FUSENET – the European fusion education network
The aim of FUSENET was to establish a European fusion education network for education in fusion science and technology, in order to increase, enhance and broaden fusion training and education activities in Europe.
The project consists of four groups of coordination actions:
- the establishment and running of the FUSENET network;
- development of individual learning opportunities and common educational goals;
- development of educational materials and hands-on experiments;
- funding of joint educational activities.
The results and outcomes of the FUSENET project include:
- The FUSENET association to provide a permanent basis for FUSENET (http://www.fusenet.eu)
- The FUSENET website with educational materials, news and training and job opportunities in fusion research
- a summer programme for master students
- online courses and textbooks for university students
- financial support for students to participate in various educational activities.
The project covered all education levels; however, the emphasis on the master level.
Basic information
- Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas-Ciemat, Spain
- Commissariat Energie Atomique (CEA), France/
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
- Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie, l'Energia e l'Ambiente, Italy
- Stichting Voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek Der Materie – Fom, Netherlands
- Universite Henri Poincare Nancy 1, France
- Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, Denmark
- Universita' degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy
- The University of Warwick, United Kingdom/
- Ceske Vysoke Uceni Technicke v Praze, Czech Republic
- Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom
- Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Suisse
- Tampereen Teknillinen Yliopisto, Finland
- National Technical University of Athens, Greece
- Budapesti Muszaki es Gazdasagtudomanyi Egyetem, Hungary
- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
- Universiteit Gent, Belgium
- Universita degli Studi di Padova, Italy
- Universitaet Innsbruck, Austria/
- Forschungszentrum Juelich Gmbh, Germany
- Karlsruher Institut fuer Technologie, Germany
- Ecole Polytechnique, France,
- Max Planck Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften E.V., Germany
- Ústav fyziky plazmatu av r, v. V. I., Czech Republic
- Instytut fizyki plazmy i laserowej mikrosyntezy im. Sylwestra kaliskiego, Poland
- Szechenyi Istvan University, Hungary
- Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Romania
- Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Czech Republic
- Sofiiski Universitet Sveti Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria
- Mta Kfki Reszecske-es Magfizikai Kutatointezet, Hungary
- Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa – UTL, Portugal
- United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, United Kingdom
- Cranfield University, United Kingdom
- Aristotelio Panepistimio Thessalonikis, Greece
The activities of the Fusenet project were split into several packages, each aimed at one or more specific objectives:
- to develop an effective and sustainable network between fusion research institutes, industry and higher education institutes, and to consolidate the network by forming a FUSENET Association
- to develop, establish and maintain an attractive, dynamic and professional website
- to make a complete inventory of existing fusion teaching activities, best educational practices of other organisations/fields, and identify links to related fields
- to develop a transparent programme of individual learning opportunities such as (summer) internships, traineeships and visits, for different target groups such as secondary school teachers, Bachelor/Master (science and engineering) students
- to develop a detailed plan for the organisation of an annual EU-wide event for PhD students in the same phase of their research
- to identify a list of common educational goals and core curricula at Master and PhD level, and to establish the rules for awarding a "European Master in Magnetic Fusion Science and Engineering" certificate
- to increase access to fusion experimental facilities for students, by improving and making better use of existing experiments for teaching purposes, by developing new hands-on experiments, and by organising training courses for students to use the hardware
- to identify existing Master level educational material and to develop a plan for producing a top-quality Master-level text on fusion technology subjects
- to develop multimedia teaching materials
- to organise joint educational activities at Master and PhD level.
Teacher and students at primary and secondary level can benefit from FUSENET activities and results in several ways:
- Educational Material: films, booklets, brochures, websites, picture galleries, etc.
- Educational Activities, support, from local organisations and laboratories, in your native language. This can involve lessons given by active fusion researchers, packages with educational material tuned to the local system, group visits to laboratories, etc.
The best way to access these opportunities is to contact directly one of the Fusenet members or a local fusion research association. The FUSENET association can help teacher and schools to identify the appropriate partner and establish the contacts.