One of the main pillars of ITN programmes is the industrial secondment of Early-Stage Researchers (ESR) at different universities and industrial partners. Thus, all ESRs participating in this project had the opportunity to move abroad and join their industrial partners at least for a few months.
The industrial partners participating in the PROTECT project were selected and allocated based on their expertise to support ESRs with their research. I had the honour to join the Nestle Research Centre located in Lausanne, Switzerland for almost 9 months during my PhD. Apart from the scientific opportunities and the research performed at Nestle, this secondment taught me important lessons regarding the industrial working place, the soft skills needed to achieve my career goals, as well as combining scientific interests with business needs.
During my secondment at Nestle I learnt how to communicate scientific research to non-scientific and multidisciplinary audiences whilst successfully translating science into business. During my staying in Nestle, my supervisors and managers motivated and supported me in implementing my scientific work in real day-to-day business. Moreover, I grabbed the chance to meet new colleagues and expand my network outside the PROTECT project, which I truly believe will help me boost my career in years to come. Last but not least, it was a privilege working with all these amazing scientists. On a personal note, I was able to make life-long friends.
Did you know that a bottle of one kilogram of milk produced under conventional dairy production systems emits about 2 kilogram of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emissions through its life cycle from “farm-to-fork”? If you think again 2 kg of carbon dioxide, weighs twice as much as the actual weight of the product!
But why are carbon emissions detrimental? Planet earth is undergoing climatic changes that will continue to be in effect at an increasing rate. Even if these changes do not seriously affect our own lives, they will certainly affect next generations. Carbon and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are forming a layer in the earths’ atmosphere and trapping the heat from the sun, the so-called greenhouse phenomenon. Global warming is a physical phenomenon that is intensified by the greenhouse phenomenon. This means limiting emissions cannot stop global warming but can slow it down. As a result, the less GHG emissions humanity causes, the less detrimental the impact of global warming will be.
For daily fastmoving consumer goods, including dairy products, price is usually the principal purchasing criterion. But what if people started purchasing products based on how environmentally sustainable they are?
Consumers have the power to transform the dairy industry, and every other goods sector, by shifting their consumption behaviour towards the most sustainable choice they can afford. This will inevitably lead to a new form of competition between the companies. Companies, rather than solely focusing on generating profit, will shift their production towards satisfying the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit. In that way environmental sustainability will become the new norm of competency among the world company networks.
As regards global warming, the Paris Agreement in 2015 affirmed between 196 parties around the world, established that all sectors will have to reach the net-zero carbon emissions target by 2050-2070 to limit global warming well below 2 °C and towards 1.5 °C. All party members of the Paris Agreement will have to set their own governmental regulations to enforce companies and citizens to move towards net-zero carbon.
But how easy will it be for the dairy sector to accomplish the net-zero carbon target? The mission towards creating a net-zero dairy sector is a great challenge. This sector is responsible for a significant release of carbon emissions, representing about 3% of total emissions by human activities. These emissions are mainly caused by bovines’ enteric fermentation and energy use. However, for the dairy industry, the mitigation potential for achieving the net-zero carbon target is a great challenge because of the inability to control the methane emission from bovine enteric fermentation. Thus, a well thought carbon mitigation plan will need to be put into action in order to meet the net-zero carbon target. This plan will target the limitation of the carbon emissions resulting from energy use by improving the energy efficiency and by switching to greener fuels, the minimisation of waste along the dairy chain, and the application of waste valorisation technologies to produce bioenergy and other useful dairy by-products from waste streams.
The dairy sector not only has to take net-zero carbon actions but also address some critical upcoming future challenges. It will have to respond to the expected increase in food demand due to global population growth. A broad estimate for the increase in food demand is a 70% rise compared to the food demand levels in 2005. Climate change is affecting the dairy sector mainly in three ways: First, the expected warmer climates will affect the crop yield, reducing available animal feed. Secondly, rising temperatures can cause heat stress to cows leading to decreased milk production and increased mortality risk. Finally, food safety concerns escalate since pathogens in milk may develop heat resistance. In such a scenario, more intensive pasteurisation methods may be required, and lower refrigeration temperature will be needed for ensuring that products will be safe for consumption. These climate change effects will cause serious uncertainty to the dairy industry if adaptation actions are not taken.
All the above-mentioned challenges can lead to a huge rise in energy demand for the dairy sector which will make the “net-zero carbon” goal even more challenging. Specifically, a net-zero carbon mitigation strategy should be coupled with climate change adaptation actions. The industries and companies of the dairy sector that acknowledge their social and environmental responsibility and start taking “net-zero carbon” actions from an early stage, can significantly reduce the downside risks associated with climate change adaptation. Most importantly, companies should make their sustainable dairy products affordable enough to be accessible to the general public. During this process, it is up to consumers to realise the power of their purchasing preferences, to move the dairy industry to a more sustainable future.
In the past year, there was a big change in our lives. Regular face-to-face work, short chats and meetings have been replaced by virtual events and remote work. Fortunately, it has been a few months since some sense of normality has resumed in Malta. We returned to our workspace and our meetings, always concerned about the restrictions. While the face to face activities began to increase, I received some emails about outdoor communication activities, which could help us spread our knowledge and passion.
The first email came three months ago with two different communication activities. The first activity, called HERstory Makers 2021, is about inspiring the next generation and giving outstanding female-identifying role models a stage to thrive on. There is no gender within the research! Eight female early-career researchers, including myself, had 2 minutes to pitch our research and ourselves in a video. The videos were presented at different Scottish primary schools and on social media. Furthermore, there was a European competition in which people had to vote for the best European-inspired video.
In addition, the second activity was Science in the City 2021, intending to attract people through science and the arts, educate, inspire creativity and passion for knowledge for people of all ages across the country. In this event, I participated in a game called The Game of Talents, and the audience had to guess my field. Later, I presented my research to them and replied to their questions.
My final communication activity is an interview that I had for a Maltese magazine called THINK. It was my pleasure to meet the guys from the magazine and have this interesting talk; the final article came out very nice!
In conclusion, after one year of postponing our secondments or doing them virtually, we can now have them in person. Lydia travelled to Malta, and we collaborated in the lab. Now, it is my time to move to Belgium, explore the new country and interact with other researchers. I am looking forward to new experiences and knowledge transfer!
Stella Roufou and Lydia Katsini together in Malta!
The objective of PROTECT ITN was to train a new generation of creative, entrepreneurial and innovative ‘Early-Stage Researchers’ (ESRs) in food safety and microbial risk assessment concerning climate change. I am glad to be one of the members of a team of 8 ESR’s in the ITN project. All of us are midway through our PhDs amidst the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. There is an increasing need for a rapid and widespread vaccination essential to help contain the further spread of the deadly virus. Across the world, new norms such as physical distancing, wearing masks and frequent hand-washing have emerged. These measures have proven fool proof in combating the pandemic. As a result, unlike the previous hybrid workshop 1, which was held partly on-site and mostly online, workshop 2 was held completely virtual via zoom meeting. This workshop 2, entitled as food chain environmental sustainability, went for two days virtually. Participants were limited to 24 with the ESRs and supervisors from PROTECT, including a few more participants from the partner institutes.
Project manager, Eleanor, distributed the schedule two weeks prior to the workshop. All participants were advised to complete the e-learning courses before the day one workshop. Free e-learning courses were provided to address life cycle thinking and approaches from different perspectives and on various levels. The course material was well designed in the form of short videos and materials to give a glimpse of life cycle thinking from the perspective of business decision-making and policy-making.
On day one of the workshop, Professor Enda Cummins introduced himself and the workshop’s agenda, followed by a welcome presentation by Professor Almudena Hospido, the workshop coordinator. The morning session consisted of life cycle initiatives, environmental sustainability and LCA on the food sector. Unfortunately, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic barred us from visiting Santiago in person. The first day ended with a social activity, the Pilgrim Way ‘Camiño de Santiago’, a local guide arranged a virtual tour via videos, pictures and it was delightfully remarkable. The virtual tour guide seemed to possess an immense knowledge of the cathedrals. It was marvellous, and we all missed not being present there in person. I definitely wish to visit Santiago when the days are back to normal.
Day two of the workshop consisted of lectures and an interactive session on the environmental sustainability of dairy farms. Before the lunch break, an interesting open session was conducted on how sustainability is managed. Here we formed groups and discussed environmentally sustainable products in food safety, especially the dairy industry. In my team, ESR Rhea came up with a packaging material in the dairy sector, examined it, and gathered relevant information. Finally, all the groups presented their ideas in a short presentation from a consumer awareness perspective.
In the afternoon, another interesting and my favourite session on data mining from KU Leuven took place. Most of the ESRs are interested in applying data mining to their projects and had numerous queries during the sessions. Despite being virtual, the session was engaging and everyone got the chance to ask questions smoothly without any technical interceptions. Overall, the virtual zoom setup of the PROTECT workshop 2 sessions went superb given the current COVID situation. However, still, we dearly miss conference venues, socialising with colleagues and the presenters. As the vaccination rolls out across the world, we are optimistic and hopeful to see life getting back to normal.
After coming back from the Christmas holidays, the ESRs participated in the first training event of the year, PROTECT “Summer” School 2. The 4-day event was hosted by KU Leuven/BioTeC+ and took place during the last week of January (25th to 28th).
The Summer School was mainly focused on transferable skills and technical training. The first day started off with PROTECT coordinator Prof. Enda Communis (UCD) and Prof. Jan Van Impe (KU Leuven) welcoming the participants and providing a brief overview of the activities to follow. The morning session, dedicated to Knowledge Transfer, included a speech by Mr. Andras Havasi, Corporate Research & Knowledge Transfer Manager from the University of Malta entitled “Fundamentals: a brief overview of what knowledge transfer is about, what opportunities it presents early-stage researchers and what they can expect”. Afterwards, Dr Daniel Buhagiar, CEO and Co-founder of FLASC BV, presented his success story. The afternoon session focused on Dissemination Activities with speakers Ass. Prof. Becca Ferrari, University of Nottingham, Melike Berker, Programme and Project Manager at UoN and Dr Tom Stanton from Nottingham Trent University. The topics covered were “Social media for research management” and the case study “Plastics, Pollution and People. Cross-sector stakeholder engagement and dissemination across multiple platforms”.
The theme of the morning session of the second day was Entrepreneurship and Research by NovaUCD. Invited speakers where Dr Stacey Kelly, Case Manager, Knowledge Transfer, Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Science (NovaUCD), Caroline Gill, Innovation Education Manager (NovaUCD) and Antoine Pajot, Director, AgTech Innovation Centre (NovaUCD). The afternoon session was more technical and oriented towards Data Analysis with Dr Satyajeet Sheetal Bhonsale (KU Leuven/BioTeC+) delivering a lecture on “Uncertainty and uncertainty propagation (in the context of scenario analysis)”.
The following day included a morning session dedicated to Data Analysis as well. PhD researcher Carlos André Muñoz López (KU Leuven/BioTeC+) introduced the ESRs into “Data Mining Fundamentals”. The afternoon session included a speech by Sam Baeten (legal counsel at KU Leuven Research and Development) entitled “Research from a tech transfer perspective”.
The final day of the Summer School covered the topics of Intellectual Property and Research Exploitation. The first speaker was Ivo De Baere, IP Officer at KU Leuven LRD, with a talk on “Intellectual Property Rights: General Introduction & Case Studies”, the second speech was given by Wim Fyen, Investment manager at LRD, highlighting the steps involved “From Idea to Business Plan”. Last but not least, Dr. Rudi Cuyvers (Innovation manager at LRD) explained the need for a thorough “Exploitation plan development”.
As always, it was a nice opportunity for all the PROTECT members to meet, to chat and to have fruitful discussions. The second PROTECT Summer School offered numerous helpful takeaways for all ESRs. We are all looking forward to meeting again, hopefully in person!
Day 2 of PROTECT “Summer” School. ESRs attending NovaUCD’s session on Entrepreneurship and Research.
It’s been several months now after the quarantine ended here in France and much has happened after it. Looking back, I was relieved that the regular face-to-face work at ONIRIS resumed after more than 3 months of quarantine or confinement in France. However, as of the time of writing, other ESRs are still in the process of resuming their face-to-face work. Emerging from the quarantine was a relief and a nice experience for it allowed me to move outside again and get in touch with acquaintances again. In a way it’s regaining life again and the recovery of my regular working hours. Living in quarantine blurred the day and night for me, perhaps it is one of the side effects of the uncertainty that surrounded the COVID-19 situation. The resumption of work was done gradually and was at first limited to certain researchers only. Moreover, the university face-to-face instruction only came after the summer vacation.
Relocating Ph.D. work from my dorm workspace to the office seemed a little bit fulfilling because the things that I have faced before seemed over for now and I have been facing new issues and topics to be incorporated in the next chapter of my thesis. Resuming my work at the office made me realize that I am now at the next stage of my Ph.D. research and was able to continue to work despite the setbacks caused by the quarantine lockdown period. Nevertheless, I still don’t consider what I have previously finished as a closed work as it is still part of my new ongoing activities and will be considered as I progress with my Ph.D. work. Indeed, the adage in academia that work never really ends still looms at the back of my mind. But I know that with the help of my supervisors, I can finish these with their inputs and guidance.
It’s been several months now since the resumption of face-to-face work but the COVID-19 situation is far from over and my fellow ESRs know it and is reflected in our discussions on our upcoming deliverables and collaborations. Much uncertainty still surrounds our secondment and training if we will be able to physically attend them as restrictions for inter-country movement within the EU still exist. Nevertheless, we still hope that when the epidemic is over, a considerable time still remains for us to pursue these programs as originally envisioned in the project or we might have to continue implementing our contingency plans along the way. For my part, we have already been doing some of these contingency plans since the resumption of face-to-face work. As of the moment, we are collaborating remotely with our partner institution, Al Safi Danone. I was supposed to do my secondment during the third quarter this year but given the current situation, we have decided to conduct regular meetings and correspondence with our partner and process data remotely. This situation might not be the best condition for working but in a way, this is our own way of living under the new-normal conditions as we try to live with the virus.
Our first plenary session has been completed and everything went smoothly. During these difficult quarantine days, we must face a new reality of virtual communication. Fortunately, we did not have Wi-Fi connection problems. The meeting was hosted by Zoom software with almost 30 participants. The majority of participants were at home, but coffee and lunch breaks were as usual. It was a unique experience full of fun and I feel grateful for it. The organizers did a great job!
The first day of the event began with a supervisory meeting that ESRs did not attend. At the end of this section, all of us presented our progress and received some comments from supervisors. Mainly, it was an update on our work during these months and how we are handling this pandemic.
On the second day of the meeting, there were more participants, including supervisors, the REA officer and the advisory team. Professor Enda introduced the other professors with their teams, as well as the agenda of the event. The first session was an introductory section by REA officer Stanka Miteva, where she presented the implementation of the project, the report and the purpose of the mid-term check. Later, Professor Enda named the objectives and progress of the project. After the break, all PhD students introduced a little about themselves and their project and they received comments and advice. I feel so grateful for the opportunity to receive comments from these professors. An additional presentation section was recorded to help us improve our presentation skills.
Finally, all the PhD students had a private meeting with the REA officer and we discussed our problems, our questions and she gave us important advice. At the end of the meeting, the whole PROTECT team received positive feedback on the progress of the project. This has led to friendly and funny discussions, as well as an explosion of relevant tweets! In general, the topics focused on the importance of the project, as well as ways to improve our research.
