The InnCoCells kickoff meeting was held on 26 May 2021 in a virtual environment, bringing together all 17 partners and the EC Project Advisor for the first time. After a brief introduction covering project coordination, the grant agreement, financial accounting, and the project deliverables and milestones, the work package leaders gave short presentations outlining the initial tasks in the project:
WP1 Bioprospecting and strain engineering (Alain Goossens, VIB)
WP2 Upstream optimization (Heiko Rischer, VTT)
WP3 Bioprocess development and upscaling (Gea Guerriero, LIST)
WP4 Ingredient recovery (Bart Van Droogenbroeck, EVILVO)
WP5 Bioassays and chemical analysis of innovative ingredients (Jörg von Hagen, Merck)
WP6 Techno-economic evaluation, regulatory compliance and sustainability (Frédéric Bourgaud, PAT)
WP7 Stakeholder engagement, exploitation, dissemination and communication (Richard Twyman, TRM)
WP8 Project management (Kirsi-Marja Oksman, VTT)
WP9 Ethics requirements (Suvi Häkkinen, VTT)
This was followed by a meeting of the General Assembly, which formalized the nomination of candidates for the General Assembly, Management Committee and Exploitation Committee (including deputies), as well as the Exploitation Manager and Data Protection Officer. Candidates for the Stakeholder Group and Scientific Advisory Group were also discussed. Before closing the meeting, the deliverables and milestones due by the end of the first project reporting period were agreed along with the venue for the next project meeting.