Time had come to meet again, as the first year of activity had already gone by! The START consortium met from 30th May to 1st of June in the inspiring venue of the Museo Geominero in Madrid, that hosts also one of our partners, IGME-CSIC. One of the members of our Scientific Advisory Board, D. Crane, joined the group as well, despite the long trip from the US to Spain!

The huge collection of minerals and fossils of the museum was intriguing, but what happened in the lecture room during the three days was even more important for us. The various Workpackage leaders held workshops open to the whole consortium, where the activities already undertaken, their results, and especially the decisions on how to proceed towards project's objectives were discussed. Special meetings were dedicated to critical issues, and as always being face-to-face  solutions and strategies were more easily found.

In the afternoon of the 31st May we also hosted a live webinar, in hybrid format, with good attendance -  but this will be the topic of another post.

A nice consortium dinner in down-town Madrid was another occasion of strengthening personal relationships and "cementing" the group!

So we came back from the meeting with a clear view and the enthusiasm to tackle the challenges that we will have to deal with in the next 12 months! Looking forward to the 2nd Annual Meeting next year in Italy!