On May 13, 2009, the first meeting of the Scientific Council of NISE took place at the ADVN in Antwerp, Belgium. It was decided to use the agency of civil society as the criterion for including of national movements in the project.

During the first meeting of the international Scientific Council of NISE on 13 May 2009 at the ADVN in Antwerp (Belgium), the framework for the project was finalised. An important decision on that account was to focus NISE on those national movements that emanated from civil society. To avoid any terminological confusion with state induced nationalism, the title of NISE was slightly adjusted to: National movements & Intermediary Structures in Europe.

For the first entries in the database, the following subject was selected: the periodicals produced during Hroch’s phase B. Data concerning the people and organisations linked with them, their content and material characteristics and their influence on public opinion, will be collected, checked, structured and systematically entered into the database.

It was also decided during the meeting to organise a conference every three years. The first conference will already be held in 2010. The conference will focus on the activities of the institutes within the NISE network and discuss ways of cooperating, for instance by determining best practices.