Dear partner,

the expression of interest for our mutual Network of Excellence entitled "Biomaterials and Medical Technologies" was submitted to Brussels via email in due-date time.

My intention was to present the EoI to you together with the acknowledgement of receipt. But since the European Commission received more than 15,000 EoI's for Networks of Excellence and Integrated Projects on Friday, 7th June 2002, the acknowledgement of receipt will take some time. For your notice you can find the EoI to the topic mentioned above in the enclosure. I will notify you as soon as there is any new information from Brussels.

Here once more the time schedule for our further proceedings.

September/October 2002: The European Commission confirms its intention to publish all expressions of interest over the summer on the CORDIS web site. An analysis of the ideas received will be made public in September 2002 and will feed into the drafting of the detailed work programs, which form the basis for the calls for proposals to be published at the end of this year. 11th - 13th November 2002: The first call of the specific programs of the Sixth Framework Program RTD of the European Commission will be opened. End of November 2002: Meeting of all the prospective members of the Network of Excellence at a central point, e.g. Brussels, Frankfurt or Aachen for the phrasing of the proposal of the Network of Excellence "Biomaterials and Medical Technologies." February/March 2003: The proposal for the Network of Excellence will be handed in under the leadership of 2 to 3 centres (e.g. Lund/Sweden, Aachen/Germany and Pisa/Italy).

My suggestion would be to meet parallel to one of the international congresses, as for example at the beginning of October in Pisa (see attachment 2: "Progress in Bioengineering and the Vascular Endothelium Basic and Clinical Aspects", September 30 - October 1, 2002) and/or during the "5th International Essen Symposium on Biomaterials: Fundamentals and Clinical Applications" on October 9th-11th, 2002. Objective of the meetings will be to get to know each other for those who are not familiar with all the partners, and to discuss the next steps.

The official invitation to the meetings will be given separately via email.

Best regards, p.p. Horst A. Richter

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Horst A. Richter Institut für Pathologie der Med. Fakultät der RWTH Aachen Pauwelsstr. 30, 52074 Aachen Tel. 0241-80.89288; Fax: 0241-80.82439; Mobile: 0171-3730612 richter@pat.rwth-aachen.de

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------