The first day, on Wednesday 5/09, the materials flow of the project was discussed in a workshop managed by the ESRs of work package 4. The general approach of the assessment of Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) by WP4 and the data input required by ESRs were presented. Subsequently, performance parameters of the different processes were discussed in working groups.
The next day, the midterm evaluation meeting started with a short welcome and introduction by the project officer, Luisa Marconi. She clarified that “The goal of the midterm review meeting is not to give a strict evaluation, but rather to explore how the project has been performing, how it can be improved and how any issues can be solved”.
In the coordinators report, dr. ir. Tom Jones presented an overview of all achievements of the project so far: “The project is functioning very well and can demonstrate promising results. Also, the project concept and the promotional video generated a lot of press attention; several short documentaries and reports were developed by different press agencies.” Finally, he was pleased to announce the second seminar on ELFM in the European Parliament (November 20, 2018).
Next, the ESRs presented their individual progress in a short presentation – some a bit nervous, but all very confident and proud of their results. After each presentation, the PO of the EC and the external expert asked any additional questions about the work realized, the results achieved, the future planning of the PhD, and the career perspectives of the ESRs.
Afterwards, the ESRs had a closed meeting with the evaluation team without the supervisors or partners to discuss any issues the ESRs might have encountered during their first years as PhD-students.
Finally, in the final feedback session, the PO of the EC and the expert presented their positive concluding remarks: “The project is well on track. All ESRs showed promising results, they are highly committed and passionate about their work. The interconnection among themselves is very high both at personal and professional level.” With this encouraging message, the meeting was ended and all participants joined for a convivial dinner in the city center of Leuven – needless to say that the atmosphere was elated!
Finally, on Friday 07/09, the last day of the NWE4, the NEW-MINE consortium gathered to further review the project’s progress during the Technical Steering Committee (TSC) and Supervisory Board (SB). Various decisions were taken to ensure that the project stays on track. Supervisors and partners returned back home, but the ESRs stayed to participate to the projects’ Summer School “To mine or not to mine: Multi-criteria assessment of the landfill mining of municipal and industrial solid waste deposits” (September 10 to 12).
