The BeonNat consortium celebrated its 4th General Assembly meeting
It’s been already two years since BeonNat project started but, due to the Covid-19 crisis, we were not able to have the chance of seeing each other face to face. That changed, for most of us, during the celebration of the project’s 4th General Assembly meeting, which took at CIEMAT’s facilities in Soria (Spain).
First, on the 13th of July, some of us were lucky to enjoy a guided tour around the mysterious and historical city of Soria; afterwards, we ate dinner together and had the chance to get to know each other better and network.
The day after, the 14th, CEDER-CIEMAT was so kind to offer their facilities as headquarters of the meeting and also arranged a tour around. First, we visited the nursery, where the small sprouts of some species grow. Marina, from CEDER, showed us around and told us a bit of the work carried out there. Here are some photos:
Then, we visited the crops to which the previous species are being transplanted. The best LCA practices are being applied on the field to make the crops as sustainable as possible in terms of water, pesticides, nutrients use, among other parameters. The heat waves of this summer are making things a little complicated for some species, while others adapt better.
Then, CIEMAT showed us the equipment they use to get the agro-waste: the mulching machines that we talked to you about before in this post of our website. And also, all the machineries which extract the raw materials that will potentially become pet absorbents, essential oils, biochars, activated carbons, wood pulp for paper, particleboards, bioplastics and herbal extracts
Finally, after a short visit around CIEMAT’s labs, we headed to the hybrid meeting. We went through every Work Package, learning how the other members are doing, presenting some results and the direction that the project research is taking. It was quite refreshing to see how every WP is working and to understand their advances, what species are testing better towards the final products and which ones are not showing very promising results. It was really fascinating to share the conclusions of every WP and, in the case of the face-to-face meeting, share some quality networking time.
Last but not least, we made plans for the next months ahead and started thinking about the next meeting. We finalized the meeting with a few words from each member about their thoughts on the most relevant and interesting aspects of the project. And, of course, with a family photo of most of the attendants:
