Flash Conferences

The European project ERA-Chemistry will inaugurate in 2007 a new style of conferences in chemistry. They aim at bringing together experienced and young researchers to discuss frontier chemical research. The scientific scope of these conferences will be concerned exclusively with emerging topics of immediate importance for developing chemical research: sharply defined domains at the forefront in Europe. The non-recurrent hot topics will be proposed six months in advance by the members of the Scientific Advisory Board of ERA-Chemistry, a panel of European experts nominated by the partner countries.

The ERA-Chemistry Flash Conferences are based on high-level lectures by invited internationally renowned specialists of the domain. Each person attending must, as far as possible, contribute to the conference, so the poster presentations will be fully open, and the best proposals will be upgraded to “contributed” lectures.

The ERA-Chemistry Flash Conferences will be completely open to any researcher in the field, independent of age or nationality. Junior researchers are particularly welcome to this new conference scheme. There is no registration fee: participants will have to cover their own travel and on-site accommodation expenses (which will be the lowest possible).

There will be two Flash Conferences per year, in different European countries. They are planned for 3 full days, on a single site for both the conferences and accommodation. The daily agenda is organised around morning lectures given by the invited speakers; the afternoon will be reserved for friendly discussions or free activities, and the evening for the contributed lecturers.

The abstract booklets will be provided to the participants only. No further publication will be made by the conference organisers. Each participant agrees that any information from lectures, posters and discussions is considered as a private communication from the contributor and is not for public use.

The audience is limited to 100-120 attendees, selected on the quality of their proposals by the Chairpersons. The first ERA-Chemistry Flash Conference is scheduled for March 2007 in France, followed by a second conference in October in Portugal.

Forthcoming ERA-Chemistry Flash Conferences in 2008

4th ERA-Chemistry Flash Conference: "Modern chemical techniques for light harvesting"

9 to 12 November 2008

"Chemical schemes for harvesting light, either for the generation of electricity or for the direct synthesis of energy storage molecules (such as H2), are one of the grand challenges in chemistry. While first generation work was more focussed on physical schemes, e.g. by applying thin layers of semiconductors in CVD or PVD processes, second generation light harvesting systems make systematic use of modern synthetic chemistry, e.g. by generating doped inorganic semiconductor nanostructures, making polynuclear complexes for multielectron transfer reactions, or using biomimetic approaches to copy the natural photosynthesis cascade.

It is the purpose of this Flash Conference to give an exchange forum for chemical research on these modern, second generation light harvesting systems, either on their synthesis or on the characterization of the elemental charge transport or charge transfer steps. Ultimate goal should be diverse competing chemical systems promoting either efficient photocurrent generation or artificial photosynthesis of valuable intermediate molecules". More information on the Flash Conference in Spain, March 2008, can be found here

Previous ERA-Chemistry Flash Conferences

- More information on the 3nd Flash Conference in Ireland, March 2008, can be found here

- More information on the 2nd Flash Conference in Portugal, October 2007, can be found here.