Mid-term review meeting

The MidTerm Review (MTR) meeting was held in Ove Arup and Partners Ireland, Dublin, on the 1st and 2nd December 2016. The MTR is a contractual obligation with the objective of meeting the project team, updating on the project progress, discussing any questions and finding improvements. It is therefore a unique opportunity to exchange views via a constructive dialogue between all network and the Research Executive Agency.

List of MTR attendees: Nina Poumpalova (Project Officer), Antonio Cimmino (External Expert), Arturo Gonzalez (Project Coordinator), Salam Al-Sabah (Arup), Luis Costas (ENSA), Wendy Mann (Lloyd’s Register EMEA),  Thierry Yalamas (Phimeca), Alan O’Connor and Maria Nogal (TCD), Eugene OBrien, Debra Laefer and Ciaran McNally (UCD), Gordon Airey, Rasa Remenyte-Prescott and Luis Neves (UNOTT), Joan Ramon Casas (UPC), Loreto Manriquez (Project Manager) and our 14 Early Stage Researchers: Sofia Antonopoulou (UCD), Md Shah Nur Alam Sourav (Arup), Alberto Gonzalez Merino (ENSA), Rui Teixeira (TCD), Guang Zou (Lloyd’s Register EMEA), Giulia Milana (Lloyd’s Register EMEA), Farhad Huseynov (FSDL), Barbara Heitner (Phimeca), Matteo Vagnoli (UNOTT), John James Moughty (UPC), Antonio Barrias (UPC), Daniel Martínez Otero (UCD), Federico Perrotta (UNOTT) and Siyuan Chen (UCD).

The agenda was structured as follows:

Thursday 1st December

• 14:30-15:00 Welcome by Company Director, Joe Burns
• 15:00-15:10 Introduction by Research Executive Agency Representative, Nina Poumpalova
• 15:10-15:20 Tour de table: All scientists-in-charge briefly present their research team and describe their role within the network.
• 15:20-15:45 Coordinator’s Report, Arturo Gonzalez
  • Scientific Basis and Progress of TRUSS ITN
  • Training Programme
  • Networking
  • Management
• 15:45-16:00 Coffee Break
• 16:00-17:00 Individual Reports from Early Stage Researchers in WP4

16:00-16:10   ESR1 Sofia Antonopoulou
16:10-16:20   ESR2 Md Shah Nur Alam Sourav
16:20-16:30   ESR3 Alberto Gonzalez Merino
16:30-16:40   ESR4 Rui Teixeira
16:40-16:50   ESR5 Guang Zou
16:50-17:00   ESR6 Giulia Milana

• 19:00 Dinner

Friday 2nd December

• 09:00-10:20 Individual Reports from Early Stage Researchers in WP5

09:00-09:10   ESR7 Farhad Huseynov
09:10-09:20   ESR8 Barbara Heitner
09:20-09:30   ESR9 Matteo Vagnoli
09:30-09:40   ESR10 John James Moughty
09:40-09:50   ESR11 Antonio Barrias
09:50-10:00   ESR12 Daniel Martínez Otero
10:00-10:10    ESR13 Federico Perrotta
10:10-10:20    ESR14 Siyuan Chen

• 10:20-10:40 Coffee Break
• 10:40-12:10 Meeting between Early Stage Researchers and Research Executive Agency Representative
• 12:10-13:40 Open Discussion
• 14:00 Lunch

ESRs joined TRUSS ITN between September and December 2015, and since then, they have attended network-wide training in UNOTT (30 Nov – 4 Dec 2015) and in ENSA (16-17 June 2016), including feedback from the consortium for their Personal Career Development Plans. Additionally, they have all started or completed their secondments, and they have received on-the-job training and a substantial amount of local training on complimentary skills (314 hours in 8 language courses , more than 110 hours in teaching activities -supervising, demonstrating or providing tutorials- and more than 150 hours in other taught courses on soft skills -bibliographical management, how to write an academic paper, communication skills, etc.-) as well as technical skills (attendance to 37 conferences, more than 500 hours in 19 laboratory/field tests and almost 1000 hours in 71 courses directly related to their research).

With respect to dissemination, TRUSS has published 24 technical papers (3 in peer reviewed journals and 21 in conferences), and 3 press releases in main stream magazines or newspapers prior to November 2016. The website has 130 pages of content and has been visited 22132 times, 12529 of which are new users, with a total of 61792 page views. The top 8 countries with more visitors to TRUSS website are United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, India, France, China and Italy. TRUSS has social media profiles in Facebook with 127 posts (14188 reach and 2950 engagements), in Google+ with 5 collections and more than 70 followers, in LinkedIn with 87 followers, in Twitter with 164 tweets and 57451 impressions, in YouTube with 12 videos and 2520 views, and in Blogger with our ESRs delivering 79 posts that have been viewed 14288 times. Furthermore, TRUSS has carried out outreach activities in Junior and High Schools, in Research Exhibitions, and in Open Days.