EuCheMS takes over from FECS

At the General Assembly meeting hosted by the Romanian Chemical Society and held in the historic Parliament building in Bucharest, the member societies approved an amended constitution and the new name. Following due process in the coming months, EuCheMS will become an ‘Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif‘ (not-for-profit organisation) in Belgium. EuCheMS will build on its 30 years of history and will aim to provide a more professional level of support for the needs of its 50 member societies across 36 countries throughout Europe. A funding base will enable EuCheMS to modernise its approach and develop meaningful support for chemical and molecular sciences in the 21st century. The most vital aspect of the future strategy of EuCheMS is political impact. With the new enlarged EU, it is even more important that EuCheMS provides a focus for discussion on chemical and molecular science issues in order to influence EU government and politicians on the future development of the European Research Area. To do this, EuCheMS needs to obtain financial support. Under its new constitution, EuCheMS will be more ready to enter into partnership with other science groups. The chemical and molecular sciences community needs to make some significant advances in order to be operating on equal terms with other science groupings and to be welcomed as a partner in joint initiatives; EuCheMS is ready to take the lead. To succeed, EuCheMS must be visible to the decision makers, to other science groupings and to its member societies and their members. EuCheMS aims to provide added value to the member societies in order to ensure their involvement in developing the new strategy. The object of EuCheMS is to promote cooperation in Europe between those non-profit-making scientific and technical societies and professional institutions in the field of chemistry whose membership consists largely of individual qualified chemists/chemical scientists and whose interests include the science and/or practice of chemistry/ chemical sciences. It was founded in 1970 and currently has 50 member societies in 36 countries.