Final Technical Report of SCENET-2 The European Network for Superconductivity

The European Network on Superconductivity, SCENET, funded by the Growth Programme of the FP5, started on April 2002 for the duration of 4 years. As it was prolonged of four month it ended on July 31, 2006. The main objective of the network was to create links among those laboratories, academic and industrials, interested in superconductivity and its applications. The necessary expertise is available in Europe, but highly fragmented throughout the member states. The challenge for the Network is to put together the mosaic into a European Research Area covering most of the aspects of superconductivity. The network has become a very powerful agency for bringing together European researchers, laboratories, and industries and in setting a common strategy for future R & D. As the field of superconductivity has a strong interdisciplinary character the network comprised six different working groups to discuss and assess where one stand, where one wants to go and how to get there for the different sub fields of superconductivity. 1a)Thin films for Microelectronics Coordinator: R. Wördenweber; 1b)Materials for Power Applications and new materials Coordinator: B. Glowacki; 1c)High current superconductors for applications Coordinator: H. Weber; 1d)Processing of Coated ConductorsCoordinator: H. Freyhardt; 2a)Superconducting ElectronicsCoordinator: J. Niemeyer; 2b)Energy-Related Power SystemsCoordinator: P. Komarek; The Network activities included the organization of two Topical Workshops. The first was on Chemical Design, Characterisation, and Processing of High Tc Superconductors and Related Materials and took place at San Feliu de Guíxols, Spain, on November 13-15, 2003. The second Topical Workshop was organized at Majorca on March 16-18, 2006. All aspects of superconductivity were reviewed with the aim of writing the road map. The working groups organized a series of workshops. Each met at least once a year to finalize programs or to report on current projects. All the reports are available on SCENET's Web Page and CDs are available on request. Four Tutorial Schools were organized on 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 in Cargèse (France), Salamanca (Spain), Harjattula (Finland), and Camerino (Italy), respectively. The lectures, the statistics, the list of participants and lecturers are available on the Web Page. SCENET supported other European Schools like the Superconductivity School of Cambridge by awarding a number of grants to the continental European students for allowing them to participate. The Cambridge and SCENET School were complementary. Twenty-nine exchange visits were awarded to young researchers during the four years of activity in view of transferring the know-how among the different nodes. Priority was given to international transfers and between industry and academia or vice versa. The visit reports and the statistics are also reported on the Web-Page. Still in the field of training SCENET produced video lectures on superconductivity, which would allow the dissemination of knowledge accumulated and updated by experts. The four DVDs (on materials and enabling science, on processing, and power and electronic applications, respectively) are available on request. We can count more than 600 participants among the different SCENET activities. Twelve newsletters were published. They were sent to more than 800 recipients (individual or institutions) worldwide. The electronic copies are annexed in the CD and are also available on the Web Page and a hard copy on request. The network has been directed by an 18-member Steering Committee. Of the 18 member 4 were from industry. The Committee met five times. SCENET started on 2002 with 73 nodes distributed over 18 countries. After some withdrawals and new memberships (decided by the Steering Committee) it ended with 87 nodes, of which 24 industrial, distributed over 22 countries.