The kick-off meeting for the "SupraChem Lab - Laboratory of Supramolecular Chemistry for Adaptive Delivery Systems - ERA Chair initiative" Project, took place Friday, 17/07/2015, at the “Petru Poni” Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Iasi Romania (PPIMC).
The kick off meeting was organized in two sections: one session addressed the general public and one working session were the participation was restricted to the Management team of the SupraChem Lab, representatives of PPIMC Management Board and the National Advisory Board – the detailed kick-off meeting program can be downloaded here.

The public session of the kick – off meeting was held in the conference room of PPIMC in the presence of several personalities from academia, business and local public administration representatives. The project enjoys the support of prominent members of the international scientific community, including Professor Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel laureate for chemistry in 1987.

SupraChem Lab project aims to stimulate research excellence of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry "Petru Poni" (PPIMC) by setting up a working group in the field of supramolecular chemistry within the team Bionanoconjugate Center for Advanced Research and Biopolymers (IntelCentru).

        

In his address at the opening event, Dr. Anton Airinei, director of the institute, underlined the importance of this project for the visibility of "Petru Poni” Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry. The project will bring an important contribution to the development of the institute. More than that, this project is also the only project of this kind (Horizon 2020 - ERA Chair Initiative) won up Romania now.

        

Acad. Bogdan C. Simionescu, vice President of the Romanian Academy, stated that the idea behind this project emerged by the creation and development of the Centre for Advanced Research in Bionanoconjugate and Biopolymers (IntelCentru) within PPIMC. Acad Simionescu statute:

"A good project is like a house: to build it you need a good plan in place, good quality materials and highly qualified people." [+ prezentare]

The presentation made by Dr. Teodora Rusu, manager of the SupraChem Lab project, focused on the political context of the ERA CHAIR initiative at European level: the need for the ERA CHAIR initiatives, the target of such projects and a overview on the ERA CHAIR competition. Dr. Rusu also presented a brief overview on the implementation of the project.

        

Dr. Mariana Pinteala, project coordinator of the SupraChem Lab Project and Director of the Intel Centre, presented the development strategy and the activities of the IntelCentre. Dr. Pinteala emphasis the importance of the human resource development in the department he leads and the need for supporting and growing up the expertise of the newly created centre and the importance of the SupraChem Lab project in this context. [+ prezentare]

At the end of this session, a tour of the IntelCentre was organised together with a short networking event where the participants had the opportunity to discuss with the management team of SupraChem Lab Project and ask details on the project.

        

        

The second session was restricted to the SupraChem Management team and Dr. Anton Airinei and Dr Harabagiu Valeria (director and Deputy Director of PPIMC), Acad. Bogdan C. Simionescu (Vice – President of the Romanian Academy) and several representatives of the National Advisory Board: Prof. Dr. Nicolae Hurduc - "Gh. Asachi" Technical University, Iassy Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection, Gabriela Dobos - Structural Funds for Research - Romanian Authority for Scientific Research, Gabriela COMAN - Scientific and Technologic Park TEHNOPOLIS, Iasi and Enterprise Europe Network RCP, Dr. MD Anca Chiriac - Romanian Centre for Preventive Medicine, Iasi, Romania, Dr. Vasile Avadanei - Coordinator of the NE Romanian Region Agency for SMEs.

A sum of technical and managerial elements have been discussed during this meeting. The management team agreed upon the first activities to be made within the project, the details on activities related to the first reporting period and decided on technical routs to be followed in order to have a successful implementation for all the tasks. Financial and communication aspects have also been discussed.