Acknowledgements

TOPO-EUROPE is the regional coordinating committee for Europe of the International Lithosphere Programme (ILP). We thank ILP for financial support and recognition. Financial support to the TOPO-EUROPE preparatory workshops held in Budapest and Heidelberg, received from the Academia Europaea, the Klaus Tschira Foundation, the European Science Foundation (ESF), the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the Eötvös Lorant University Budapest (ELTE), and the Netherlands Research Centre for Integrated Solid Earth Science (ISES), is gratefully acknowledged. TOPO-EUROPE has been selected by ESF as a EUROCORES programme in September 2006.