Management Committee Meeting

COST Action FP1202 Name of the Action

Strengthening conservation: a key issue for adaptation of marginal/ peripheral populations of forest trees to climate change in Europe

(MaP-FGR)

Meeting Rome (Italy), 24th – 25th January 2013

0. Welcome to participants Nomination of Rapporteurs for MC Minutes Annika Telford (V. Chair, UK) and Valentina Garavaglia (Secretary of the Meeting, FAO). 1. Adoption of agenda: the Chair calls the attending members and recognizes the legal number. 2. Minutes of last meeting:

- Minutes of the First MC Meeting in Brussels, 8 11 2012 (see FP1202_MC1_Minutes08Nov2012_Brux.pdf) are approved but some errors have to be corrected at p.11 as suggested according to some members as Greece, the Netherland and Norway. WG tasks were incorrectly copied and pasted from the original MoU so that the tasks under each WG do not match. In the incorrect minutes WG1 has been linked with Task 1, WG2 with Task 2 etc. The minutes should be corrected as following: WG1 = Tasks 1 and 2, WG2 = Tasks 2 and 3, WG3 = Tasks 3 and 4, WG4 = Tasks 1-4.

- A typing error occurred in the official title: ‘’Tree’’ instead of “Trees” (correct). - Amended the error done in transcription of the Title of WG1, the correct version is: WG1: Gathering of already available data and compilation of ecological, genetic and global change information, and particularly climate effects, on FGR and distribution of MaP populations (e.g. climatic scenarios and models, forest decline maps, lists of endangered materials). - At pag. 11 Jorge Pajva nationality is “(PT)” instead of ”(PL)”.

3. Matters arising: - The Chair made some important remarks and reminders about “communication”. Communication must be improved, very few people replied to requests on due time and often only partially. - All decisions must pass through the Chair, GH and MC. - WG1: Prof. Annette Menzel declined the charge to lead WG1, the Vice Leader Dr. Borbala Galos took the charge to follow these first steps and to compile the first draft of WG1 to be presented in Rome for discussions. She declined the Leadership, as well as other colleagues who were approached; therefore, as consequence a new Leader was needed. The Chair received the agreement of Dr Julian Gonzalo (Spain) who accepted. The change has been approved. - Joining the ecost web site is mandatory, not all members are referring to that for communications and reimbursements.

2

4. Report from the COST Office

- News from the COST Office was read as requested and members made aware that: COST Office was audited by European Court of Auditors in December 2012 and results

indicated that COST is distributing the EU funds with appropriate controls b. Everyone is invited to sign up to the COST Expert Database from which evaluators of

proposals will be found http://www.cost.eu/participate/experts c. Five new Actions have been approved in the FPS Domain:

i. FP1203 European non-wood forest products (NWFPs) network ii. FP1204 Green Infrastructure approach: linking environmental with social

aspects in studying and managing urban forests iii. FP1205 Innovative applications of regenerated wood cellulose fibres iv. FP1206 European mixed forests. Integrating Scientific Knowledge in Sustainable

Forest Management. (EuMIXFOR) v. FP1207 Orchestrating forest-related policy analysis in Europe (ORCHESTRA)

d. COST is holding, with the Forest-based Sector Technology Platform a Young Researchers Forum in conjunction with the FTP Annual Conference in March 2013. 178 applications were received for 80 funded ESR places.

e. COST is supporting a Targeted Network on gender science, technology and the environment (genderSTE) www.cost.eu/genderste - Actions are encouraged to find out more about genderSTE and to consider inviting genderSTE to present to an upcoming meeting of the Action

- Status of Action, including participating countries - Budget Status, budget planning and allocation process

5. Progress report of working groups:

Concerning the WGs report about decisions taken in the Plenary meeting, following items have been also discussed and approved:

The MC approved the proposal of WG1 to prepare a template to collect available information

on MaP FGR to be distributed to COST FP1202 parties; The MC approved the proposal of WG2 to prepare a database for managing available

information on MaP FGR. WG2 proposes also to create collaborations with people in charge of databases created for other initiatives such as EVOLTREE or TREEBREEDEX. It will allow project COST FP1202 to better identify aims and topics to be targeted.

The MC approved the proposal of WG3 to prepare a scientific paper on ‘’Title to be defined” by the end of 2013. Giuseppe Vendramin asked if an open contribution of other WGs is previewed for the preparation of this paper.

The MC approved proposals of WG4:

o A web site for the project COST FP1202 will be created and managed by CRA SEL Arezzo, in collaboration with the Slovenian Forest Institute. Bruno Fady asked for having the possibility to have a dedicated area for sharing documents and data

3

among participants. The proposed deadline to have the website ready to be online is March 2013;

o An annual newsletter will be prepared by WG4. Bruno Fady proposed to prepare it in English and translate it in other languages to disseminate it also to stakeholders and non-scientific people;

o About training courses (see more details at point 7.1), participants asked to have the possibility to have more than 3 trainers and a maximum of 25 students. Greece proposed to increase the number of students to 30. But it was stated that, if students will be less than established, participants ask to use the remaining money to have more trainers.

The Chair Fulvio Ducci will receive the main points/summary of WG meetings to be presented on 5th February 2013 in Madrid. The proposed deadline is 30th February 13. The WG Leaders will provide the approved texts of their programmes by 30th June 2013 to prepare the Monitoring progress report.

Important dates fixed for monitoring are:

o 30 June 2013, first monitoring report of WGs (internal); o 20 October 2013 first yearly report from WGs (to be attached to the Cost Action

Report).

o 1 July 2013 – 30 August 2013 the Core Group will prepare the Work Plan Budget 2014 proposal.

6. Action planning

6.1 Annual Progress Conference (preparation and/or feedback from DC)

Will be held in Madrid, 25 – 26 March 2013 near INIA. A power-point presentation and documents will be prepared according the following instructions:

According to the APC Guidelines issues by the CSO (COST 4113/11) rules for this Annual Progress Conference are: 1. Actions must be represented by the Chair of the Action, 2. all running Actions must attend the APC (for FPS this means FP0803, FP0804, FP0901, FP0902, FP0903,

FP0904, FP0905, FP1001, FP1002, FP1003, FP1004, FP1005, FP1006, FP1101, FP1102, FP1103, FP1104, FP1105, FP1106,FP1201, FP1202), and

3. FPS also invites the proposers of new Actions approved by the CSO under the most recent Open Call collection date (OC 2012-1) but not yet having held their first MC meeting (subject to final CSO approval: FP1203, FP1204, FP1205, FP1206, FP1207).

As usual Action Chairs (FP0803-FP1202) are required to submit to fps@cost.eu: by Monday 28 January 2013 (obtained delay to 5 February 2013) 1. Monitoring Progress Report for the period 1/1/2012 to 31/12/2012 using the template here

http://www.cost.eu/download/monitoring_progress_report_template.doc 1. (noting that the report is cumulative and Actions that have previously submitted MPR(s) must

include Section II of the previous years’ MPR(s) as Section III of this year’s report) – 2. Section I should be prepared by the Grant Holder (please ensure that the Grant Holder has a

copy of the previous year’s MPR Section I to work from and is informed that at section IA and IB they can simply copy the Action Faction Sheet (available through the Action page on the COST

4

website) and should not worry about the differences between the template and the Action Fact Sheet).

3. Please call this file “APC 2013 FPXXXX MPR”, replacing XXXX with the 4 digit code of your Action and submit it as a word document (not pdf),

4. Any additional content (meeting programmes etc) should only be provided as a separate document (with the same file name as the MPR followed by”-Annex”

2. Updated Action Brochure/ Poster according to the attached templates (you choose whether to make a one-side or two-side brochure – the one page has the advantage that it can also be displayed as a poster) 1. Ensure that the brochure is up to date with the latest results/ achievements for your Action 2. Please call this file “APC 2013 FPXXXX Brochure”, replacing XXXX with the 4 digit code of your

Action. by Monday 25 February 2013 3. Presentation using the correct template (FP1201 and FP1202 must use the short “new Actions”

presentation template whereas all other Actions (FP0803-FP1106) must use the “Ongoing Actions” template). 1. Please call this file “APC 2011 FPXXXX Presentation”, replacing XXXX with the 4 digit code of

your Action. 2. Notes on presentation:

- The template has been revised to put more emphasis on the Action’s science/ networking, outcomes and impacts and to put the statistical information at the end (now on just 3 slides);

- To ensure consistency and comparability please ensure that: 1. on the slide called “Action participants” the orange bars include all individual participants (male and

female, ESRs and non ESR) – thus the green (ESR) and blue (female) bars will show specific subsets of (and not additions to) the orange bar, and

2. only publications involving two or more Action participants from different countries are counted as “Action publications”.

The MC Members were made aware of that.

6.2 Action Budget Planning Workplan Budget (WB) 2013 (there is the link with the document) For the next 2014 WB an increase of the total amount will be requested due to the high number of

participants. It is also proposed that a higher budget for the training school will be requested to allow

for more teachers, as the allocation of only three teachers for the training school this year is feared to

be insufficient. The new budget for the next Grant Period (this has to be submitted to the COST Office

by the end of August 2013 (for the Grant Period 1/1/2014-31/12/2014) should be prepared between

July 2013 and 15th of August 2013.

6.3 Action Planning (including meetings) 6.3.1 Location and date of next meeting

5

Sopron (Hungary): 2 + 1 days during week 11th – 14th of September 2013.

Contact: Prof. Csaba Mátyás (cm@emk.nyme.hu). The Chair will contact formally the Dean of the University in Sopron. The Swiss delegation asked to devote half a day for a filed visit on a marginal site each meeting. That has been approved.6.3.2 Long-term planning (including anticipated locations and dates of future meetings)

No proposals. Decisions have been delayed to the Sopron Meeting. The Chair proposes to hold each year: 2 MC and WG meetings/workshops at the same time of MC meeting; if necessary, thematic Plenary or parallel WG workshops can be organised half a day in the same period. Plenary meeting: (MC + WG) proposed locations: 2nd year: - 3rd year: - 4th year: -

7. STSM status, applications:

The Core Group (CG: Chair, Vice Chair and WG leaders) was nominated in Brussels on 8th November 2012 (see Minutes). The CG will provide information on how to get applications and select participants and at future meetings the MC should be given an overview of approved STSMs, including information on the successful applicants and the content of the STSMs (where they are going,

what they are planning on doing, potential outputs, relevance to MaP populations etc.).

Rules synthesized at Point 4 of Vademecum B will be followed: The aim of a Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM) shall be to contribute to the scientific objectives of a COST Action. These Missions (Exchange Visits) are aimed at strengthening the existing networks by allowing scientists to go to an institution or laboratory in another COST Country to foster collaboration, to learn a new technique or to take measurements using instruments and/or methods not available in their own institution/laboratory. They are particularly intended for young scientists. An Action should normally set up at least 4 STSMs per year. Short-Term Scientific Missions, minimum one week (5 working days), maximum 3 months, shall be made within the time frame of the operation identified in the proposal and within the period of the respective Action. For Early Stage Researchers (less than PhD + 8 years) the Management Committee may approve an extension to a duration beyond 3 months, but normally not more than 6 months in total.

6

According to the Budged Work Plan, about 13 STSM (2500€ each on average) can be called this year. The Chair proposes 2 call periods/year: one within April and the second one within August. ESR will be encouraged.

Before approving, the complete list of applications with total expenses per Trainees must be received by the Core Group and the GH to check the matching with the budget assigned. Participants ask to publish the call on the website which should be ready by March 2013.

7.1 Training School:

- To be amended: the location in the Budget Work Plan: “Greece, Crete (Chania)” instead of “Belgium…”:

- Approved the location in Chania - Crete (GR), near CIHEAM, in collaboration with AUTH – the Aristotothelian University of Thessaloniki (Philippos Aravanopoulos and Evi Alizoti), dates to be definitively fixed in spring 2013.

- Before approving, the complete list of applications with total expenses per Trainees must be received by the Core Group and the GH to check the matching with the budget assigned.

- One first topic for the training school could be to make forest scientists and managers aware of the importance of marginal populations. How to design proper approaches for identifying/deducing genetic/ecological properties/characteristics of MaPs. Proposed title: “TS on genetic and ecological properties of marginal populations. And their importance for conservation and use under climate change.”

The possibility of hopding a training school on writing scientific papers on MaP FGR was discussed, this would be particularly beneficial to ESR (which is among the aims of COST FP1202) and would contribute to WG deliverables.

- CIHEAM (Mr. Placido Plaza) accepted and proposed the following conditions to Chair and WG4 Leader, which were presented and accepted by the MC:

7

Proposed dates, to be fixed: 1. From May to 8 June 2013, 2. From 20 June to August 2013; 3. From 10 to 30 July 2013 (to be confirmed).

Meals: 12€/each Coffee breaks: 3-4€/each

MAICh DORMITORIES

Price in Euro/room

Bed Breakfast

Single 30

Double/Twin (bunk beds) 42

Attic (two levels room with a double and a single bed)

50

MAICh ACADEMIC VILLAGE

Stone houses 80

Costs do not include VAT Tax (23%). 8. Publications, dissemination and outreach activities Nothing to discuss at present. This Item will be discussed in Sopron after the first results obtained in the year. 1. Action Brochure to be produced (WG4); 2. Logo (approved thanks WG4)

WG4, together with the Core Group will follow the development of the web site according to the above agreement (see point 5 for details), MoU and Cost Rules. 9. Request for new members

Montenegro is pending.

Other countries pending: Slovenia.

It becomes relevant once the one year anniversary of the CSO approval has passed and the MC approval

is needed for additional COST countries to join. Some Actions already take a MC decision that any

COST country that hasn’t already joined the Action is approved to join. That means that when the country

8

applies you already have the MC approval on file and Chair can immediately inform Cost Office that it is

approved.

10. Promotion of gender balance and of Early Stage Researchers (ESR)

25 women are involved in WG activities from a total of 84 (>25%). During this first meeting in Rome, other women involved in COST FP12002 were delegates of the Intergovernamental Technical Working Group on Forest Genetic Resources (FAO, 23-25 January 2013) .

The Chair proposed a yearly monitoring of ESR and Women involved in FP 1202 activities.

Women in the Management Committee

MC Chair Dr Fulvio DUCCI (IT)

MC Vice Chair Ms Annika TELFORD (UK)

COST Participants

Country MC Member

Austria Dr Berthold HEINZE

Belgium Dr Kristine VANDER MIJNSBRUGGE

Bosnia and Herzegovina Dr Dalibor BALLIAN

Bosnia and Herzegovina Mr Branislav CVJETKOVIC

Bulgaria Dr Tzvetan ZLATANOV

Denmark ■ Prof Erik Dahl KJAR

Finland Ms Mari RUSANEN

Finland Dr Matti ROUSI

France Dr Bruno FADY

France Mr Christophe BESACIER

Germany Prof Annette MENZEL

Germany Dr Georg VON WUHLISCH

Greece Prof Paraskevi ALIZOTI

Greece Prof Filippos A. ARAVANOPOULOS

Hungary Mr Ervin RASZTOVITS

Hungary Dr Csaba MATYAS

Italy Dr Giovanni Giuseppe VENDRAMIN

Italy Dr Piero BELLETTI

Latvia Dr Una NEIMANE

Netherlands Dr Koen KRAMER

Netherlands Dr J. BUITEVELD

9

Norway Prof Tore SKROPPA

Norway Dr Tor MYKING

Poland Dr Piotr MARKIEWICZ

Poland Dr Jaroslaw SOCHA

Portugal Dr Maria Carolina VARELA

Portugal Dr Jorge PAIVA

Romania Prof. Neculae SOFLETEA

Romania Mr Marin TUDOROIU

Serbia Mr Srdjan STOJNIC

Slovakia Prof Dusan GOMORY

Slovakia Dr Roman LONGAUER

Spain Mr Eduardo NOTIVOL

Spain Dr Ricardo ALIA MIRANDA

Switzerland Prof Urs MUHLETHALER

Switzerland Dr Matthias AREND

Turkey Dr Yusuf SERENGIL

United Kingdom Dr Stephen CAVERS

United Kingdom Ms Annika TELFORD

Country MC Substitute

Austria Dr Marcela VAN LOO

Denmark Dr Ole Kim HANSEN

Finland ■ Prof. Katri KARKKAINEN

France ■ Dr Alexis DUCOUSSO

Germany Mr Gerhard HUBER

Germany Dr Nicole ESTRELLA

Germany Prof Michael KOHL

Greece Prof Ioannis GITAS

Greece Dr Aristotelis PAPAGEORGIOU

Hungary ■ Dr Laszlo NAGY

Hungary ■ Dr Borbala GALOS

Italy Dr Maria Emilia MALVOLTI

Netherlands Dr Roy ERKENS

Netherlands ■ Dr Arjen DE GROOT

Norway Dr Jorn Henrik SONSTEBO

Norway ■ Dr Igor YAKOVLEV

Poland Mr Szymon JASTRZEBOWSKI

10

Portugal Dr Susana ARAUJO

Portugal Dr Maria Teresa VALDIVIESSO

Romania ■ Dr Alexandru CURTU

Switzerland Dr Andrea R. PLUESS

Switzerland Dr Pascale WEBER

United Kingdom Dr Witold WACHOWIAK

United Kingdom Dr Alistair JUMP

COST Participants subject to MoU acceptance

Country MC Member

Slovenia Dr Gregor BOZIC

Country MC Substitute

Slovenia Prof. Hojka KRAIGHER

11. Non-COST country participations Non-COST Participants

Institution MC Member

Agronomy Faculty Tichreen University

■ Dr Ilene Mahfoud

Agronomy Faculty Tichreen University

Dr Wael Ali

CRF / HCEFLCD ■ Dr Hassan Sbay

CRF / HCEFLCD Dr Abderrahman AAFI

CRF / HCEFLCD Dr Mohamed GHANMI

Faculty of Science Saint Joseph University

Dr Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat

Faculty of Science Saint Joseph University

■ Dr Bouchra Douaihy

INRGREF ■ Dr Abdelhamid Khaldi

Unit� de recherche � l''Iinstitut National de Recherche Forestiere (INRF)

■ Dr Mohamed BOUYAICHE

European/International Bodies Participants

Institution MC Member

Bioversity International Dr Jarkko Koskela

Bioversity International Dr Judy Loo

EFIMED Dr Marc Palahi

11

IUFRO Working Group 2.04.02

Dr Milan Lstiburek

CIHEAM is under processing It has been requested the activation of lacking e-cost emails of some participants. 12. Web news To be activated accordingly the Cost Rules (WG4) The core Group will discuss the main characteristics. Please see at the point 5 (web site point). 13. AOB - National reports, showing the general initial state of the MaP population context will be used as a first information base for starting the activities; they will be shared among WGs for their aims, possibly by the web site instrument. 14. Closing The Meeting was closed at 14H30 of 25th January 2013. Abstract of approved items The Management Committee approved the following items: - The agenda was approved by the MC. - Minutes of the first Management were approved after the amendments done; - Communications must be improved and participants people should answer to requests on due time. 6. Joining the ecost web site is mandatory, all members have to do.

7. The WG1 Leader has been replaced by Dr Julian Gonzalo who accepted the charge.

8. News from the COST Office were noted and information will be spread by WG4;

- Working Groups general plans developed and presented during the Plenary Meeting were approved. - WG Leaders will produce a text plan to be inserted in the Minutes of the meeting in Rome. - The MC noted the Chair will attend at the Progress Conference meeting in Madrid; - The next Plenary Meeting will be held in Sopron (Hungary): 2 + 1 days during week 11th – 14th of September 2013. Local Organizer Contact will be: Prof. Csaba Màtyàs (cm@emk.nyme.hu) . If Authorised by the MC, the Chair can contact formally the Dean of the University in Sopron. It has been suggested that a brainstorming session or writing meeting is organised during this time for the Working Groups. - Pending Countries: their application can be approved according to the statement above mentioned.

12

- The work Budget Plan is approved, with mandate to adapt the STSM Mission budget to the real needs of applications presented and approved. - The first Training School Cycle of the Cost Action will be held in Chania – Crete (GR), near CIHEAM (ref. Dr. Placido Plaza) in collaboration with Prof. Philippos Aravanopoulos (AUTH – GR), ----------- 2013. The Core Group will proceed with selection of applicants in order to encourage ESR and meet the Gender Balance. Geographic criteria will be also followed. Title proposed: “TS on genetic and ecological properties of marginal populations and their importance for conservation and use under climate change.” - STSM will be called two times per year according to the above proposed statements; prominence will be given to items on gender balance and to ESR. The Core Group will select Applications also according to geographic criteria. - The Chair and WG4 leader will take care of web site establishment following Cost Rules and indications of MC and of the Core Group, updating will be carried out by CRA SEL Arezzo and the Slovenian Institute for Forestry. The first monitoring of its efficiency will be during the first year and it will be approved definitively in Sopron. - The attached logo of the Cost Action has been approved.

ANNEXES (files attached) Minutes of MC meeting in Brussels 8th November 2012 (amended); Budget Work Plan 2013. Rome, 25th January 2013 The Chair Dr. Fulvio DUCCI