• DISCO releases interview series with project partners 01
  • DISCO releases interview series with project partners 02
  • DISCO releases interview series with project partners 03
  • DISCO releases interview series with project partners 04
  • DISCO releases interview series with project partners 05
  • DISCO releases interview series with project partners 06

DISCO releases interview series with project partners

July 07, 2017

As part of the project’s communication activities, DISCO has produced a number of interviews with different members of the consortium. In this final stage of the project, the partners reflected on their activities and experiences within the project, the progress they made together and the results achieved.

In June 2017, the Eurice team in charge of project communication and dissemination visited the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPG) in Potsdam/ Germany and the Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) to bring their fellow partners into the spotlight.

In his interview, coordinator Professor Paul Fraser (RHUL) describes DISCO as an effective alliance between academia and industry: “Its focus has been to generate renewable sources for high-value compounds. We’re looking for alternatives to improve or reduce environmental impact so we’ve gone for renewable sources and are trying to develop production in plant-based systems.”

Further interviews feature MPI director Professor Ralph Bock as well as Postdocs Dr Genny Enfissi and Dr Marilise Nogueira who are working in Professor Fraser’s lab at RHUL. The researchers summarise their role and the results achieved at their institutions since the start of the project in November 2013.

As the training of Early Stage Researchers (ESR) is an essential part of DISCO, the interview series clearly underlines the importance of promoting the next generation of scientists. PhD students both from MPG and RHUL explained how the involvement in the collaborative FP7-project helped to foster their training and career development. For the ESRs, DISCO has been a great networking opportunity providing them with feedback from world-leading experts in the field. Additionally, DISCO allowed them to participate in training exchanges between consortium members and across different disciplines.

Throughout all interviews, partners highlighted the great collaboration in DISCO and the outstanding blend of expertise in the consortium which sparked new ideas and led to new projects.

Watch the complete interview series here.