ReProForce Kick-off meeting

Date
The kick-off meeting was held on the 26 of January, 2010 at IBIR-BAS, Sofia - Bulgaria.

Participants
24 scientists took part: all ReProForce project team participants and representatives from 5 support partner organisations:

• Prof. F. Gandolfi (Milano-Italy),
• Prof. U. Markert (Jena-Germany),
• Prof. N. Fernandez (Essex-UK),
• Prof. H. Donat (Magdeburg-Germany),  
• Prof. K. Teerds (Wageningen-Netherlands).

Two ReProForce support partners - Dr. Besenfelder, Wienna-Austria and Prof. Kleinstein, Magdeburg-Germany, who were not available to attend physically the meeting - sent their presentations and the latter were presented during the meeting..

Agenda

Morning Session:

• Opening  and ReProForce presentation - Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Mollova, Coordinator of the project
• Introduction of project support partners – human, scientific and technical resources (all presentations are filed  by the coordinator)
• Detailed project presentation and definition of activities related to ReProForce support partners (definition of partners status, mobility visits overview, financial policies, events agenda etc)

An important issue discussed was the emphasis on the need to include junior researchers, while on a short or mid-term visit to ReProForce support partner organization, in both the implementation of partners' labs projects and the realization of common publications.

This will additionally provide junior researchers with the opportunity of learning new and advanced methods, familiarizing with modern equipment, exchanging experience and creating valuable network, while underpinning future collaborative research opportunities. 

The partners congratulated the project team with the success and shown their readiness to provide all necessary resources for the successful implementation of the project and achievement of greater research capacity for IBIR.

A valuable suggestion from the support partners' side is rooted in the idea to announce the project starting in some European wide scientific journals. It was agreed to prepare a short announcement of the project   (half page) and more detailed description (up to 2 pages) for the publication in the scientific journal (ex Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology).
Prof. U. Markert and Prof. K.Teerds committed to help with this publication.

Further, a presentation of the ReProForce project via dissemination and communication materials (poster) will be done during the European "Testis workshop" in May 2010, co-organised by  Prof. K.Teerds.

The discussion ended with the signature of a Support Partners Agreement between ReProForce Coordinator and the ReProForce Support Partners was signed.

Afternoon Session:

• Definition of the 2010 ReProForce work plan:

-  Mobility visits for 2010 were detailed and agreed with the partners (the plan is done and kept)
- The organization of the 2010 events and the relevant participation of ReProForce support partners were discussed.
Mid-February will be announced the Workshop "Mitochondria and reproduction" (approximately dates 2-3 June, 2010), Prof. Gandolfi and Prof. K.Teerds will take an active part in its organization.

• First discussion on ReProForce Network – establishing a future scientific strategy. Though, the main subject of investigations is being clear - reproduction in human and animals, some of the partners met difficulties in assembling around such a narrow topic. Further definition on concrete aspects and a roadmap will be elaborated until the next RSP meeting.

Main outcome

• Official start of the ReProForce project
• Direct contacts between project team and partners established
• Support Partners Agreement signed
• 2010 mobility and  work plan  discussed and agreed by all support partners
• ReProForce Network - foundation of a future scientific collaborative strategy development.