Lisbon, Portugal: While attending the 30th annual congress of the European Accounting Association (EAA), MEAFA members have discussed ways for linking with the European research training network INTACCT.
The INTACCT research network investigates "The European IFRS Revolution: Compliance, Consequences and Policy Lessons", and consists of a major collaboration between some of the leading university accounting and finance research groups in Europe, including Lancaster University Management School, HEC-Paris, Universitat Frankfurt am Main, the University of Cyprus, the University of Ljubljana, the university of Macedonia Economic and social Sciences, the University of Porto, the university of Valencia, Tilburg University and the University of Varna. INTACCT is funded under the European Commission’s 6th framework Marie Curie programme and will operate over the period 2007-2010. It currently involves researchers in accounting, finance, economics, law and related areas, and aims to foster industry-academia cooperation, by establishing constructive dialogue with accounting regulators and practitioners, and the users of financial reporting information from the investment community.
INTACCT's research theme is very timely and highly relevant to Australian business reality (all Australian listed firms, like all European listed firms, are now required to prepare and disclose financial statements under International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS), and MEAFA is assigned with the task of bridging with this extensive research expertise fostered under leading European institutions.
MEAFA maintains close links with INTACCT following past collaboration with the predecessor network HARMONIA that investigated the "Accounting Harmonisation and Standardisation in Europe: Enforcement, Comparability and Capital Market Effects" (2000-2004) and was funded under the European Commission’s 5th framework. Now, MEAFA members are actively participating in INTACCT's training events and also engage in the development of relevant research questions to both networks. For instance, Dr Maxwell Stevenson is invited to the UK (May 2007) for delivering PhD training and to work with Professor Stuart McLeay, one of the principal mentors of INTACCT. Dr Maurice Peat is also planning to spend an 8-week sabbatical to the UK (June-July 2007) to discuss joint research topics. Furthermore, Dr Demetris Christodoulou is invited to deliver a one-day PhD training workshop in Tilburg (October 2007) on Data Structures, while together with Dr Richard Gerlach and Dr Vasilis Sarafidis they are currently preparing joint research projects and grant applications with former HARMONIA members and current INTACCT members from Europe.