One of the key activities for Early Career Investigators (ECIs) within COST Actions is to participate in Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs).

During the four-year lifetime of COST FP1303, a total of 39 STSMs have been undertaken. Persons who were classed as PhD students and ECIs at the time of their STSM visit are marked in bold. The full list is listed below: 

 

Applicant	Host	STSM title	Period
Mr Michael Burnard (SI)	Dr. Mark Hughes (FI)	Investigating Views of Naturalness Across Europe	10-20.02.2014
Dr Christelle Ganne-Chédeville (CH)	Dr. Johannes Welling (DE)	LCA of Bio-Based Ultralight Particleboard	24-28.03.2014
Mr Alireza Bastani (DE)	Dr. Anti Rohumaa (FI)	Investigation on bonding properties of modified birch veneers using ABES machine	11-18.05.2014
Mr Jinbo Hu (FR)	Dr. Graham Ormondroyd (UK)	The life cycle assessment of novel timber treatemnts	01-30.06.2014
Ms Linda Meyer (DE)	Dr. Pia Larsson Brelid (SE)	Isolation of decay fungi from in-ground and above ground durability field tests	30.06-04.07.2014
Dr Serkan Ozdemir (TR)	Dr. Andreja Kutnar (SI)	Wood densification treatments of veneer specimens and environmental impact assessment	11-22.08.2014
Ms Sónia Duarte (PT)	Dr. Carl Gunnar Fossdal (NO)	Assessment of subterranean termite symbiotic fauna under different diets	18-29.08.2014
Mr David Zerbst (DE)	Dr. Peter Niemz (CH)	Analysis of the behaviour of bonded wood under cyclic stress	15.09-06.10.2014
Ms. Mariana Palumbo (ES)	Dr. Miha Humar (SI)	Mould and fire resistance of biobased insulation boards	20-25.10.2014
Dr. Petr Cermák (CZ)	Dr. Lauri Rautkari (FI)	Influence of dry-soak cycles on dim. stability and OH-group’s accessibility of thermally mod. wood	20.10-07.11.2014
Dr. Lauri Rautkari (FI)	Dr. Emil Thybring Engelund (CH)	Raman imaging of naturally and artificially decay resistant wood	09-20.02.2015
Ms. Carolina Gomes de Oliveira Griebeler (ES)	Dr. Gianluca Tondi (AT)	Effect of thermal modification on the colorimetric parameters and physical properties of Eucalyptus	09.02-08.05.2015
Dr. Anna Sandak (IT)	Dr. Marion Noël (CH)	Microscopic evaluation of morphological changes to spruce wood after short term natural weathering	22-28.03.2015
Ms. Carola Hesse (DE)	Dr. Miha Humar (SI)	Studies on the material resistance & moisture performance of four european wood species	23.03-01.04.2015
Mr. Lothar Clauder (DE)	Dr. Graham Ormondroyd (UK)	Emissions from bio-based building materials	29.03-18.04.2015
Dr Marion Noel (CH)	Dr. Graham Ormondroyd (UK)	DMTA analysis of modified and weathered wood samples	10-20.05.2015
Dr Pavlo Bekhta (UA)	Dr. Jan Sedliacik (SK)	Properties of plywood panels manufactured from thermally compressed veneer	01-30.06.2015
Dr Charalampos Lykidis (EL)	Dr. Jakub Sandak (IT)	The use of NIR spectroscopy as a quality marker of hydrothermally treated wood	14-24.09.2015
Dr Eduard Correal Mòdol (ES)	Dr. Stefanie Wieland (NO)	Performance of adhesives on glulam made with European chestnut timber	17.10-01.11.2015
Dr Petr Cermák (CZ)	Dr. Lauri Rautkari (FI)	Performance of post-manufacture thermally modified linear welded birch wood (Betula pendula Roth): shape stability, mechanical properties and environmental effects	15-26.02.2016
Dr Athanasios Dimitriou (UK)	Dr. Jakub Sandak (IT)	Surface charachterisasion fo spruce after natural weathering	29.02-29.04.2016
Mr Malte Janus (DE)	Dr. Simon Cragg (UK)	Laboratory screening of thermo-mechanically densified and thermally modified timbers for resistance to the marine borer Limnoria quadripunctata	06.03-04.04.2016
Ms Susanna Källbom (SE)	Dr. Holger Militz (DE)	Influence of high humidity exposure on sorption properties and morphology of wood particles after thermal modification	09-18.03.2016
Mr Petter Stefansson (NO)	Dr. Jakub Sandak (IT)	X-ray density mapping of weathered wood samples	14-25.03.2016
Dr Matthew Schwarzkopf (SI)	Dr. Viacheslav Tverezovskiy (UK)	Utilization and modification of the Istrska belica olive as a wood preservation treatment	01-15.04.2016
Dr Magdalena Broda (PL),	Dr. Erik Larnøy (NO)	Using DMA device to characterise physicomechanical properties of archaeological oak wood treated with silanes	29.05-28.06.2016
Mr. Lothar Clauder (DE)	Dr. Magdalena Kutnik (FR)	Analysis of fungi in TMT samples	28.08-10.09.2016
Dr. Jakub Sandak (IT)	Dr. Ingunn Burud (NO)	Development of a numerical model for computation of the weather dose in natural weathering of biomaterials	11-17.12.2016
Mr Davor Kržišnik (SI)	Dr. Thomas Thiis (NO)	Statistical modelling of colour change of wooden model house unit as a function of climatic exposure	23.01-13.02.2017
Dr. Andreja Pirc Barcic (HR)	Dr. Andreja Kutnar (SI)	Boostering knowledge and information about the importance of the LCA analysis in environmental impact assessment of wooden products	19-25.03.2017
Dr. Sanne Johansson (SE)	Dr. Emil Engelund Thybring (DK)	Wood-water interactions in brown-rot decayed wood characterized by low-field NMR	24-28.04.2017
Dr Magdalena Broda (PL)	Dr. Maria-Cristina Popescu (RO)	The reactivity of organosilicon compounds with wood - FT-IR study	23-29.04.2017
Mr. Albert Hernandez Estrada (FI)	Dr. Jörg Müssig (DE)	Investigation of the impact of dislocations in hemp fibres at the composite level	1.07-13.08.2017
Ms. Charlotte Grosse (CH)	Dr. Merwenna Spear (UK)	Wood modification with bio-polyesters. Analysis of performance with DVS and DMTA	02-17.08.2017
Dr. Dennis Jones (UK)	Dr. Maria-Cristina Popescu (RO)	Determination of the effectiveness of a combined thermal/chemical wood modification by the use of spectroscopic methods	16-28.08.2017
Dr Lina Nunes (PT)	Dr. Magdalena Kutnik (FR)	Test methods to evaluate termite susceptibility of insulation materials	27.09-04.10.2017
Mr. David Lorenzo (ES)	Dr. Magdalena Kutnik (FR)	Advanced understanding of the design in the performance, degradation and service life prediction of wood species in use class 3 field test devices	02.06-06.10.2017
Mr Jérôme Colson (AT)	Dr. Torbjörn Pettersson (SE)	Characterization of fundamental wood polymer to synthetic polymer interaction by means of colloidal probe technique	31.07-15.10.2017
Mr Davor Kržišnik (SI)	Dr. Lone Ross Gobakken (NO)	Artificially accelerated greying of the wood surface	12-20.10.2017

 

These 39 STSMs are shown in terms of the movement of applicants below:

 

How to apply for a STSM

The purpose of the STSMs is to support working visits to laboratories and institutions of COST Action FP1303 member countries.

A range of Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs) are available for funding in the current grant period covering the period 1st May 2017 to 21st October 2017 (the official last day of the Action). Everyone is encouraged to apply, but especially PhD students and Early Career Investigators.  The maximum amount of funding per STSM is €2200. Please consider taking advantage of the opportunity.

STSMs can be from any Group/University/Institute from a country that has joined the Action to another Group/University/Institute in another member country in the Action.

Important dates

Deadline for submission of Applications: 
No less than 4 weeks before planned start of the STSM

Deadline for completion of the STSM: September 30th, 2017

 

 Application Procedure

Applications must be made online using the official COST registration tool which can be found at www.cost.eu/stsm.

The information required for the application includes: dates of STSM, length of stay, title of planned scientific activity, short description of the work-plan, short CV and a budget request (to cover travel and living expenses during the STSM). In addition to the information required by the COST Office, applicants should also provide the following information to the Action Chair (Dennis Jones: dr_dennisjones@hotmail.co.uk) and to the STSMs Manager (Carmen-Mihaela Popescu: mihapop@icmpp.ro), preferably in pdf format: 

• a short abstract of the scope of the STSMs (1/2 page)
• a plan of the work to be carried out (1 page, approx.)
• a covering letter stating the benefits to be obtained from the STSM
• full CV
• letter of agreement from the host institution
• Evaluation Criteria

The applications will be assessed by the Action's Core Group and will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• scientific quality
• relevance to the Action
• benefit to the applicant

STSMs for periods of one to two weeks would be preferable and may be given priority. The final decision on the approval of the STMs applications should be expected within 2-4 weeks of submission.

NOTE: STSM grants will only be paid on receiving and approving a report AFTER the STSM has been completed.

For any additional information please contact Dennis Jones at dr_dennisjones@hotmail.co.uk or Carmen-Mihaela Popescu at mihapop@icmpp.ro. Additional information on STSMs can also be obtained from your country's Management Committee members.