What?

For scientific communities and experts from commercial companies, the dissemination methods will include:

For Public Agencies and Institutions responsible for the management and maintenance of public structures and infrastructures and for commercial companies, dissemination methods will be the following:

International Standard Bodies will find interest in many of these dissemination initiatives and resources and in the handbook of protocols and guidelines that will be published at the end of the Action.

For European citizens and politicians, the Action activities and results will be disseminated through the public-access section of the Action’s website, through television, radio and newspaper interviews, posters in public places, press releases and news items posted on popular websites and discussion forums.

How?

Information relating to the Action will be continuously disseminated throughout the 4-year duration. The nature of this information will, of course, take into consideration the progress of the Action as well as the results of its evaluation, will change as the research projects near completion and will keep step with the calendar of events.

The reports on all the Action’s activities will be systematically posted on the COST network, thereby ensuring a high level of visibility.

The advances reported at the scientific meetings, conferences and TSs will give rise to proceedings-style joint publications. The results of the workshops will primarily give rise to articles in peer-reviewed Journals. The volume of guidelines, protocols and recommendations will increase as the Action’s work advances, while information will be regularly provided to the general public.

The dissemination plan will be in accordance with the MC’s recommendations.

All publications, documents and disseminated resources will be archived in an appropriate e-print repository of the COST Office and in the Action’s website.

The Action will organize many of its events co-located with recognised international events, in order to assure a wide audience and impact. The WGs of the Action will organize special topical sessions at main events, with a large participation of the Action’s members.

An important part of the dissemination activity will be targeted at young researchers. With this aim in mind, three TSs will be organised during the lifetime of the Action. The schools will deal with basic, applied and advanced topics, will be open to industrial participants and, in order to address properly the needs of industry, the programme of specific sessions of the School will be discussed and decided in agreement with representatives of companies interested in sending members of their staff as students. On the other hand, for students coming from participating institutions, the programme of the School will be completed by means of a short visit to one of the participating laboratories supported through the STSM programme.

The Action will promote and support the publication of joint scientific and technical papers, containing the results obtained in the framework of the Action and authored by members of the Action, in peer-reviewed scientific and technical Journals. If necessary, financial support may be granted to the authors by the MC in justified cases.