The European coal research community must look to the future and prepare itself for change. To assist with the change process requires good communication, active co-ordination and effective collaboration between all those involved in coal-related research and technological development (RTD), whether they come from academia, research centres or industry. By establishing a common understanding of future research needs, based on an appreciation of the current state of the art, the research community can become an influential voice in the setting of priorities for publicly funded research, notably research funded by the EU Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS), but also by other RTD programmes. To achieve this requires the research community to be well organised and informed.

In response to the above, the objectives of this project and all associated activities are:

• to disseminate and promote results from projects supported by the RFCS at workshops;
• to develop, and present in the project report, a strategic research agenda in collaboration with the RFCS Coal Advisory Group that will help establish the future research priorities for the RFCS Research Programme; and
• to establish a self-sustaining European Network of Clean Coal Technologists that would enable the ongoing promotion and success of the Programme after the project has ended.

This project therefore prepares the ground for and creates a European Network for Clean Coal Technologists by initiating the activities that such a network should undertake with technical experts – workshops, working group meetings and strategic reports. The project will establish the network with a structure that allows it to continue beyond the project end date. The structure must therefore reflect the likely income from members of the network and its future activities.