The METROFOOD-PP 4^th Project Progress Meeting took place last 24 and 25 November.  After 2 years of intense activities, the METROFOOD-PP Consortium meet for discussing the advancements of the activities in the first 24 months of the project and to prepare in detail the next steps for the last 6 months. All the WPs of the three project blocks were discussed in detail (Block 1 “Building METROFOOD-RI”, Block 2 “Structuring METROFOOD-RI”, Block 3 “Strategic Planning”), along with the activities related to WP15 “Dissemination”, project coordination and management (WP1) and ethics aspects (WP16).

We had the pleasure to host at the meeting also our Project Officer, who gave an inspiring introductory speech.

Due to the sanitary restrictions, it was no possible to have all the consortium members meeting in presence, but we had this time the opportunity to organise the meeting in a blended version: the Management Committee members participated in presence, thanks to the local organization of our Belgian partner, Sciensano; all the consortium members, with representatives from all the 48 partner institutions involved in the project participated on-line, with a total of 102 participants the first day and 100 the second day.

It was a pity not to meet all of us in person, but – after 2 years of remote work – the possibility to have at least the Management Committee in presence was like a milestone for us and the great participation and contribution from the colleagues participating on-line permitted us to have a very active and fruitful discussion.

As always, the best strengthen is the team… our METROFOOD-family!