Team OXIPRO finally gathered together for a long-awaited face-to-face gathering in Groningen, Netherlands for the annual project meeting. Hosted under the aegis of the Royal University of Groningen, the event enabled OXIPRO partners to share research highlights and plan ongoing interactions and collaborations.
The partners’ scientific achievements focused on the work performed in diversifying new enzymes, and the development of new processes and new technologies, including the novel computational platform, the biotechnology platform and enzyme production. During day one, sights were firmly set on the end users with a stimulating talk on industry perspectives, delivered by Kirk M. Schnorr.
Day two kicked off with a summary of activities and developments in the sustainability, dissemination and management efforts of partners, followed by a dynamic co-creation workshop reflecting on the value of meaningful engagement with stakeholders and society at large. Karel de Winter, OXIPRO Advisory Board member, then took to the lectern before handing over to Tatjana Schwabe-Markcovic from CLIB – a partner in OXIPRO’s sister project FuturEnzyme. The day concluded with a stimulating poster session and networking opportunity with young researchers.
The meeting gave partners the opportunity to kick-off work on life cycle assessment to assess the impact potential of new enzyme-based solutions. Participants were also able to use the event to identify capacity building synergies with the Enzyme Cluster sister projects. Importantly, the participation of the project Advisory Board revealed a gap between academic research and industry, with a recommendation to forge strong stakeholder interactions.
“The ability to meet in person generated excellent momentum to continue our strong scientific progress while also addressing some of the challenges that have been identified during the first year of the project”, says Project Coordinator, Gro Bjerga.
