A 4th general assembly of the project was held on 26-28 April in Berlin, during which the work packages had the opportunity to discuss their implementation plan for the next months. In response to feedback from the Scientific Advisory Board, some of the assays under development were (at least temporarily) abandoned due to scientific or technical problems; others were determined to require more research years than were available within the Sens-it-iv lifespan; some were found wanting either in scientific merit and/or in robustness, while in yet another results of a small ring trial indicated reproducibility problems.

At the 5th general assembly on 26-28 October, the consortium will consider which tests might be ready for pre-validation past the lifespan of the Sens-it-iv project. It is hoped that funding can be found to continue research and development on those tests that have then not yet reached that stage but which are believed to show real promise.

ECOPA has assumed the responsibility for “spreading the news/results” of this EU project, and released a brochure covering the activities on behalf of Sens-it-iv, and supported the website creation. Additionally, the latest project newsletter is now available.