Book excerpt: The beneficial impact of the European communities involvement in scientific research and technology is wide-ranging and pervasive. There are high hopes of major advances in scientific knowledge and technological processes, while the emergence of a genuine tradition of collaborative research holds out great and continuing promise for the future. Close, frequent and long-term cooperation between universities, research centres and industry is already generating new synergies, forging a truly European scientific community. Many of tomorrows industrial developments, destined to be determinant for our economic success and prosperity, will spring from this research. The Concerted European Action on Magnets - CEAM - project is a prime example of collaborative research and development. Financed from the Communities STIMULATION action and implemented with the help of EURAM, the advanced materials programme, CEAM will bestow great benefits on European industrial competitiveness, providing a channel for high quality basic research to find its way into commercial products. This remarkable cooperative enterprise brought t~gether 58 laboratories and more than 120 scientists and englneers in a sustained thirty month effort. It spanned every aspect of new iron-based high performance magnets from theoretical modelling of their intrinsic magnetic properties to the design and construction of novel electrical devices and machines. Besides adding a new European dimension to advanced magnetic technology, CEAM also ensured that a whole new generation of young researchers and technicians have been trained in applied magnetism.