Coordination and organisation

The Action will be supervised and coordinated by a Management Committee (MC), presided by a Chair and a Vice-Chair, according to document COST “Rules and procedures for implementing COST Actions”. All research activities of the Action members will be carried out and funded by internal resources of the participating groups, with COST supporting only the coordination, networking, and dissemination activities. To achieve the Action objectives effectively, coordination will involve:

• Action management
  The MC will set up the network, discuss the achievements and the problems encountered, and plan future activities. It will report to the COST Office on a yearly basis. The MC will appoint a Core Group (CG) to assure rapid, efficient and flexible coordination of the Action. The CG will consist of the MC Chair and vice-Chair, the WG Leaders, the STSM Coordinator, and the Gender Balance Coordinator. The CG will prepare all relevant documents for the MC meetings.
• Outreach Coordination
  The MC will appoint a Coordinator responsible to create and update monthly the Action web site according to COST rules, and to publish a periodic newsletter, with scientific highlights, joint publications, and job advertisement. The Outreach Coordinator will also supervise the other activities described in section H.
• Gender balance and mentoring
  The MC will appoint a Gender Balance Coordinator to promote an appropriate gender balance in all Action-related activities and coordinating the mentoring scheme for early-stage researchers.
• STSMs Coordinator
  She/he will coordinate the STSMs. She/he will be responsible of overseeing the STSM-implementation plan, prepare the annual selection and review process of the STSMs. Operative decisions on the STSM will be taken by the CG and reported to the MC.

The four WGs detailed in this page will target the four main investigation streams outlined in section B.2. Each WG will be coordinated by a chair and a vice-chair appointed by the MC, with the responsibility for organization, coordination, networking and reporting. WGs will also provide the scientific input to the annual reports and the periodic outreach activity.

The scientific programmes of the four WGs will be carried out in close cross-correlation. The participation of groups in more than one WG will be encouraged. The existing cross-links between WGs will extend in the course of the Action, thus maximizing the impact of the Action itself. An upgrade of the WG structure may be implemented at the mid-term meeting, if the MC identifies clear benefits for the on-going Action plan.

To establish fruitful possible interactions with future interrelated COST Actions and other European or worldwide research programmes, the following means will be exploited:

1. organization of seminars and joint workshops/meetings, as an effective means of exchange;
2. invitation of leading academic and industrial partners of other programmes to talk at the annual Action conferences/workshops;
3. establishment of research collaborations, especially through joint European projects to study specific topics of common interest;
4. invitation to join this COST Action, directed to groups of those projects with relevance for the tribology field.

An objective of the Action is to promote the participation of its members in future research programmes, in particular, those launched within the European Framework Programmes.

This Action will respect an appropriate gender balance in all its activities and the Management Committee will place this as a standard item on all its MC agendas. The Action will also be committed to considerably involve early-stage researchers. This item will also be placed as a standard item on all MC agendas.

As the number of women working in tribology is traditionally small, this Action will devote an extra effort in supporting a gender balance in all its activities. The MC will implement a mentoring programme; the website and the newsletters will highlight events concerning gender issues and women in science. This Action will also encourage and support the participation of young researchers to all Action activities as well as in its management and administration.