Operating mode of the LIPS Research Consortium

a – Organisational structure of the Research Consortium

The Research Consortium is managed by a Director – Professor Jannick Duchet-Rumeau and a Deputy Director – Margarida Costa-Gomes, Director of Research at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), who represent the different disciplines. The Research Consortium’s work is coordinated by a tightly knit coordination team, the Committee, consisting of both Research Consortium Directors and the leaders of the scientific topics.

In addition to these scientific topics, three units are envisaged concerning:

• Relationships with industrial partners: a Partners’ club will be created
• Relationships with European partners for the international extension of our network
• Relationships with doctoral students and doctoral training

The leaders of each unit shall participate in the Committee.

The Committee shall meet at least biennially in order to:

• Envisage the actions to be undertaken in order to submit them to the supervisory bodies and ensure their proper operation
• Organise the different events and implement organisational and communication tools: thematic colloquia and thematic schools
• Manage relationships with the different supervisory bodies or structures: CNRS, INRA, ANR, EC, etc.
• Assist the management body with the management of resources

The Research Consortium’s strategic thrusts shall be defined by the consortium’s Scientific Committee, chaired by Professor Jean-François Gérard and consisting of the 17 people listed in Table 6.

Tableau 6. Composition of the LIPS Research Consortium’s Scientific Committee.

The Research Consortium’s Scientific Committee shall meet on an annual basis in order to:

• Evaluate the scientific programme and the actions underway
• Define the Research Consortium’s strategic thrusts
• Analyse the major developments in the field.

b – The Research Consortium’s Work Programme

The main aim of the Research Consortium is to devote significant efforts to coordination in order to create a dynamic and interdisciplinary research network on the “Association of Ionic Liquids and Polymers”, which shall have a high profile at the national, European and international levels.

For the next four years, the “LIPS” consortium wishes to implement the following types of actions:

– Events and exchanges

Overarching thematic colloquia covering the scientific topics shall be organised by the leaders of topics and shall allow the Research Consortium members to take stock of a particular aspect of the topic and exchange views during poster sessions and oral presentations. The topics to be covered have already been identified and listed in each scientific topic. Several related topics may be covered during the same colloquium.

There are also plans to hold an annual colloquium specifically for doctoral students and young researchers.
Support for the mobility of doctoral students and post-doctoral students within both communities shall be strongly encouraged as far as the available resources permit. We propose to allocate grants in order to facilitate these mobility programmes which shall have the dual aim of supplementing the students’ training and exchanging knowledge of new projects or new concepts. Grants shall be allocated upon the presentation of projects which must show the benefits of collaboration and shall be examined by the Research Consortium’s Scientific Committee.

– Dissemination of knowledge

A EUPOC conference has been scheduled to be held at Gargnano in Italy, from 2 to 6 September 2013. This EUPOC conference shall act as a unique forum for reviewing the current status of the different competences in the field of polymers combined with ionic liquids as well as in the applications of these materials. The plenary conferences shall be delivered by renowned experts from both communities and shall cover synthesis, physico-chemical properties, physical aspects associated with ionic liquids and the use of ionic liquids for polymers such as solvents, processing aids, polymerisation media and structuring agents for the development of functional materials. The plenary conferences shall be supplemented by oral and poster presentations.
A thematic school could be envisaged at the end of the Research Consortium in 2014, depending on the available resources.

A publication on the association of ionic liquids and polymers shall be envisaged, in response to ardent requests by the publisher Elsevier.

– Structuring of European links

These links will seek to raise the profile of the French teams and facilitate their integration into European projects and partnerships. Several forms of exchanges may be envisaged: creation of international networks and bilateral or multilateral exchange and coordination agreements with our European counterparts. The Research Consortium already includes Dr Alexander S. Shaplov from the Laboratory of High-Molecular Compounds of the Institute of Organoelement Compounds at the Russian Academy of Sciences (INEOS RAS) in Moscow (Russia).

Partners that have already been targeted include QUILL – Queen’s University Ionic Liquid Laboratories – a Belfast research centre that brings together academic partners along with an industrial consortium including 17 members from the chemical industry, such as DuPont, Exxon, ICI, Merck and Solvay. In the ionic liquids community, relationships already exist with Professor L.P. Rebelo’s group at the Instituto de Tecnologia Química Biológica in Portugal. Amongst the polymerists, exchanges have already taken place between Professor V. Mittal’s team at the Institute of Chemical and Bioengineering in Zurich (Switzerland) and Dr L. Matejka’s team at the University of Prague (Czech Republic). Professor. M. Antonietti at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam (Germany) and Professor. I. Kilpelainen at the University of Helsinki (Finland) will also be contacted.

– Organisation of industrial partnerships

This involves the establishment of a network of industrial partners in order to allow for the dissemination of the main scientific advances in the industrial world in return for the payment of a contribution from the partners for targeted actions and/or financial support and the promotion of collaborative projects.

– Communication

A website will be created in order to offer the Research Consortium its own platform for exchanges and interactive communication and allow for the dissemination of scientific information, the centralisation of bibliographic references, the publication of information about doctoral and post-doctoral positions, lists of future conferences and summer schools, proposals for collaborations, etc. This should constitute a real collaborative tool that will facilitate strong cohesion and fruitful exchanges.