Coordination and organisation

The organization of the Action will conform to the “Rules and procedures for implementing COST Actions” (COST doc. 4112/13) and “COST Action Management” (COST doc. 4114/13) and to any new document amending or replacing them. A Management Committee (MC) will be established to represent the Parties and to implement, coordinate and supervise the Action. A Core Group (CG) will be introduced to support the MC. It will comprise the Action Chair, Vice-Chair, the WG Leaders, the Chair of the Editorial Board, the STSM Manager, the Advisory-Board Leaders, the Gender-Balance Advisor, and the ESR Advisor. The MC will appoint a Chair and a Vice-Chair for each WG. They will be responsible for the management and implementation of the scientific work plan under their respective WG. The Action among the MC members will appoint an Editorial Board that will assist the MC for all policies on publication and dissemination, including the preparation of an advanced book and a roadmap, a STSM Manager to promote, coordinate and monitor STSMs, and two Advisory Boards that will assist the MC for all policies on innovation & technology transfer and education & training, respectively. The MC among its members will also appoint a Gender-Balance Advisor and an ESR Advisor, who will assist the MC for all policies on gender balance and on the promotion of ESRs, respectively. Gender balance will be supported within all these governance bodies. The Action coordination will be assisted by a website, which will be designed to contain up to date information about the Action members, activities and results.

Working Groups

The Action will be initially divided into four WGs, each for the research priorities outlined in section D. Each WG will be responsible for coordinating efforts in the assigned topic and it will take advantage of STSMs, Training Schools and WG meetings. Moreover, the WGs will establish connections among each other through joint events, starting from a Kick-Off Workshop. The Advisory Board on innovation & technology transfer will closely follow the scientific progress to advise on the innovation potential of the Action activities, promote the building up of intellectual property and facilitate the connection with industry. The Advisory Board on education & training will cooperate with the MC in order to select Training Schools and it will help defining curriculum development goals for Academia and lifelong learning programs for industry in the roadmap.

Liaison and interaction with other research programmes

The Action aims at developing close interactions with high-ranking national and international scientific institutions through the involvement of their members in its activities. In particular, the Action seeks to establish links and strategic partnerships with regional and national clusters of excellence, EU networks, COST Actions (e.g. Nanospectroscopy, Fundamental problems in quantum physics) and other relevant research centres worldwide. Moreover, it will involve industry as well as industry associations in its activities. To this end the Action will take advantage of the Industrial and Educational Advisory Boards.

Gender balance and involvement of early-stage researchers

This COST 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. The Gender-Balance Advisor and the ESR Advisor will specifically establish and coordinate monitoring of related data and a mentoring programme. This may include coaching activities, summer internships, student awards, career advice, and satellite events at workshops and conferences. The Action will support the career development of ESRs by organizing mentoring activities related to Marie Curie Actions (for mobility) and ERC Starting Grants (for independence) through the involvement of its senior members within training events. An advanced book will address scientists and engineers, but also graduate students and post-docs, who want to be actively involved in research on NQO. The Action will encourage female scientists and ESRs to take concrete responsibilities and duties, including a significant participation to committees, the organization of ESR Workshops and visits to research centres and companies. The Action will elaborate and disseminate a set of principles that define a women-friendly environment.

These will follow from well-tested programmes such as the Athens SWAN Charter for Women in Science and the more discipline specific Institute of Physics Project. Best practice within institutions will be awarded and funding will be assigned for the dissemination of its equalopportunity programme. Special care will be taken of the accessibility of meeting venues and availabilities of childcare services at the hotel to make it easier for participants with children to attend. Moreover, the Action will organize a workshop “Women in photonics and quantum optics: academia or industry?” to exchange experience, discuss about career opportunities for women working in these topics and disseminate the  monitoring activity on the involvement of female scientists in the COST Action Nanoscale Quantum Optics. Participation of female scientists and ESRs to STSMs, WGs meetings, conferences organized by the Action and related international events will be monitored, and data will be periodically analysed and published. Attention will be given to promote role models relevant to female scientists at all career stages within the Action. The Action will significantly target the participation of young female scientists, by dissemination of the Action aims among ESRs, where a higher percentage of female scientists is present.