CIRAN 3rd Consortium Meeting in Bologna: Insights and Future Directions

From September 30th until October 3rd, 2024, the CIRAN project team gathered in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, for the 3rd in-person Consortium Meeting. An engaging opportunity for project partners to share the progress and results with the External Experts and the European Commission’s Project Officer, the team reviewed the project implementation and planned the next steps for the second half of CIRAN. This four-day event brought together key stakeholders and provided valuable insights to shape the project’s future direction.

A strategically structured meeting to address various project objectives

The first two days, September 30th and October 1st, were dedicated to maximising the time with CIRAN External Experts, whom we last met during the Lisbon Consortium Meeting in January. The starting point was a workshop initiated with an engaging parliamentary hearing exercise, focused on key assumptions for permitting a mine in an environmentally protected area. This set the stage for partners to present the latest updates on their respective Tasks, with expert feedback proving invaluable in reckoning results from the project’s first half. The afternoon session featured a group exercise aimed at refining a permitting decision tree. Participants, comprising both external experts and project partners, were divided into four groups to discuss one of the following priority areas:

1. Safeguarding environmental protection
2. Increasing social acceptance
3. Enabling fast permitting times
4. Fostering long-term economic development in the local community

These discussions were aimed at reaching a consensus on the permitting decision-making process based on each of these priorities, further enhancing collaboration between partners and experts. The day concluded with a delightful city tour of the historical sites of Bologna led by a local guide, followed by a group dinner to continue engaging in insightful conversations and further the connections among the CIRAN community.

After bidding farewell to the external experts and expressing gratitude for their collaboration and insights, the third day focused on the Project Review Meeting with the European Commission’s Project Officer (PO) and an academic external evaluator. CIRAN’s results from the first half of the project were presented in detail, highlighting milestones achieved and ongoing key strategic objectives. The project received overall approval and commendations from both the PO and evaluator, who encouraged the Consortium to maintain its momentum. For this reason, on the last day, October 3rd, the Consortium partners discussed the next steps and strategies to achieve project objectives by December 2025, ensuring effective implementation of the remaining tasks for the completion of CIRAN as well as identifying the open opportunities to continue working on this complex balance.

To conclude, another successful Consortium Meeting would not have been possible without the great involvement of our hosts, the partner Regione Emilia Romagna (RER), and the active engagement of the External experts, Vena del Gesso Romagnola park authorities, the Saint-Gobain group, and all other local and regional collaborators.

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