When FindingPheno first started we did the usual EU project thing and held a Kick-Off Meeting (KOM) for all partners to get to know each other a little more and start the project in a good way. Since this was early 2021, we also did the usual global pandemic thing and held the event fully online. This was a really good and productive meeting but we all missed the kind of interaction and energy that comes from meeting in person, so we agreed back then to try for a full project meeting to be run alongside the external Stakeholder Synergy Meeting (SSM) we were already planning.
So this is what we did! The last week of October was an action packed one for FindingPheno as all the project partners travelled to Copenhagen for three days of scientific updates, outreach planning and general idea sharing across the consortium. The schedule started and ended with just FindingPheno on day 1 and 3, but also included our one-day SSM sandwiched in the middle. This set up allowed us to first bond together as a project before bringing in the outside viewpoints, but then incorporate any new ideas and connections generated during the SSM on our last day where we all discussed our plans for what comes next.
The project meetings were productive and with a good vibe (plus lots of coffee and doughnuts!). We were able to use the excellent facilities in the Panum Building at Copenhagen University. This made the obligatory group photo a lot easier with natural light and cool architecture to work from, resulting in the smiling faces of the FindingPheno consortium as you can see below.
Overall the plan worked well. The SSM was a success, with excellent talks and a lot of interaction and networking among all the people that were there. You can find our meeting report here, and this officially fulfils our second project milestone. Meanwhile, all our project members left feeling energised and excited, both about FindingPheno specifically but also about the wider potential for big data analysis in hologenomic applications. There really is something special about getting everyone together in the same room, especially for a project so focused on data analysis and computer work like this one, and we are already looking forward to next time!
Written by Shelley Edmunds