Between 10 and 11 March, the MIND STEP team reunited for a meeting in Piacenza, Italy, to discuss the progress of the project. The meeting, which luckily could be held in-person, was the perfect opportunity to share experiences on the implementation of project activities, enhance collaboration between partners, and discuss the state of play of the MIND STEP toolbox.
The event, hosted by the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, started with an overall discussion on the achievements we've had so far in the projects, as well as the upcoming deliverables we need to work on. A task meeting was also held, centred around the validation of the MIND STEP Toolbox. Further meetings focused on other deliverables: for example, on the D5.1, the harmonization of production system, sector and farm type typology.
On the second day of the event, we benefitted from the feedback of the Stakeholder Advisory Board. Ben van Doorslaer from DG-AGRI and Frank van Tongeren from the OECD joined online and helped us with recommendations on how to maximise the impact of the project. The Stakeholder Advisory Board set to formulate a statement on the progress of the project and put their recommendations into writing as well, whereas the Executive Board of MIND STEP answered in return with a short response and a statement of future commitments and targets. We've also had a meeting on the dissemination of project results and ways to enhance our communication strategy so that our work doesn't go unnoticed.
Last but not least, we managed to go over the Agrimodel cluster issues and we talked about next year's meeting to plan ahead.