EPS and SEENET-MTP Network strengthen their cooperation
The cooperation between EPS and the South-Eastern European Network in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics (SEENET-MTP) was established almost a decade ago and was further reinforced at the Kick-off Meeting of the EPS Committee of European Integration (EPS-CEI) during the Balkan Workshop BW2013 (Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia, 2013).
In accordance with the accepted strategies,EPS-CEI and SEENET-MTP collaborated in domains of mutual interest and activities –supporting exchange of physicists and physics research across South-Eastern and Central-Eastern Europe and training of the new generation of physicists, supported at a pan-European level. These activities were also materialised in the formation of the Consortium of EPS, ICTP, SEENET-MTP and UNESCO Office Venice, supported by CEI Trieste, with a program entitled “Towards the integration of the physics community in CEI countries into the ERA”.
The second meeting between EPS and SEENET-MTP Executive Committees (ECs), as well as the Balkan Physical Union (BPU) leadership and representatives of 10 physical societies from the region, was held in Bucharest, Romania, 2-3 February 2017. Continued cooperation between EPS and SEENET-MTP was further established by the decision to sign the Memorandum of Agreement between the two parties. The Memorandum is expected to be signed in the following months.
EPS and SEENET-MTP also agreed to collaborate in the training of PhD and MSc students. The European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) and SEENET-MTP signed the Framework Agreement for Scientific and Technical Collaboration, with one of its main activities being the continuation of the CERN – SEENET-MTP PhD Training Program launched in 2015. The Agreement was signed on 6th March 2017 by Professor Gian Giudice, Head of the Theoretical Physics Department, on behalf of CERN, and Professor Goran Djordjević, Executive Director of the Network and its Office at Nis, on behalf of the Network. Three seminars were held so far: Supergravity (Belgrade, 2015), Modern Aspects of Quantum Field Theory (Bucharest, 2015) and Computational Methods in Cosmology and General Relativity (Timisoara, 2016), with a total of 60 students from 8 countries taking part in them. The Agreement between CERN and SEENET-MTP provided grounds for the continuation of the Program in the following three-year period. In addition to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), EPS and EPS-CEI agreed to also take part in the collaboration and actively support the Program for the next 2 years. This support has been highly appreciated by the SEENET-MTP ExCom.
SEENET-MTP currently numbers 23 scientific institutions from 10 countries of the Balkan region and Ukraine, 14 partner institutions and 380 individual members from all around the globe. In the 14 years of SEENET-MTP’s existence, its core program has been the promotion and strengthening of joint research, capacity-building, promotion of science and the development of a collaborative atmosphere in the South-Eastern Europe.
