Over 60 members of the Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI) Consortium gathered in Windsor on 27th and 28th February for the formal launch of the project.

Europlanet 2024 RI is a 10 million Euro project, funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020, that runs from February 2020 to January 2024. Europlanet 2024 RI is closely tied to the Europlanet Society and will draw on support from the Society’s Committees, Hubs and the Executive Office in Strasbourg.

Most of the 53 beneficiary institutions were represented at the meeting in Windsor although, due to the COVID-19 virus, some participated virtually through WebEx.

The programme for the first day included presentations of the overall project, management structures and the transnational access, virtual access and networking activities that will be carried out. Additional presentations covered diversity, accessibility and contractual requirements.

The second day included time for more focused workshops on the programme groups, work packages and tasks, as well as an introduction to the evaluation framework for the project and a brainstorming session on metrics and performance indicators.

The attendees celebrated the launch of the project in style with a dinner in Windsor’s Guildhall, an iconic building that hosted the wedding of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in 2005, as well as the civil partnership of Elton John and David Furnish.

Many thanks to Susmita Datta and Jane Dempster for all their hard work in organizing a complex event at short notice. It was a great success.

Photos of the meeting are available on the Europlanet Flickr stream:

Europlanet 2024 RI Kick Off