COST Action CA19145 Action Title: European Network for assuring food integrity using non-destructive spectral sensors (SENSORFINT)
Minutes
Management Committee Meeting
Porto, Portugal
Present in person
Vincent Baeten (Belgium), Wouter Saeys (Belgium), Stefka Atanassova (Bulgaria), Jasenka Gajdos Klju (Croatia), Ivan Stajduhar (Croatia), Pavel Skrabanek (Czech Republic), Benoit Jaillais (France), Jean-Michel Roger (France), Andreas Niemoeller (Germany), Marina
Cocchi (Italy), Paolo Berzaghi (Italy), Victor Cojocaru (Moldova), Jens Petter Wold (Norway), Natalia Sivchenko (Norway), Henryk Czarnik-Matusewicz (Poland), Krystof Rutkowski (Poland), Antonia Silva Ferreira (Portugal), Cristina Maguas (Portugal), Belous Madalina (Romania), Mihai Brebu (Romania), Kristian Pastor (Serbia), Anna Sandak (Slovenia), Matija Milanic (Slovenia), Lola Perez Marin (Spain), Victor Fernandez Cabanas (Spain), Ana Garrido Varo (Spain), Martin Lagerholm (Sweden), Stefan Lundgren (Sweden),
Marco Loschi (Switzerland), Halil Mecit Oztop (Turkey), Tom Fearn (UK)
Attending on-line
Christian Huck (Austria), Liudmil Antonov (Bulgaria), Stella Ordoudi (Greece), Szilveszter Gergely (Hungary), Declan Delaney (Ireland), Saskia Van Ruth (Netherlands), Dijana Blazhekovikj (North Macedonia), Stoimir Stojanovski (North Macedonia), Stefan Stankovski (Serbia), Marena Manley (South Africa), Glen Fox (USA)
1. Lola Perez Marin chaired the meeting. She welcomed participants, both those present in person at this hybrid meeting and those attending on-line.
2. In total, there were representatives from 25 of the 30 participating COST countries plus 2 from international partner countries. This is more than the required two-thirds.
3. The agenda was accepted with no objections.
4. The minutes of the last meeting had been circulated. They were accepted with no objections. There were no matters arising that would not be dealt with under subsequent agenda items.
5(a). Status of the Action. The start and end dates are 30th September 2020 and 29th September 2024 respectively. At the time of this meeting we are in the first grant period which runs from 1st November 2020 to 31st October 2021. All expenses claims for attendance at this meeting need to be submitted within this grant period. There are currently 30 participating COST countries, one near neighbour country (Russia) and five members from four international countries (The USA, Australia, South Africa, South Korea).
5(b). Short-term scientific missions. There have been 2 calls so far, with a total of 10 grants awarded, of which 8 were taken up. The two not taken up, both for reasons related to the pandemic, are shown in bold in the table below.
|
Candidates |
Host Institution |
|
Sebahattin Serhat Turgut (Turkey) |
University of Cordoba (Spain) |
|
Irina Torres Rodríguez (Spain) |
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) |
|
Ana Mª Jiménez-Carvelo (Spain) |
Queens University (UK) |
|
Lorenzo Strani (Italy) |
University of Lille (France) |
|
Vlladimir Kitanovski (North Macedonia) |
Universidade Catolica Portuguesa (Portugal) |
|
Stella Ordoudi (Greece) |
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) |
|
Carmen Alamar Gavidia (UK) |
IVIA (Spain) |
|
Sevil Cikrikci Erunsal (Turkey) |
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) |
|
Maria Tarapoulouzi (Cyprus) |
Faculty of Sciences School of Chemistry, Thessaloniki (Greece) |
|
Jose Antonio Entrenas de Leon (Spain) |
Bruker, Ettlingen, Germany |
6. Update from the Grant Holder on the Action budget status for the current budget period
| A) COST NETWORKING TOOLS | BUDGET | ACTUAL |
| Design of the Action logo | 500 | 300 |
| Website creation and social media | 2997 | 2555 |
| Marketing gifts | 400 | 0 |
| Dissemination material | 200 | 0 |
| Virtual Core Group meetings (November and January) | 0 | 0 |
| Virtual WGs meetings (end November) | 0 | 0 |
| ITC Conference Grant | 600 | 0 |
| Short term scientific missions | 14000 | 10225 |
| International workshop + MC meeting, Porto Sept/Oct 2021 | 45250 | ???? |
| OERSA | 400 | |
| B) TOTAL SCIENCE EXPENDITURE | 64347 | |
| C) FSAC (15% of B) | 9652 | |
| TOTAL GRANT (B+C) | 73999 |
The budget for the short-term scientific missions was committed, but 2 visits did not take place, hence the under spend. The actual cost of the current meeting will not be known until the end of the budget period, at which point the accounts will be updated.
7. Update from the COST Association & 8. Monitoring of the Action.
Gordana Kregar (COST Scientific Officer) joined the meeting on-line and informed about these items.
New framework and rules for COST actions were informed. There have been some changes to the COST rules as described in the attached powerpoint presentation. Points to be aware of include:
• There is a new eCOST tool for WG membership and members are encouraged to register
• The Action will need to appoint a Grant-awarding Coordinator.
9. Implementation of COST policies.
(a) Promotion of gender balance and early career investigators (ECI). It was reported that 6 of the 15 members of the core group are women; priority has been given to ECI in the assignment of STMS and the criteria set out in the call stated an intention to achieve gender
balance as well as a balance over WGs and geography. A similar balance was aimed for in the selection of session chairs and speakers in the current workshop.
(b) Inclusiveness and excellence. The following COST inclusiveness target countries (ITC) are participating: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Malta, Moldova, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, Republic of North
Macedonia. Not yet participating are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Slovakia. Five ITC are represented in the core group. Four STSM grantees are from ITC countries. Five International countries are represented in the MC, belonging to institutions and research team leaders in the worlds in the spectral sensors topic.
10. MoU objectives: progress report of working groups.
The main activities have been: the design of a logo and the setting up of a website; several online meetings; the setting up of an STSM programme and the award of 10 grants (2 not taken up); the award of one conference grant (not taken up); an international workshop held
in hybrid mode with 128 participants (76 present, 52 on-line) from 38 countries.
All 5 WGs have been active, but WG1 and WG2 have been the most active because of the focus of the international workshop. In the next period we need to increase the activity of all workgroups.
It was agreed that deliverables 1 (Prospective report on new emerging and innovative technologies for quality and process control in the agro-food industry) and 2 (Improved algorithms, software, prediction equations and recommendations for data management and
NDSS issues) would be postponed to months 18 and 22.
11. Scientific planning for the next grant period
A draft budget was presented and approved.
| A) COST NETWORKING TOOLS | Budget (€) |
| Maintenance of the website | 1800 |
| Marketing gifts | 900 |
| Dissemination material | 450 |
| Virtual Core Group Meeting (every three months or when it is necessary on demand) | 0 |
| Virtual WGs meetings (at least one in the year) | 0 |
| ITC Conference Grant | 8000 |
| Short-term scientific mission (20) | 40000 |
| International Conference 2022 + MC meeting 2022 | 63000 |
| Trainning School | 25000 |
| OERSA (Other scientific expenses related to scientific activities) | 500 |
| B) TOTAL SCIENCE EXPENDITURE | 139650 |
| C) FSAC (15% of B) | 20948 |
| TOTAL GRANT (B+C) | 160598 |
Anna Sandak from Slovenia offered to host the next International Conference and MC meeting in Izola in Slovenia. After some discussion, a length of 3 days and a timing in May or early June were agreed.
Jean-Michel Roger offered to run a 4-day training school with a focus on chemometrics in Montpellier in France in September 2022. The offer was accepted.
12. Requests to join the Action
(a) The number of participating COST countries has grown from 15 to 30, with the most recent incorporations being Romania, Czech Republic, Greece, Israel and Switzerland. More than 150 new participants have expressed interest in taking part.
(b) One participant from a COST near neighbour country, Institute of Chemical Physics, RAS, Russia, has joined.
(c) Two international partner countries have been added: South Africa (The University of Stellenbosch) and the USA (California Davis University).
13. AOB. There was some discussion of the need to encourage more industry participation. In the current workshop a big effort was made to involve local industry, and this should be repeated if possible. It was suggested that it would be good to exchange information on who
has what instrumentation or facilities. Lola Perez Marin will construct a pro-forma and circulate to the MC. It was suggested that organising some basic training for industry would be helpful. This will also be considered for the Slovenia Conference.
14. The next meeting will be in Izola in Slovenia in May or June of 2022, dates to be circulated when finalised.
15. Summary of MC decisions
• Deliverables 1 and 2 will be postponed to months 18 and 22.
• A draft budget for the next grant period (see item 10) was approved.
• The next workshop and MC meeting will be held over 3 days in Slovenia in May or June of 2022.
• A Training School with a focus on chemometrics will be held over 4 days in Montpellier in France in September of 2022.
16. The meeting closed a little later than planned, the hybrid format having led to some delays.
Tom Fearn, Sensorfint Vice-chair
4 November 2021
Validated by Lola Pérez-Marín, Sensorfint Chair
5 November 2021
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