The second Transnational Partner Meeting (TPM) of the DIGIFABS project was hosted by the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) on December 2nd and 3rd. Over twenty people gathered from the 14 project partners to present and review the latest research carried out in the project, report on work done to date and conduct workshop and strategy meetings in preparation for the Bootcamps and Summer School which will take place next year.
The meeting opened with a review of Work Package 3: Investigation, by Mike Russell of AUAS who is leading this Work Package. Mike outlined the progress achieved including a Literature Review of 96 articles, interviews with 84 educators and SME staff, identifying more than 50 Best Practices and analysing 24 Training Programmes. Mike and the Work Package 3 group have prepared a detailed Synthesis Report. The final part of this Work Package, a Student Skills Gap Analysis, is currently being finalized by the team members from Maynooth University. The findings of this comprehensive investigation will be published in the next few weeks and inform the activities and focus of the next phases of our project.
Next to address the meeting was Dominik Gisa of FH Münster, which leads Work Package 1: Project Management for DIGIFABS. Dominik updated the consortium on progress to date and how it aligned with the plan and future timeline for the project. He confirmed that all key milestones and deliverables were or are on track for timely delivery. There were further updates on the budget and confirmation and planning of dates for future meetings.
The final presentation on day one was from Paula Whyte of Momentum, who leads Work Package 2: Quality Assurance for the project. Paula reported on the quarterly surveys that have been carried out to assess quality assurance, pointing out key highlights as well as areas that have been identified by partners as needing some improvement. Paula also shared a survey to specifically assess the TPM at the end of the meeting which was completed on site, and a further survey to assess performance in the last quarter.
Day Two of the meeting opened with a co-creation workshop using the World Café format. The workshop focused on Work Package 4: Summer School & Challenge and Work Package 5: Bootcamps. The workshops were facilitated by Zohreh Pourzolfhagar of Maynooth University which leads Work Package 4, Jose Villagran of UIIN, which leads Work Package 5 as well as Dominik Gisa and Judith Helmer of FH Münster. These interactive sessions, in which all partners participated, saw lively discussion and a range of proposals that the Work Package leaders will now analyse to help them finalise plans for the next phase of the project.
The workshops were followed by Kiet Bronkhorst of Preneurz and Denise Callan of Momentum who presented progress of Work Package 8: Dissemination. Current achievements in reaching the target audiences on different platforms were presented. The partners discussed further avenues to increase awareness and interaction with our key target groups of students, educators and food and beverage SMEs.
The last session of the day was hosted by George Georgiou of ECECT presenting current thoughts on Work Package 9: Sustainability. The consortium discussed necessary steps to ensure sustainability of all project results, sharing ideas and thoughts on concrete opportunities, licensing options and the necessary conditions that need to be taken into account during the creation of materials.
The meeting achieved its goals of providing every partner with a current overview of the project, clarifying responsibilities for the upcoming tasks and project activities and jointly kick-starting the development of our bootcamp and summer school materials.
Speaking after the meeting, Project Management lead Dominik Gisa said “These in-person meetings are essential for our project and a great opportunity to deepen discussions and co-creating new ideas and closing open threads. The atmosphere and spirit of our two days was super active, energetic, and positive. Big thanks to Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences for hosting us and enabling such a creative setting.”
