During one of the very early SNOWMAN meetings, Johan van Veen from the SNOWMAN partner organisation SKB/Netherlands introduced a vision to the group:

"During the first half of the 20th. Century, it seemed to be impossible for man to walk on or even fly to the moon. - Then, 1969, NASA astronaut Neil Alden Armstrong said his famous sentence īThat's one small step for man... one ... giant leap for mankind.` - and he walked on the moon.
During the early 70ths, it seemed to be impossible to repopulate the river Rhine with salmon. - Nowadays, you can walk along the Rhine and find salmon living there."

Johan van Veen continued to say that the idea for the SNOWMAN network may seem to be impossible in the beginning, too. So, he created the sentence "let us bring SNOWMAN now the salmon to the moon".

And today? Of course, there is still no salmon on the moon (and who would expect it?), but SNOWMAN has realised its pilot call for research, is funding five trans-national research projects to be finalised end 2008 - and is now planning to launch a second call to improve the procedures created.

The next steps for SNOWMAN are also to establish a SNOWMAN Research Programme and to encourage funders across the EU to join the SNOWMAN network for continuing what have already begun - beyond 2009.