Content of the Meeting:
While the NIC-IX Conference will cover general issues of observations, astrophysical modeling, nuclear theory and experiments, there is a basic need in all astrophysical modeling to have access to the best available and most consistent input data. Examples in stellar modeling and nucleosynthesis relate to the equation of state, opacities, reaction libraries of strong and weak nuclear reactions (including capture, exchange, photodisintegration, decays, induced fission, electron/positron capture, neutrino-nucleon and neutrino-nucleus reactions) and nuclear masses. In the growing field of the (chemical) evolution of galaxies, there is the need to compare to stellar abundances at low metallicities, where by now a large data base of often duplicate observations is available, with compilations of theoretical yields from stellar evolution and explosions.

In all these cases there exist the questions a. how to define the data needs, b. point to experimental/observational or theoretical sources, c. define a procedure how to perform quality accessment. In the field of opacities there exist huge efforts by the US National Labs and by the British Opacity project. Experimental reaction rates were collected and analyzed in pioneering efforts by Willy Fowler, followed by a new assessment of the NACRE collaboration. Similar efforts were undertaken by theoretical and experimental groups (e.g. REACLIB/Basel, FFN/LANL, BRUSLIB/ULB and recent additions, specially in the area of weak interactions and fission) to provide the remaining missing information. Particularly noteworthy are recent efforts at Livermore towards a reaction compilation, at Oak Ridge, for developing the necessary tools for compilation and semination, as well as by JINA to establish an on-line reaction rate library for the broader user community. In the field of stellar abundance observations such efforts are still in their infancy but first steps are presently being initited.

The main focus of this workshop is to bring together (experimental and theoretical) data providers, experienced experts on an unbiased analysis, and the modelers who are in urgent need of utilizing the best available data input. The goal is to identify the data needs of the community in terms of type and form of data, and to discuss ongoing projects and future strategies to meet those needs. Other important points that we plan to discuss are strategies for data evaluation and quality control, the importance of evaluation standards, credit for data providers and many more.

International Advisory Board:
JINA: Tim Beers (MSU), Hendrik Schatz (MSU), Michael Wiescher (Notre Dame);
CARINA: C. Angulo (Louvain la Neuve),
VISTARS: K.-L. Kratz (U. Mainz),
Rob Hoffman (Lawrence Livermore National Lab.), G. Martinez-Pinedo (GSI Darmstadt), K. Nomoto (U. Tokyo), I. Panov (ITEP, Moscow), Michael Smith (Oak Ridge National Lab.),

LOC: Eva Grebel, Raphael Hirschi, Matthias Liebendoerfer, Thomas Rauscher, Friedrich-K. Thielemann