EMERITUS project starts during the 13th September 2022 Kick-off Meeting

The EMERITUS project hosted a virtual Kick-off Meeting to begin its activities.

The Environmental crimes’ intelligence and investigation protocol based on multiple data sources project (EMERITUS) held its Kick-off Meeting (KoM) virtually on the past 13th September 2022. The KoM gathered 35 attendees representing the 20 partners of the EMERITUS consortium formed by research institutions, industrial players, security-specialised SMEs, NGOs, LEAs and BGs from 9 countries – Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Romania, and Moldova. The meeting was also attended by EMERITUS’ Project Officer from the European Research Executive Agency (REA).

The main objective of the KoM was the official launch of EMERITUS as well as the presentation of the consortium. The meeting focused on relevant aspects for the optimal project development, such as the structure, work packages, tasks and activities, duration, milestones, reviews, and financial aspects.

The introduction of the meeting was presented by Margherita Volpe (Zabala Innovation), followed by the EMERITUS’ coordinator Freddy Rivas (GMV). Later, each representative introduced their company/institution as well as their role during the life of the project.

The meeting went smoothly and according to the agenda. The multidisciplinary expressed a shared willingness and enthusiasm to contribute to project work for the following 36 months and hence to face the challenges and achieve the goals defined during the proposal stage through the co-creation of solutions focused on environmental crimes.

The second part of the KoM focused on the explanation of the internal structure of each Work Package (WP), highlighting the objectives, participants, activities and KPIs with a special emphasis on the first semester of the project.

The next part of the KoM consisted of an informative session presented by Zabala Innovation which explained the administrative and financial rules under the Horizon Europe programme. A session about the 4 EMERITUS Use Cases followed. The KoM finished with the identification of the next steps to be taken in the following six months and a final wrap-up.

A presential two-day Technical Meeting will take place in Brussels on 4th and 5th October 2022.