The inaugural (start-up) meeting for the Network was held on May 12-14, 2000, in the Hotel Gio`, Perugia, Italy, at walking distance from the Chemistry Department of the University of Perugia, and was organised by the Network Co-ordinator, Piergiorgio Casavecchia. Seven scientific directors were present: P. Casavecchia (Co-ordinator), M. Brouard from the Oxford experimental team, J. J. H. ter Meulen from Nijmegen, F. J. Aoiz from Madrid, D. E. Manolopoulos from the Oxford theoretical team, H.-J. Werner from Stuttgart, and U. Manthe from Muenchen. P. Andresen from Bielefeld could not attend for unexpected family engagements, but  he was represented by two members of the Bielefeld team, post-doc Andre` Eppink and Ph-D student Britta Niederjohann. A number of other staff and students and postdocs from the Participant Teams were present, including a Young Researcher fellow (Dr. Gabriella Capecchi) already in post in Stuttgart from 1 March 2000 and two other YRs (Dr. Raluca Cireasa and Dr. Fermin Huarte) who were going to start their appointements from 1 June 2000 in Nijmegen and from 1 July 2000 in Muenchen, respectively. The number of attendees was 28 in all.
    The coordinator informed the scientists in charge in the various teams about administrative and financial issues. A copy of the table with exact amount of Euro to be distributed to each team for the first contract period (Advance payment) was given to each Participant.
    The inaugural meeting was devoted to the illustration of all projects of the Work Plan. Each team leader (or a representative of him) presented their projects in 25 minute talks. Detailed discussions about the researches defined in the contract occurred. The commitments contained in the contract, with respect especially to break-down of the tasks, schedule and milestones, and training programme were reinforced.
    A Network Website was established, controlled by the Co-ordinator, and with proper links to the various teams and other useful links.
    At this meeting it was decided that the Second Network meeting (after the first year) would take place in Oxford in the early spring 2001 (local organizer: Dr. M. Brouard).