FOCAS - Organisation, Coordination And Support

Goals: The FOCAS project is a coordination action which aims to integrate, coordinate and help increase visibility to research carried out in the FOCAS FET Proactive Initiative and in research fields related to collective adaptive systems. FOCAS will also provide a positive interface between scientists and the science-aware public, showing how research into collective adaptive systems can impact on society. The integrating role that the FOCAS coordination action will play includes: - Organising joint meetings, workshops and inter-project discussions to help improve communication between the FOCAS-funded research projects, sharing ideas between people and projects. - Improving collaboration between research fields and between researchers, in its events and activities which can help identify new and emerging research - Widening horizons for European researchers by initiating key collaborative ventures with researchers and research networks especially in North America and Asia. - Publicising research successes, conferences and relevant events via a hyper-media web portal, newsletters, e-bulletins, video documentaries and via the FOCAS online Reading Room with feature stories in the FOCAS Magazine and links to relevant articles in science journals. - Stimulation a new generation of researchers for collective adaptive systems and helping train them in summer schools and short-courses. - Extending public visibility for FOCAS research, and its expected societal impact in an accessible manner via a participative website, the FOCAS magazine and in well-informed debates at public events. - Providing an open participatory framework which helps to define the research landscape for collective adaptive systems, which identifies the centres of research activities, and anticipates potential for future research.