The fourth Progress Meeting was held at CNRS in Strasbourg, France from April 3 to 5, 2023. The meeting was held for the first time in place only. In the following you will find a summary and some impressions of the event. A detailed agenda can be found here: https://horates.eu/2023/03/22/fourth-progress-meeting-in-strasbourg-france-coming-soon/
Day 1
Monday, 3 April 2023
The meeting started with the ESRs presenting their progress and results of the last two month. Since the progress within the last months was significant, the discussion was often intense and took more time than the planned 5 minutes. In addition, the Supervisory, the Training, the Technology Transfer, the Dissemination and the Ethics Board met. In the evening we enjoyed a typical Alsatian dinner at Le Baeckeoffe d’Alsace in Strasbourg’s city center.
Day 2
Tuesday, 4 April 2023
The second day was dedicated to structure-morphology-property correlations. The ESRs attended lectures by experienced researchers from CNRS on the basics of structure and morphology. They obtained insights into polymer crystallisation mechanisms and techniques as well as into structural investigation methods for polymers and thermoreversible gels. In addition, they received a practice-oriented introduction to cryo-methods in transmission electron microscopy as well as a hands-on introduction to a cryo-scanning and transmission electron microscope – advanced techniques to visualize morphologies. The day was concluded with a lecture on how morphologies relevant for hybrid thermoelectric generators can be simulated with Molecular Dynamics Simulations including the capabilities and limitations of such models.
The picture shows Bernard Lotz Emeritus Researcher ICS presenting on “Insight into polymer crystallization” (Photo: Shubhradip Guchait).
Day 3
Wednesday, 5 April 2023
The third day focused on intellectual property protection and the how-to of developing an initial research idea to market. We started with an interactive session on how to analyze the market to assess the potential of an idea, as well as the challenges and pitfalls of patenting. We also learned about the technical requirements for market entry, such as the ability to upscale and the challenges associated with this, taking thermoelectric generators as an example, and learned about the area of quality management and the differences between research and market, including the different working environments in the two areas.