Editorial POC CoSi 2008

You have just opened the fourth special issue of Progress in Organic Coatings dealing with the papers delivered at Coating Science International 2008. This fourth conference in a series, CoSi 2008, was held again, like in 2005, 2006 and 2007, in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, at the Hotels van Oranje, from 23 June to 27 June 2008. We like to think that the meeting was held in an amicable atmosphere, in contrast to the typical Dutch weather (variable between shiny and stormy). Around 115 participants (62 academia and 53 industry) from 23 different countries attended, resulting in a total of 33 papers (16½ academic and 16½ industrial) and 33 posters presented. An independent review by Mariëlle Wouters of TNO Science and Industry (Eur. Coat. J. 9 (2008) 58–60) provides you with a more detailed assessment of the Conference, upon which we do not want to add anything further. As before, the authors were invited to submit a full paper to Progress in Organic Coatings, subject to the conventional reviewing conditions. As last year, the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Gordon Bierwagen, asked the organizers to act as guest editors and we gladly accepted this invitation. The result is an issue containing 33 full papers of contributions to CoSi 2008.