any final decisions on new initiatives, but continue with the work-packages: WP1 Facilities: H Schober, K Knudsen, SBVakrushev WP2 Communication: A Rennie, P Allenspach, K Mortensen WP3 Prizes: H Mutka WP4 Training: K McEwen, H Mutka WP5 International Connections: P Allenspach, H Mutka, A Deriu WP6 Literature: H Rauch, J Campo
8. Discussion of representation and board	The discussion on possibly appointing a chairman that is not already represented as a national ENSA delegate. Different opinions from the societies, some argue that the chairman must be a national delegate, while other will go for the best candidate. P Allenspach will look into the statue to see what changes are needed to elect a chairman outside the group of delegates. Candidates for vice chairman and secretary should be given at the next meeting, taking place during the ECNS conference in June. Election of the board members will take place at the meeting in Bilbao.
9 AOB Next Meetings:	ENSA27: 26. June 2007, during the ECNS conference in Lund. ENSA28: Bilbao.