Guidelines for the organization of an European Crystallography School
- A detailed financial plan must be presented following a template provided by the Executive Committee, together with a set of minimal requirements and a risk analysis in terms of expected number of participants. The ECA will in no case be required to cover a deficit of the school, should this occur.
- An educational book closely related to the topic(s) of the school must be released. The final version of this text we think can be usefully donated to the IUCr, thereby to be published online for example in their Series of Teaching pamphlets; the IUCr would be officially consulted as to its preference for publication method. In turn it may consult the IUCr’s Commission on Education.
- The official ECA School has to guarantee a strict adherence to the IUCr standards in nomenclature, symbolisms and conventions, as presented in the International Tables for Crystallography. In case of different conventions used in the various volumes of the Tables, the last edition of Volume A must be taken as reference.
- The topics of the proposed School should assure a reasonable coverage, or turn over by rotation of themes, amongst the five ECA Focus Areas, ie as used also to organise the ECMs these days.
- A reasonable turnover among the hosting countries (ECA National Members and/or Adhering Bodies) is also highly desirable, indeed we imagine mandatory, including with special attention to countries with less strong crystallographic traditions and countries unlikely to host an ECM meeting because of economic or other objective difficulties. By attention to the change of hosting countries a diversity of training in different geographical areas can be attained wherever possible. This may include the need for more than one 1language of the ECA region of the School’s definitive teaching pamphlet text.
Proposals to host the ECS may be presented by any of the current National Members, Adhering Bodies of ECA, through their Councillors.
Each proposal to hold an ECS will be submitted to the ECA Subcommittee on Education (ECA-SE), whose composition will finally be detailed by the ECA Executive Committee, so as to judge the soundness of each proposal
Each proposal will be evaluated by the ECA-SE via the above criteria, as well as with respect to the financial plan. The ECA-SE will assist as constructively as possible in advising on each School’s detailed preparation thus maximising the chance for a positive outcome for each. Thus, assuming that an evaluation is positive, a given proposal will be forwarded to the ECA Councillors at least two months in advance of the relevant ECA Council meeting for their approval.
One of the ECA-SE members, appointed by the ECA-SE itself, will be invited, at his/her own expense, to attend the ECS and will then write a report addressed to the ECA Executive Committee. This will also form the basis for an IUCr Newsletter article of each year’s school
The text of the Teaching Pamphlet book must be finalised and submitted to the ECA-SE not later than two months after the school. The ECA-SE may request modifications if the text does not conform to the requirements on nomenclature, as referred to above, which we also see as vital for the future trained crystallographers.
Guidelines for the bidders:
In the year N-2 of the school and at least three months before the date of the ECA Council meeting that has to approve it the proposal will be submitted to the ECA Secretary (gro.s1733027254wenac1733027254e@yra1733027254terce1733027254s1733027254). The proposal should include
- School Title
- the list of topics with the names of the lecturers (and who should already have been contacted and given their agreement);
- the financial plan according to the template provided by the ECA EC;
- a draft of the text that will be used as Teaching Pamphlet book.
The scientific aims and contents of the school shall be clearly illustrated in the presentation. Indications shall be provided on the required competences of the teachers, with some emphasis on their international composition of their countries where they work. The presentation shall also illustrate the location of the School, its facilities, and report on the overall costs and fees for participants.
In the year N-1 of the School and at least three months before the date of the ECA Council meeting the organisers have to submit a report of the current state of advancement of the organisation and an elaborated draft of their teaching pamphlet, where the crystallographic nomenclature and symbols that will be used during the School must be explicitly indicated. The ECA-SE will judge the adherence of this first version of the text to the guidelines and may request modifications. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in a recommendation to the Council to withdraw the label ‘ECS’ to the proposed School.