The association of 18 German research centers, the »Helmholtz Association«, seeks to strengthen joint research in Europe - especially in Eastern, Central and Southern Europe - through its new funding program, the »Helmholtz European Partnering« (HEP). Institutional partnerships with Helmholtz centers in targeted research areas should contribute to the launch of new projects and the sustainable development of local research systems. In the first HEP call, out of 12 applications, three projects were selected, including the CROSSING project (Crossing borders and scales - an interdisciplinary approach), which establishes a strategic partnership between Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf (HZDR) in Germany and the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI ) in Slovenia. The project is three-year, with the option of renewal for two years, with an annual allocation of 250.000 €.
On the basis of individual cooperation, especially in the framework of European projects in the last ten years, the CROSSING project aims at extending existing research activities to a sustainable and long-term strategic partnership between the two institutions. In addition to scientific topics, the project also includes the use and development of the research infrastructure of both organizations. Three scientific workpackages range from the fields of live matter and material research, environmental chemistry, microbiological technologies and high-performance computing systems and computer simulations: WP1 - correlative microscopy, WP2 - nanoparticles in the earth, WP3 - high performance computational simulations of two-phase systems and machine learning. The fourth workpackage is infrastructure one, WP4 - networking and infrastructure development. The projects are highly interdisciplinary, as they connect different research disciplines and different size systems of treatment, from atomic level to macroscopic world.
In days 25.10. and 26.10.2018 an initial meeting of the CROSSING project took place in Dresden, attended by a wider JSI delegation, led by the director and representatives of various departments of the JSI, participating in the project. At the meeting, we discussed and defined the financial, staffing and content frameworks of the project, which will start on January 1, 2019. On the first day of the meeting, we also visited the research infrastructure of the HZDR - Ion Beam Center (IBC), TOPFLOW thermohydraulic center and the computer center for high-performance computing. The second day of the meeting was aimed at presenting five candidates for the young leader of two of the three research workpackages. The young leader of the WP1 dr. Rok Podlipec from the F5, JSI and as the young leader of the WP3, the HZDR candidate was selected.
From the Reactor Engineering Division, JSI, the CROSSING meeting was attended by dr. Boštjan Končar.