The BioSense Institute, located in Novi Sad, Serbia, hosted the third official TEAMING Club Conference. The aim of three-day-event (9th of October to the 11th 2024) was to learn more about each-others research focus, as well as about available research infrastructure (equipment, technologies, methodologies) at each Centre of Excellence and to boost future collaborations. The conference brought together coordinators and partners from different Centers of Excellence (CoE) representing four generations of Teaming projects. The CETOCOEN Excellence project was represented by Dr. Kateřina Šebková and Dr. Jan Ostřížek from RECETOX a prof. Martin Bobák representing the UCL as the advanced partnter.
The first day was dedicated to strengthening and deepening the research collaboration among the CoEs. After the short welcome address given by Vesna Bengin, the coordinator of ANTARES project and the organizer of the conference, the representatives of the projects were divided in 5 parallel sessions based on the topics of: 1. Health, 2. Culture, education and business, 3. Agriculture, environment and Biotech, 4. Digital and quantum, 5. Materials and physics. Our project participated in the cluster of Health and Agriculture, Environment and Biotech. Within the Health cluster, Martin Bobák presented the research focus of the centre and the possibilities of joint research collaboration, including the potential of the RECETOX Research infrastructure and the international infrastructure EIRENE. Kateřina Šebková introduced RECETOX in the Environmental cluster.
The second day started with official opening of the conference and key note addresses given by Minna Wilkki (REA), Stefan Weiers (EC) and Vesna Bengin (Biosense) and with the plenary talk given by Vladimir Bulović, the director of the MIT.Nano located in Boston, USA. He introduced the US experiences with building new research infrastructure and excellent research institute and shared his personal view on the management of such a large institute. Federica Roffi, the deputy head at REA, gave her introductory talk on the experiences and outcomes of TEAMING actions realized so far, and started the first discussion panel “Spreading and Sustaining Excellence” moderated by Vesna Bengin. Kateřina Šebková presented RECETOX’s activities and cooperation and highlighted the importance of the transfer of knowledge not only to the industry, but also to the public sector – from the national, to international and intergovernmental scale. The second panel, moderated by Jan Ostřížek, was dedicated to research infrastructures, their role and potential and also their sustainability and development.
The last day contained two discussion panels. Christoph Sensen (HCEMM) moderated the panel on the future of CoEs beyond the TEAMING projects, which was opened by the introductory talk of Patrizio Ortiz de la Torre, the head of sector at REA. Together with seven representatives of several CoEs they discussed the future, financial stability and operation of centres, which already finalized their TEAMING project, or which are close to the end of its implementation. Two speakers discussed the harmonization with financial regulations and national and EU legislation within the last úanel moderated by Henry Patzig (FinEst). During the wrap up session it was announced that the next Teaming Conference will by hosted by the CIBIO center in Porto.
From November 11-13, 2024, the “Air Quality in Time” conference took place in the beautiful setting of Vysočina, at the 9skal hotel. This event was the result of merging two traditional events – the Air Quality conference organized by the RECETOX center and the annual conference of the Czech Aerosol Society (ČAS).
Professor Jana Klánová received a prestigious award from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TAČR). The award recognizes her long-term contribution to TAČR and applied research, as well as her role as a member of the TAČR research council.
