The meeting

The third Network Council meeting took place Roskilde in the days just before CINEFOGO’s Midterm Conference. Participants were - apart from the National Coordinators - Dr. Puhar, member of the Network’s Scientific Advisory Board, and professor, dr. Paolo Belluci, representative of the INTUNE project. The main purpose was to evaluate the first 18 months of the work, to discuss the status for the 3 thematic areas, and to examine Network activity plans and proposals for  the remaining project period, i.e. to the end of August 2009.

Evaluation of the first 18 months

Marta Nachtmannová presented the key findings and recommendations from the Networks own evaluation of the first 18 months. The report emphasized that the Programme of Integrated Research Activities (PIRA) and Spread of Excellence (SoE) are of equal importance and highly interdepdent, and recommended that Work Package members in the future enhance their cooperation by actively involving related work packages (WPs) and inviting theme coordinators to participate in their events. WP responsibles were encouraged to communicate more intensively about their activities through the website by using the Outcomes Database, that now is in function.

The Outcomes Database

The Outcomes database http://cinefogo.cuni.cz was presented by Marta Nachtmannová. It serves a three-fold purpose by facilitating research integration, supporting coordinating activities and enhancing dissemination and communication of the WP excellence and reporting on WP progress to the CINEFOGO Secretariat.

The Outcomes Database is developed to assist the Work Package responsible patners in fulfilling their responsibility to actively spread and disseminate information on the activities, in relation to interested parties within and outside the Network. It replaces the activity reporting tool. While uploading files it is possible to choose whether they should be accessible for the wider public, network members only or strictly for the SoE office and the CINEFOGO Secretariat. All kinds of files, as e.g. office documents, audio, and video material, can be uploaded.

Presentation of thematic essays

The work performed untill now within CINEFOGO’s 3 main themes was presented.

Theme 1: Identity, Values and Civic Cultures in Europe –Integration and Diversity, was presented by the theme coordinator Siyka Kovacheva.
Theme 2: Citizenship and Civic Participation in Relation to Social Protection, was presented by the theme coordinator Adalbert Evers.
Theme 3: Multi-level Governance and Organized Civil Society, was presented by the theme coordinator Carlo Ruzza.

(The theme coordinators’ reports on the 3 themes are left out at this place. However such descriptions can be found in the section ”Highlights from CINFOGO’s Second Year” elsewhere in the Newsletter).

Student corner

The student corner www.civilsociety.se was presented by Filip Wikström. The aim of the student corner is to support students of civil society and 3rd Sector research through a web based portal structured under the 5 P’s: Publications, Programmes, People, Places, Ph.D. resources.

INTUNE project

Dr. Paolo Belluci, presentated the aims and goals of Intune, and his reflections on what CINEFOGO and Intune have in common. The overall aim of Intune is to investigate whether an EU citizenship is emerging, and what the effects are on national citizenship. 3 themes: Identity, Representation, and Scope of Governance are addressed by empirical research within 4 working groups on Political elites, Experts, Mass Media, and Citizens.

Paolo Belluci applauded our communication and dissemination strategy and concluded that CINEFOGO’s SoE dimension was of relevance to Intune . (Read more at www.intune.it).

Future Network Activities

Some perspectives were presented on the remaining project period and the future of the network, in terms of the development of the 3 thematic areas. It was suggested that the 3 existing thematic areas were retained. Further, there was a discussion of the group’s proposed list, connecting every existing and / or suggested WPs to one of the thematic areas. The Secretariat should present the result of the discussions to the Network Management Board at its meeting in October 2007, and publish the final result in due time.

It was decided to organize a final conference in Brussels in 2009, marking the end of the project, and aiming at attracting the attention of the European Policy makers and the Commission.

The international coordinator, Thomas Boje, pointed out that the outcome of the evaluation of the past 18 months and the fruitful discussions on the future during this meeting of the Network Council would be of great help for making a synthesis plan for the future activities, and for producing guidelines for the remaining work.