Final Activity Report Summary - ESCAPE-14 (European symposium on computer aided process engineering (14th edition)) ESCAPE-14 was the 14th edition of ESCAPE, which took place for the first time in Portugal (Lisbon), in 16-19th May 2004. Previous editions were held in Denmark (1992, 2001), France (1992), Austria (1993), Ireland (1994), Slovenia (1995), Greece (1996), Norway (1997), Belgium (1998), Hungary (1999), Italy (2000), The Netherlands (2002) and Finland (2003). This Portuguese edition was focussed on five main leading themes: Product and Process Design, Synthesis and Process Integration, Process Control and Analysis, Manufacturing and Process Operations and New Challenges in Computer Aided Process Engineering.The ESCAPE series constitutes a major European yearly event in the area of Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE), where methods, algorithms, techniques and tools are developed and used to help the decision making process in the optimisation of the design and/or of operation of industrial processes. This series serves as a forum for bringing together European and International scientists, researchers, managers and engineers, from academia and industry, as well as students, to present and discuss progress being made in the area of CAPE.The steering of ESCAPE falls within the responsibility of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) through its working party on Computer Aided Process Engineering. ESCAPE-14 was classified as the 642th event of EFCE.The Marie Curie funds were aimed at a double goal: (1) to ensure a very high standard to this 14th edition, in line with previous editions, in an European region where local sponsorship is less forthcoming, (2) to ensure a balanced geographical participation of young researchers from across Europe (European Union and Associate Countries) and Overseas (USA, Canada and Latin America).These objectives were achieved: a total of 285 participants attended, from 36 countries, with 21% coming from overseas; a total of 94 applicants were awarded Marie Curie funding, with 72.3% being 'Early stage' researchers.A total of 65 oral presentations and 158 posters were delivered, together with 11 invited lectures by prominent leaders in the field, namely- Oivind Moen, Borealis AS, Stathelle, Norway - Alírio Rodrigues, FEUP, Porto, Portugal - Nilay Shah, Imperial College, London, UK - Alan Jones, UCL, London, UK - Chris Floudas, Princeton University, USA - Costas Pantelides, Imperial College ? PSE Enterprise, London, UK - Ignacio Grossmann, Carnegie Mellon University, USA - Venkat Venkatasubramanian, Purdue University, USA - Sebastian Engell, University of Dortmund, Germany - Wolfgang Marquardt, RWTH Aachen Univ. of Technology, Germany - John F. MacGregor, McMaster University, Hamilton, CanadaThere were also two special sessions: 'Tools in CAPE' and 'Education in CAPE', which fell under the responsibility of, respectively, Bertrand Braunschweig, Institut Français du Pétrole, France, and Sebastiao Feyo de Azevedo, FEUP, Porto, Portugal.In ESCAPE-14 was launched and awarded for the 1st time the 'CAPE Long-life Achievement'. Professor Roger Sargent of Imperial College, London, was the 1st recipient of this award as recognition of his life commitment to PSE (Process System Engineering). Professor Sergeant delivered a lecture entitled 'Process System Engineering: a Retrospective View with Questions for the Future'. Awards for Best oral presentation and Best poster were also granted, following selection by international committees.The Conference Proceedings were published by Elsevier, as volume 18 of its series dedicated to Computer-Aided Chemical Engineering, which comes together with a CD-ROM, where the totality of accepted contributions is gathered. A special issue of the Computers & Chemical Engineering Journal will also be dedicated to ESCAPE-14, following proper refereeing by the International Scientific Committee.
