VAMAS

VAMAS (Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards) is a collaborative project that was initiated at the 1982 G7 Economic Summit in Versailles to develop and promote standards for the characterisation of advanced materials, including surfaces, interfaces, thin films, and nanostructures. Using interlaboratory studies, the VAMAS project has developed a number of standard test methods and reference materials for a wide range of materials. These standards have been widely adopted by industry and academic researchers, and have contributed to the development of new materials and technologies.

History

G7 summits proposals

The Versailles project on advanced materials and standards (VAMAS) was first proposed, among 18 other projects, at the 1982 G7 Economic Summit held at the Palace of Versailles.

However the proposal materialised during the 1983 G7 summit in the US where there was a focus on issues related to science and technology. During that meeting, the attendees acknowledged the importance of collaborating in the field of science and technology. The proposals for cooperation came from the French President François Mitterrand, which were presented in a lengthy speech highlighting the necessity of creating a new international division of labour for technology.

The proposal was met with scepticism from the US, but George A. Keyworth, director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), was enthusiastic about the idea of international cooperation in science and technology. He argued that the massive cost of experimental facilities in areas such as high-energy physics and fusion research made international collaboration desirable. Both Europe and the United States were spending approximately half a billion dollars a year on controlled fusion, with Japan spending another quarter of a billion dollars.