Our fifth general assembly meeting (GAM#5) took place on the 4-6th of October 2022 in Milan. This was an important milestone for the project, where consortium partners and scientific advisory members were able to share and celebrate the progress made during the firsts 2 years of the project. This was also an excellent opportunity to meet face-to-face for the very first time and discuss lively the next steps and challenges to come!
The meeting took place in a privileged location, the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, Italy, one of the public partners in the project. The meeting focused on presenting the progress made in the first two years of the project but also on discussing current and upcoming challenges, in order to find feasible solutions to boost the project success. Importantly, since this was the first face-to-face event, this was an excellent opportunity to finally meet each other and consolidate the networks and synergies that we have been establishing since the project started online.
Besides the plenary sessions, the groups of experts involved in the various (sub) work packages were also able to meet in breakout working sessions to discuss specific topics related to the implementation of the project.
It is important to emphasise the role of the PREMIER early career researchers (ECRs) who actively contribute to the project activities. During both plenary and WP-specific sessions, various ECR´s presented their work covering all WPs in PREMIER: from prioritisation and environmental assessment of pharmaceuticals, to in vitro, in silico and in vivo exposure and effect tools, to the design of greener pharmaceuticals or the development of guidelines for medicinal chemists.
Various members of the PREMIER Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) also attended the GAM. They participated in the discussions and provided valuable advice to all partners. A specific SAB feedback session was held, where the individual SAB members were able to provide their thoughts about the progress of PREMIER but also advice about the next steps.
We look forward to meeting again soon and keep progressing towards a better environmental assessment of pharmaceutical ingredients!
Watch the a meeting video summary below:
