The 2nd XLIC General Meeting (COST Action CM1204) will be held at Gdańsk University of Technology (Poland) on September 10-12, 2014. It will also host the 3rd XLIC Management Committee (September 10th).

PROGRAM:
The schedule and list of invited speakers are already settled. Two poster sessions will be held in order to exchange views and stimulate discussion on research topics. Final meeting programm can be downloaded here: [2nd_XLIC_GM_programme]

The 2^nd XLIC General Meeting will include also the Young Scientist Forum (YSF) – a special half-day with talks given by young researchers. List of speakers selected for an oral contribution during the YSF can be found here: http://xlic2014.mif.pg.gda.pl/ysf

ABSTRACTS:
Deadline for the submission of abstracts for invited talks, YSF talks and poster contributions has already expired.

REGISTRATION:
There is no registration fee to attend the meeting but interested participants must register filling the corresponding form before July 8th, 2014.

ACCOMMODATION:
Information on how to look for your own accommodation and a list of hotels offering discounts for XLIC participants can be found here. Because of the Volleyball Men’s World Championship will be held in Gdańsk in September 2014, early booking of the accommodation is highly recommended.
There are a limited number of rooms available for participants in student’s houses.
To book a room in the dormitories, you should be logged into the meeting website using the e-mail and password sent during the registration, and select “Dormitory booking” from menu to the right. Deadline for booking a dormitory is the end of July.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT:
The participation of all XLIC MC members and speakers will be supported with Action budget. COST will also fully reimburse those young researchers selected for oral contributions in the Young Scientist Forum and depending on the budget we will try to cover also expenses from other young participants.
Participants entitled for reimbursement will receive an official notification and a message highligting some of the COST rules for reimbursement which should, in any case, be carefully examined before incurring any expense in:

• COST Vademecum, Part I, page 21-28, and /or
• the instructions on how to fill the Travel Reimbursement Request Form (TRR)

Accommodation and meal expenses will be reimbursed on the basis of flat rates. This means that participants should look for their own accommodation.
A reduction on maximum flate rates allowed for this particular meeting has been agreed by XLIC MC. The applicble rates are 80 EUR for accomodation and 15 EUR for meal expenses. For participants staying in student dormitories or other cheap accomodation, less money can be claimed if so desired by requesting the reimbursement for a smaller number of nights.
For travel expenses actual costs can be claimed on the basis of the receipts provided. (Any restriction applying to travel expenses will be notified to each participant entitled for reimbursement)

IMPORTANT: Participants selected for reimbursement are kindly asked to keep their expenses as low as possible to ensure a wide distribution of the Action budget.

The submission of claims shall be done after the meeting, but, for any non-regular expense or doubt you may have, please, better ask in advance (info@xlic.eu). E.g. fligths departure/arrivals from/to places other than where the eligible participant is working/residing, extra meals, nights, taxi expenses, etc. shall not be reimbursed if permission is not requested before the meeting.

The 2^nd  XLIC General Meeting  (Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, Poland http://xlic2014.mif.pg.gda.pl/home) will host the 1st Young Scientist Forum – a special half-day with talks given by  young researchers (PhD students and post-docs).

The committee of young researchers have selected, on the basis of the submitted abstracts, the following young speakers to give a talk at the YSF. The list is given in  alphabetical order:

• Cedric Bomme, FLASH, Germany
• Michael Capron, Univerty of Rennes, France
• Aurélie Chenel, Université Paris-Sud, France
• Simone De Camilis, Queen’s University Belfast, UK
• Ewa Erdmann, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland
• Tor Kjellsson, Stockholm University, Sweden
• Sylvain Maclot, Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, France
• Ana Martín Sómer, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
• Lihi Musbat, Bar Ilan universityk, Israel
• Geert Reitsma, University of Groningen, Netherlands
• Estefania Rossich Molina, Université Evry Val d’Essonne, France
• Janne Solanpää, Tampere University of Technology, Finland

We would like to remind all the YSF speakers that the format of the talk is 15 minutes + 5 minutes of discussion.

If not selected as speaker, young researchers participating in the XLIC General Meeting will have an opportunity to present their results as a poster. The format of the poster is of the A1 size. During the meeting, two special poster sessions are foreseen in order to exchange views and stimulate discussions on research topics, and to support interdisciplinary communication between the researchers.

First XLIC Training School will take place in Zaragoza, at the premises of Z-CAM (http://www.z-cam.es/). It will be organized in two modules of one week each. Attendees can participate in one or both of them.

• Module 1. March 9-13, 2015
  Molecular Excited States (Download tentative program)
• Module 2. March 16-20, 2015
  New Computational Methods for Attosecond Molecular Processes (Download tentative program)

TRAINING PROGRAM: Contents of the courses and list of trainers can be checked, for each module, in the documents linked above. Nevertheless, interested participants are encouraged to check for updates on each module webpage .

ACCOMMODATION: Local organizers have arranged accommodation  for all registered participants in the same hotels (Apartamentos Los Sitios and Apartamentos Los Girasoles), where apartments (multiple occupancy with individual rooms) with a kitchen area are offered during the duration of the schools (arriving on Sunday and leaving on Friday). Participats attending both modules can also stay in the apartment during the weekend.
If you are interested in this option, please, contact local organisers as soon as possible to confirm booking details. Payment should be done directly by each participant before leaving.

MEALS: Lunches during training days will be covered for all participants. Dinner and breakfast will not be included.

FEES: There are no registration fees.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT: XLIC Action will offer grants to partially cover the participation of young researchers involved in the Action. Each participant will receive a notification with information on the amount granted. of grants and amount will depend on the number of requests for funding.

REGISTRATION is now closed. Participants can check the status of their application at CECAM website (separately for each module), using their CECAM account.

REIMBURSEMENT: Each participant should pay his/her own expenses to the Hotel before leaving. Those participants selected for funding will receive a letter indicating the fixed amount granted. After the event, reimbursement will be done subject to the submission of a payment request form and the effective attendance to the school. No receipts will be asked for.

LOCATION: The activities will take place at the R+D Building (BIFI) in the campus of the University of Zaragoza in the north of the city (ZCAM CONFERENCE BUILDING: Campus Río Ebro – Edificio I+D; C/Mariano Esquillor s/n. 50018 Zaragoza)

HOW TO REACH ZARAGOZA: You can arrive in Zaragoza by plane, train, bus and car. If you come from abroad and you land at either Madrid or Barcelona airports, then the train or the bus are usually the best options for the last part of the trip up to Zaragoza.

• By plane: The airport is situated 9 km from the city. At present, there are regular flights to Frankfurt (weekdays), Rome, London, Milan and Lisbon and domestic flights to Madrid and Barcelona. Connections from the airport to the city are by bus and taxi. You can make a flight search in the web sites of the companies that operate with the Zaragoza airport: Iberia, Air Europa, and Ryanair (low cost company).
• By train: Zaragoza has a new railway station (Estación de Delicias), with a high‐speed connection to Madrid and Barcelona (AVE train). The railway station is at the same place as bus and taxi stops, and car rental services. Zaragoza is also connected by train to other major Spanish cities such as Valencia, Granada, Sevilla and Málaga. Timetable information can be obtained at the Spanish Railway Company web site: Renfe.
• By bus: Zaragoza is connected by bus to the main Spanish cities. You can search the routes and timetables in the web site of the Spanish bus company ALSA.
• By car: Zaragoza has an excellent communication network, and is linked to the North of Spain: through a motor way to Bilbao (A‐68) and Barcelona (A‐2), and the Aragón highway connecting to Madrid (N‐II).

The 2nd COST XLIC Working Group 3 Meeting –  Control of Chemical Reactivity will be held at Queen’s University Belfast, on 4th – 5th April 2016.

Scope of the meeting:
The topic of interest of the XLIC Working Group 3 (WG3) is to control the reactivity of highly excited and/or ionized molecules through pump-probe techniques and High Harmonic spectroscopy, i.e., to control electron transfer, isomerization and dissociation with attosecond temporal and sub-Angstrom spatial resolution.
Specific areas addressed by the WG are:
* Development and application of optimal control theory (OCT)
* Use of time-resolved pump-probe techniques to control process relevant to atmospheric chemistry or biomolecules
* Development and use of current theories to treat the dynamics of pump-probe experiments
* Study of the response of molecular systems irradiated by strong fields

Meeting Details:
The 2nd WG3 meeting will be hosted by Queen’s University Belfast over two full days (4th-5th April 2016) with contributions from invited speakers and young scientists, including a poster session.

The 4th  XLIC General Meeting (COST Action CM1204) will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, on March 14-16, 2017. It will also host the final XLIC Management Committee (March 14) and the 3rd Young Scientist Forum (YSF).

ABSTRACTS:
Deadline for the submission of abstracts is January 31st, 2017. Abstracts should be written in English and uploaded via the online form.

REGISTRATION:
Interested participants must register before February 14th, 2017, by filling the corresponding form.  All meeting participants must pay a conference package (including lunch, dinner and coffee) for the days attending the meeting. To proceed with the payment, please, fill, sign and send to reservation@hotelpyramida.cz the following form.

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM
The conference will consist of lectures given by invited speakers, Young Scientist Forum and 2 poster sessions.
NEW: The draft full scientific program, including timetable, talks and list of poster contributions can be downloaded here: XLIC_GM_2017-ScientificProgram (the most updated version should be checked in the meeting website: http://www.jh-inst.cas.cz/xlic2017/programme).

3rd YOUNG SCIENTISTS FORUM:
There shall be a special half-day session with talks given by young researchers (PhD students and post-docs) on March 15. It will include 12 lectures, out of which 6 oral contributions will be chosen by YSF committee based on submitted abstracts. The deadline for abstract submission for YSF was 31^st January 2017.
Applicants asking for the talk at YSF are also required to submit a short CV which is to be emailed to xlic2017@jh-inst.cas.cz. Abstracts submitted after the deadline will not be considered for the selection.
For more details see http://www.jh-inst.cas.cz/xlic2017/home and  http://www.xlic.eu. You can also contact A. Domaracka (domaracka@ganil.fr).
Selected YSF speakers can ask for financial support from XLIC COST Action.
NEW: The list of young researchers selected to give a talk has been published here: https://xlic.qui.uam.es/?p=3369

ACCOMMODATION:
Due to all-under-one-roof format of the conference, accommodation is also available: both single and double rooms for the price of 65 EUR/night. To book your room, please, fill, sign and send to reservation@hotelpyramida.cz the following form before February 14th, 2017.
More information can be found in the meeting website: http://www.jh-inst.cas.cz/xlic2017/accommodation

FINANCIAL SUPPORT:
The participation of  XLIC MC members and speakers will be supported with Action budget (with the exception of MC Observers coming from IPC Institutions). COST will also fully reimburse those young researchers selected for oral contributions in the Young Scientist Forum and, depending on the budget, we will try to cover also expenses from other young participants.
Participants entitled for reimbursement will receive an official notification before the meeting. We strongly recommend to check the COST rules for reimbursement before incurring any expense in:

• COST Vademecum, page 20-24, and /or
• the instructions on how to fill the Travel Reimbursement Request Form (TRR)

Accommodation and meal expenses will be reimbursed on the basis of flat rates. A reduction on maximum flat rates allowed for this particular meeting has been agreed by XLIC MC. The applicable rates are 100 EUR for accommodation and 20 EUR for meal expenses. For participants staying in cheaper hotels less money can be claimed  by requesting the reimbursement for a smaller number of nights/meals.
For travel expenses actual costs can be claimed on the basis of the receipts provided (any restriction applying to travel expenses will be notified to each participant entitled for reimbursement).

IMPORTANT:
Participants selected for reimbursement are kindly asked to keep their expenses as low as possible to ensure a wide distribution of the Action budget.
The submission of claims shall be done after the meeting, but, for any non-regular expense or doubt you may have, please, better ask in advance (info@xlic.eu). E.g. fligths departure/arrivals from/to places other than where the eligible participant is working/residing, extra meals, nights, taxi expenses, etc. shall not be reimbursed if permission is not requested before the meeting.
Please note that claims submitted later than 30 days after the meeting shall not be considered.

Photoinitiated processes are not only important for understanding natural phenomena but they also play an undeniable role in the booming fields of renewable energy, material design and medicine. Excited state processes have traditionally been explained from a static point of view, delivering in some cases a biased, incorrect or even incomplete description of the former. The simulation of the dynamics of such processes is therefore fundamental for the quest to understand the chemical and physical mechanisms.
The purpose of this school is to introduce its participants to state-of-the-art methodologies for the simulation of the dynamics of processes in the excited state, following the evolution in time of photoinitiated reactions, one of the priority topics of this call.

The school will be focused in simulating the dynamics of complex molecules. Electronic ab initio or TD-DFT methods would be sketched for obtaining the electronic wavefunctions or densities, that would be afterwards quantum-mechanically propagated. Moreover, several approaches for the treatment of the nuclei will be also provided, from full quantum dynamics to mixed quantum-classical dynamics.

The course is directed at PhD students, and young researchers, beginners in the field, working in theoretical chemistry and molecular physics.

More information at: https://www.cecam.org/workshop-1542.html

The recent development of novel light sources like x-ray free-electron lasers and table-top lasers for high-harmonic generation, which are capable of delivering controllable sequences of intense sub-femtosecond ionizing pulses, has opened the way to monitor and control electron dynamics in atoms and molecules at its natural time scale, the attosecond (Chem. Rev. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.6b00453). The description of the coherent superposition of electronic continuum states that the interaction of such pulses with molecules generates goes beyond the capabilities of standard quantum-chemistry packages, which have been designed to describe the lowest bound states. Furthermore, stationary state-based pictures based on lowest-order perturbation theory are, in most cases, inapplicable. The purpose of this school is to introduce state-of-the-art ab-initio, hybrid and TDDFT numerical methods that can cope with ultra-fast dynamics in the electronic continuum of molecules, with an emphasis on unbound states in strong-fields and on the need to go beyond single-active-electron models to properly account for electron correlation. The course is directed to advanced master students, PhD students and young post-doctoral researchers in atomic and molecular physics, theoretical chemistry and applied mathematics, with an interest in developing new software for coherent control of electronic dynamics in systems of chemical interest.

The tutorial will be organized in 5 theoretical sessions and 4 practical sessions in the computer lab. Both theoretical and practical sessions will be of 4 hours. The school comprises four didactic blocks. The first block has an introductory character. It offers an overview of the field and a tutorial on strong field physics. The following three blocks focus on systems of increasing complexity and will be devoted to the description and use of new computational methods for fast time evolution in correlated systems in non-perturbative conditions (see description below). The school will end with a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art results in attosecond pump-probe and strong field molecular science obtained with ab initio “exact” simulations in small systems, on the one side, and with TD-DFT effective-field simulations, capable of coping with larger systems, on the other side. The future perspectives, challenges and mutual interaction of these two complementary approaches will be discussed.

More information: https://www.cecam.org/workshop-1552.html