ExpoSignalz Attends Cluster Meeting to Help Join-Up European Exposome Research
At the end of September, six members of the ExpoSignalz team travelled to Barcelona to participate in the kick-off meeting of the ExpoHealthNet Cluster. The meeting brought together the seven EU health projects in the cluster as well as wider stakeholders to discuss goals, synergies and opportunities for collaboration.
What did the meeting entail?
The first ExpoHealthNet in-person meeting was hosted by the ClimAIr project, in the heart of Barcelona, and was an important step in introducing the projects to each other and putting names to faces.
The first day featured the public launch of the cluster. There were presentations by each of the seven projects, giving external stakeholders useful overviews of their research aims and ambitions. We also had valuable talks on the policy context relevant to ExpoHealthNet from the European Commission and the European Environment Agency. For the research teams, it is important to understand how their findings can be used by policymakers to help make critical decisions on regulations, interventions and priorities.
The day finished with a rapid-fire ‘speed dating’ exercise, in which the projects started to think about ways in which they could collaborate and help each other. ExpoSignalz found potential opportunities to maximise the usage of our shared data with Envesome, and to explore complementary models of chemical contamination with MarcoPolo, among others.
The second day focused on the three working groups in ExpoHealthNet – science to policy, data and communication.
What’s next for ExpoHealthNet?
A range of actions are underway following the kick-off, with both a scientific strategy and policy strategy being developed alongside new ideas for collaboration.
It’s a very promising start for what is shaping into an exciting research alliance. We look forward to working closely with our fellow researchers, specialists and communicators over the following years.
Stay up-to-date with ExpoHealthNet progress via the website or follow the cluster on LinkedIn.