The FRANCIS consortium got together in person for the first time in Paris between October 17-19, 2022. Due to Covid travel restrictions, the consortium members (representing Fraunhofer, VTT, Agorize, The Behavioural Insights Team, InnoFrugal, BSH Turkey, and Helioz) were only able to do virtual meetings so far, therefore this opportunity to meet was welcomed by all.
The European Commission was represented by Irina Tiron, Project Adviser – European Commission and project reviewer was Dr Mario Pansera, Director and ERC Grantee, Uvigo Post-growth Innovation Lab.
This meeting was part of the review process that every Horizon 2020 (now Horizon Europe) project undergoes midway through its project timeline. Most of the consortium members attended the meeting in person but a few others joined via MS Teams online link.
On Day 1 (October 17, 2022) we arrived at the meeting place organized by Agorize at its facilities in the city center of Paris, where Marc-Antoine Cazenave was kind enough to give us a quick tour before going on to review the presentation of our work for Irina and Mario that was scheduled for the next day.
On Day 2 (October 18, 2022) we presented the status of the FRANCIS project and our planned next steps, especially our next open innovation challenges for BSH Turkey (application area: home care and culinary world) and Helioz (area of application: solar disinfection). We received valuable feedback from both Irina and Mario.
On Day 3 (October 19, 2022) we went through the advice and feedback together and discussed how to incorporate it before sending our interim review report to the European Commission.
Overall, it was a successful and welcome meeting in Paris and gave the consortium members a new impetus to work on the next part of the FRANCIS project.