FRIENDS² Midterm meeting

On April 8, 2016, the midterm meeting of the FRIENDS² project was held in Seville, Spain. Participants of the four consortium members (Abengoa, HZDR, Cranfield University and Metal Estalki) met with the EC officer Alexandra Pedersen and the expert reviewer Bruno Ando in order to review the project’s progress during the first 15 months. The scientific director of Abengoa Research Manuel Doblaré, welcomed the participants of the meeting to CPA installations.  A general overview of the project implementation was given by the coordinator Ramon Escobar Galindo, pointing out the highlights of the project´s first year: excellent science, international dissemination and relevant training, fruitful secondments, rigorous management and fun atmosphere.

This overview was followed by specific presentations of the different workpackages in which the main results obtained in the project were summarized and discussed with the EC officer and the reviewer.  All presentations can be downloaded from the Project document section of the project webpage. After the presentations, all participants were guided to an on-site visit of the Abengoa Research labs in facilities.

After lunch, every seconded staff member held a short presentation of their individual secondments, highlighting new skills acquired and lessons learned during their stay at a partner institution. These presentations were followed by separate meetings of ER and ESR consortium members with the officer and reviewer. In these meetings the impact of the project on young scientists careers, difficulties, complementarities among the consortium members, implications of IP, publications within the European project, secondments rules etc. were discussed.

After the meeting, and the “mandatory” group picture, the project team of researchers and the EC representatives enjoyed a FRIENDLY² dinner in downtown Seville.