What better way to kick off the exciting final months of the HECAT project than with a trip to Spain? The HECAT team were graciously welcomed to Bilbao by our technical partners Technalia. Across 2 days, we collaborated on many aspects of our project and had plentiful opportunities to connect with our consortium at large.
Today’s blog is a brief insight into the inner sanctum of an H2020 Face-to-face Consortium Meeting.
The Location
Our face-to-face meetings have seen our team meet in Dublin, Paris, Slovenia, and, of course, on Zoom! This two-day meeting brought us to Bilbao, Spain, where we were hosted by our partners Tecnalia. Bilbao is a wonderfully vibrant city, mixing old-school charm with modern touches and thus making the ideal venue for thought exchange. We enjoyed working together in such a wonderful setting and even got the opportunity to explore some Basque culture during our visit.
Sharing as a Group
One of the greatest benefits of meeting in person is sharing and collaborating in real time. For us, this meant presenting current working ideas, building to find areas of common ground and room for sharing and integration. In particular, we ran a presentation session in which consortium members could share their current work and seek ideas and feedback from the group. This work will lead to exciting dissemination work over the coming months.
The Main Event
Across the two days, different sessions allowed us to develop various working elements of our project. In particular, we looked at upcoming policy documents, exploring additional data collection opportunities and potential dissemination activities. Most importantly, we shared updates on developing our MyLabourMarket tool, which is currently being iterated for a second round of piloting.
Seeing the Sights
Our Technalia colleagues were further gracious enough to bring our team on a wonderful walking tour of Bilbao. Here, we caught some of the sights (And the rain!) The Gugenhiem was a firm favourite spot.
What’s Next?
We’re closing out the next few months with lots of hard work to finalise our project. To keep up to date with all the latest news on HECAT, please follow our Twitter: @SOUNEMPLOYMENT