Ideas Think-tank Meeting, Traunkirchen, 21st – 24th June 2016

The IDEAS Think-tank took place at the Symposion Hotel Post in Traunkirchen Austria, 21^st – 24^th June 2016. It brought together all supervisors, researchers and associated partners and was attended by over 30 delegates representing both academia and industry. The Think-tank was designed to allow in-depth cross-project discussions and many of the sessions were organized by the researchers.

The think-tank began with a session for the IDEAS researchers to meet with other supervisors relevant to their projects to discuss their research and plan future secondments. A session focussing on activities such as literature reviews to bring novel methods to trialists followed before our researchers and supervisors were able to participate in their first team building activity. This included an orienteering session around the Langbath lake and also included team challenges. The day concluded with the network Administrative Board Meeting.

Day 2 began with a visit to Gmunden for our second team building exercise at Gmundner Keramik. During this session the supervisors and researchers were broken up into teams of 4/5 and tasked with painting a plate or cup that looked like a complete set. The team of Lisa Hampson, Helena Geys, Elvira Erhardt and Arsenio Nhacolo created a set based around there orienteering experience the previous day and won the challenge. The afternoon session had been prepared by the researchers in advance and was a critique exercise around presentations and poster pitches on their research.

On our final day in Traunkirchen the group participated in a mapping exercise around how other projects had possible synergies with their own. Luc Bijnens from Janssen Pharmaceutica NV also led a session on careers before we closed the Think-tank mapping out future outreach opportunities.

Professor Thomas Jaki, IDEAS Project Coordinator said: I am thrilled by the engagement of all partners in the event – we have done our best to plan the event, but it is the people and their enthusiasm that have made the meeting such a success.

The next IDEAS event will be held in Lancaster UK in September 2016.