Kickoff Meeting

	The Kickoff Meeting was held on May, 17^th and 18^th 2004 at the University of Sciences of Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens with the honourable Gilles de Robien, the French Minister for the equipment, transport, regional planning, tourism and sea.
Were also present at the opening ceremony: Pierre Mirabaud (Prefect of the Picardy and the Somme Area), Claude Gewerc (President of the Regional Council of Picardy), Stepano Puppin and Michael Heidenreich (Project Officers of the European Commission) and Michel Leroy (Education officer of the Academy of Amiens, Chancellor of the universities).
	Welcomed by Gilles Demailly (President of the University Picardy Jules Verne) and Marc J. Ledoux (Director of the CNRS Chemistry Department), they all congratulated Professor Jean-Marie Tarascon, Member of the Institut Universitaire de France, at the origin of the project, and all the European partners.
A round table discussion led by Dominique Leglu, Editor of Sciences et Avenir, on the subject “Alistore within the context of Worldwide energy storage, took place. The main participants were, Stefano Puppin, the Project officer of the European Commission, Bertrand Heilbronn, Head of Electrical Transportation with EDF and Josh Thomas, Professor of Solid State Electrochemistry with Uppsala University (see on the left on the picture).