RCA's Project Lead Country Coordinators' Meeting for the next project cycle (2009-2011) was held at IAEA Headquarters in Vienna from 11 to 15 February 2008. Seven projects, which were approved as concepts at the RCA General Conference Meeting in September 2007, were developed into full project designs for implementation under the framework of IAEA Technical Cooperation (TC) programme. This task was undertaken by the designated Project Lead Country Coordinators (PLCCs) in cooperation with the RCA Focal Person, a consultant and IAEA Technical Officers.

The project designs take full account of the RCA Medium Term Strategy and other decisions of the National RCA Representatives concerning the structure and nature of the future RCA programme. Projects are “needs driven” and focus on using nuclear techniques to assist in the solution of high impact regional problems. The projects have been designed to make substantial use of regional networks and resources and there is a significant emphasis on enhancing both the regional and the national sustainability of the project outputs.

The attached photograph shows the PLCCs: Mr Peter Leach (AUL), Mr Peixin Zhang (CPR), Dr Gursharan Singh (IND), Prof. Takashi Nakano (JPN), Dr Khairul Zaman Haji Mohd Dahlan (MAL), Dr Manzoor Ahmad Choudhry (PAK) and Ms Elvira Zuleta Sombrito (PHI) with consultant Dr John Frederick Easey. Also present in the photograph (provided by Dr Singh) is Ms Eeva Salminen (Section Head Applied Radiation Biology & Radiotherapy Section), Mr Eduardo Zubizarreta (Technical Officer Radiation Oncology) and Dr Yoshiyuki Suzuki, Gunma University (JPN).