Chair: Prof. Dr Aura Reggiani

Website: http://www.nectar-eu.org/

Bologna, January 2009

Dear NECTAR colleagues:

First, my best wishes for a Happy New Year 2009 to all of you!

Before telling you about the innovations in the coming year, I would like to reflect on the past NECTAR year.

2008 was a rich year for NECTAR activities. All cluster coordinators organized their cluster meeting very efficiently: Dave Banister and Moshe Givoni (Cluster 1) in Oxford (September 2008); Harry Garlings, Yoram Shiftan, Diminique Stead and Erik Verhoef (Cluster 2) in Rotterdam (May 2008); Rob Konings, Eveline Vogels and Bart Wiegmans (Cluster 3) in Delft (March 2008). I would then like to thank all these NECTAR cluster coordinators and members for their admirable work.

I wish to announce the birth of a new Cluster (Cluster 6, on Accessibility), thanks to the efforts of Juan Carlos Martín, who organized a dedicated workshop in Las Palmas (June 2008). Interesting related activities have already started: a Thematic Session at the NARSC Conference in New York (November 2008), which was organized by Juan Carlos Martín and Antonio Paez.

The 3rd Kuhmo-NECTAR Summer School and Conference at the Free University of Amsterdam (June – July 2008) was also very successful, thanks to the scientific work and solid organization by Erik Verhoef, Hadewijch van Delft, Edoardo Marcucci and Esko Niskanen.

Last but not least, Sandra Melo and Luca Zamparini have launched the NECTAR Newsletter – with the new logo (see our web: www.nectar-eu.org). I would like to thank Sandra and Luca for their commitment and enthusiasm.

All these activities have also produced interesting articles, books and Special Issues, as you will read in the coming Newsletters.

The year 2008 was directed to reinforcing NECTAR's interdisciplinary and international character. As a result, in this New Year 2009 the most significant event will be the 1st Transatlantic NECTAR Conference, which will be held – under the umbrella of George Mason University – in the USA, at Arlington (VA), on 18-20 June 2009. Special thanks go to Ken Button who offered great support (please read the conditions for no conference fee and free accommodation in the call of papers on our web-site: www.nectar-eu.org). In this connection, thanks also go to Erik Verhoef for his important contribution.

In this context, most of the clusters are going to organize Thematic Sessions – in cooperation with our US partners – so the Conference looks very novel and promising. Please remember that the abstract deadline has been postponed to 15 March 2009.

In the light of all this NECTAR revitalization, I would like to inform you that Pierre Zembri just joined the coordinating team of Cluster 6. His job as NECTAR webmaster has now been taken by Thomas de Graaff. I wish to thank Pierre for his constructive work and dedication over the years, by making NECTAR visible all over the world. And, of course: a warm welcome to Thomas for this new challenge!

Further changes in the cluster topics and coordination – with the related scientific events – will be discussed in the coming months, mostly in Arlington.

Looking forward to continuing our fruitful cooperation in the development of novel research fields, and to meeting you in Arlington!

Again my best wishes,

Aura Reggiani

NECTAR Chair