ETAIN second annual meeting: analysing the first year of the project
Less than a month ago, the ETAIN consortium travelled to Bordeaux to gather all together in the second face-to-face meeting of the project. The event was a lively opportunity to analyse the first year of the project, start reflecting on lessons learned and organise the next steps for the following stage accordingly . Also, we had time to meet new members, share some free time together and keep building a strong relationship among the team.
Consortium partners landed in the University of Bordeaux, headquarters of CNRS colleagues, to start a day and a half ETAIN annual meeting. The event allowed members to get deeply updated on the work being carried out across the different work packages. This was very useful especially for partners from those areas where they are not directly involved. Everyone was given the opportunity to understand in depth each field of study and participate in hands-on workshops to advance co-creating the project.
Putting the focus on the Citizen Science approach
A very productive encounter of the meeting was the workshop related to the co-design phase of the Exposure App. Games for Health and Ideas for Change designed and led this session to put in value the idea of defining diverse motivations, possible outputs and expectations for advancing the application development and fostering its uptake.
The need of taking a participatory approach to engage and motivate communities and users is at the core of the project’s citizen participation strategy. During the first year of ETAIN, actions have been undertaken in Barcelona and Eindhoven. These generate the opportunity to co-create the application with the general public, thus guiding decisions such as how the app will function, which data is people willing to share and under what conditions, and how can the project ensure a wide app adoption across the EU. Identifying participants’ concerns, target groups, levels of involvement and usage scenarios was a subject highlighted during the meeting. Further discussions to prepare a dedicated and successful plan are undergoing during these next months, but the meeting allowed very fruitful discussions that constructively inform the upcoming working sessions.
The studies of RF-EMF impact advance
ETAIN has also kicked off the different research work-packages related to advancing the knowledge on the potential effects of Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields (RF-EMF) on human health, insects and biodiversity.
About effects on human bodies, studies that investigate the possible effects of RF-EMF exposure on skin and the eye are undergoing. A particular focus has been made to use specific mechanisms such as oxidative stress in cells -a phenomenon caused by an imbalance between production and accumulation of oxygen reactive species (ROS) in cells and tissues. At the molecular level, different probes have been built and are currently tested with known ROS producer agents, but the studies are in a preliminary phase.
Regarding the research on insects, different discussions came up about beehive monitoring and solitary bees. The pilot project in Cyprus is already underway and there was a suggestion to install traps at different distances from the antennas to get a more complete picture. Learnings about deviations around fertility, behaviour characterisation and neurological patterns are expected from this study, as well as wider conclusions about thermal effects.
Finally in terms of advancing the knowledge about effects on the planet ecosystem, University of Utrecht presented the first ideas of the plan for a systematic review on the impacts of RF-EMF on health and how they aim to work on the Planetary Health Impact Assessment Framework. Regarding this aspect, an idea came up to involve botanics in the biodiversity study to be considered together with other factors that can affect planetary health.
A living timeline and participatory workshop to foster dissemination
The final activity of the event was the joint workshop on communication and dissemination of the project, led by Ideas for Change. Following a scheme based on the different expertise and areas of research, partners actively participated in a joint session to map worth communication actions and identify target communities to engage with.
Representatives from each partner were divided into working groups and followed a coordinated mapping exercise consisting of collecting ideas of content, events, scientific publications and targeting communities to be reached. After the discussion, all partners stuck their foreseen actions and ideas in a “living timeline” for the following year of project activities, particularly aimed at identifying possibilities of introducing the project, expanding the ETAINs findings to as many different audiences as possible. The final group's activity intended to create a collaborative knowledge map. Partners were asked to contribute with ideas of new content to be published on the website, to:
Helping diverse audiences to further understand complex areas of the research activities
Identify key aspects that must be further explained in the site as a glossary.
List possible topics to be covered by scientific experts, translating the knowledge into blog contents and communication pieces to help understanding the different areas of research.
This is the wrap up of the second annual meeting. ETAIN partners came back home with lots of lessons learned, work and inspiration to keep making the best out of the project!
