EuChemS Newsletters

Sharing means growing

Dear members of the EuCheMS chemical societies, this is the first Chemistry in Europe article on news from Member Societies. Therefore, I would like to use this chance, to invite each one of you to share your society news with our readers. These news could be an important moment in your society life, a European meeting, beginning of a new teamwork, changing presidency or any other affair. It does not have to be a very large event, or an event at the European level to be mentioned in this section of the newsletter. It needs to be an interesting moment within your society´s life, that is exciting and interesting for your members and which can serve as an example for other EuCheMS societies.

As former chair of EYCN, I had the opportunity to learn a lot and to start new young chemists activates, based on activities developed around Europe and shared during 5 minute talks by each EYCN representative in our Delegate Assemblies. In this manner, in just a few years, I had the chance to witness the exponential growth of the events dedicated to young chemists within EuCheMS grounds.

Wishing to give an example of the events that enrich our life without being very large, I would like to share with you one of the current actions that took place in December 2016, in Bucharest.

Promoting chemistry towards the public is one of the goals in many EuCheMS societies. Following this idea, the Food Chemistry Section of the Romanian Chemical Society organized in one of the Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Material Sciences amphitheatres, an event called “Chemistry for Christmas”. In this event, the invited speakers, shared in 20 minutes their knowledge regarding traditional meals at Christmas supper (traditional foods and cakes, spices and wines). The audience consisted of academics, members of the local chemical society, students and random public with no chemical background. The event generated significant attention and it was broadcast throughout TV and radio, making people more open towards scientific facts and more aware of the chemistry from our day to day life.

Therefore, I would like to encourage every one of you to share your society events. Let’s make our voices heard and let’s help each other grow and develop the events dedicated to chemistry and science within Europe and abroad.

Cristina Todasca
Romanian Chemical Society

News from European Quality Labels in chemistry education

Quality assurance is the main requisite in setting up an effective European Higher Education Area. Such an area is characterised by mutual recognition of study programmes within a transparent framework of harmonised practices. The Chemistry Eurolabel® quality system is recommended as easily readable and comparable model, it is concerned with mobility and recognition.

Changes in national legislation during the lifetime of the Bologna Process were observed for several countries, e.g., with respect to the number of ECTS credits required for the Bachelor Thesis. The recommendation for the Eurobachelor® is 15 ECTS credits. Now a minimum of 10 ECTS credits is acceptable if national regulations require this. Requirements for the Euromaster® and the Doctorate Eurolabel® so far remain unchanged.

A Eurolabel® is awarded for a period of five academic years and can be renewed for further periods of normally five years. Depending upon national legislation the renewal period may extend up to seven years. Applications for renewal will require a much less detailed self-evaluation report. For questions please contact LC-contact@ectn-assoc.org.

Reiner Salzer
ECTN (TU Dresden)

How typical is your professional career?

The 2nd Employment Survey for European Chemists and Chemical Engineers (ESEC2) investigates the current employment situation for chemists and chemical engineers across Europe. Your participation will contribute to the acquisition of quantitative data about job market needs.

The full report of the preceding Employment Survey for European Chemists is freely available from Chemistry – A European Journal 21 (2015) 9921–9935 (DOI: 10.1002/chem.201501364). The current ESEC2 is jointly organized with the American Chemical Society.

The importance of employer sectors varies very much between European countries. Career opportunities will be individually analysed for all countries with a statistically significant number of responses. The results shall provide important clues for careers in these countries and in Europe as a whole. We hope again for active participation form industry.

Each participating national society nominated a delegate, who is expected to advertise the survey within her or his society and to answer possible questions over the span of the survey. The survey will be open on www.euchems.eu/esec2 between March 1 – 31, 2017.

Reiner Salzer
ECTN (TU Dresden)