MID TERM CONFERENCE 11th December 2018
The mid-term conference of the European Project LIFE-RESPIRE (“Radon rEal time monitoring System and Proactive Indoor Remediation” - LIFE16 ENV / IT / 000553) was held on the 11th of December, 2018, at the Conference Room of the Rome Research Area 1 group of the Italian National Research Council, in Monterotondo, Italy.
This conference, an important project milestone, served two main purposes: to present the data acquired at the half-way point of the project and to make contacts with other projects (national and international) and potential stakeholders. The meeting lasted all day, from 9:30 in the morning to 17:00 in the evening.
The event was chaired by Prof. Bigi (CERI Sapienza) and Dr. Ciotoli (CNR-IGAG), with the collaboration of the scientific managers of the other partners, including Dr. Alessandra Sciarra (INGV), Dr. Boris Dehandschutter (FANC) and Ing. Mauro Castello (ELICA SpA). Approximately seventy people attended from various local and regional research institutions, remediation and building companies, local health offices, citizens and end users (buildings owners). The event was recorded and is available on CD-rom.
The conference was opened by the head of the CNR Research Area ROMA 1 group, Dr. Renzo Simonetti, by the Director of CNR-IGAG, Dr. Paolo Messina, by the Director of the Environment Department of INGV, Dr. Leonardo Sagnotti, and by the Director of the coordinating beneficiary (CERI Research Centre of Sapienza), Prof.ssa Francesca Bozzano. Special conference guests included the numerous representatives of other European and Italian research institutions, including: Valeria Gruber (Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, Austria), Jose Villanueva (European Radon Association, Belgium), Peter Bossew (German Federal Office for Radiation Protection, Germany) and Francesco Bochicchio (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Italy), who form the project’s Advisory Board. In addition, representatives from the three Italian municipalities directly involved in the RESPIRE project (Dr. E. Stelliferi from Caprarola, Dr. M. Bianchi from Celleno, and Dr. R. Moscarella from Ciampino) and a representative from the Municipality of Pomezia (Dr. M. Villani) also participated.
The conference was organized in two parts. During the morning, after greetings from the directors of the research bodies of the Respire Consortium, the coordinator Sabina Bigi presented a general overview of the LIFE-RESPIRE project. Following the presentation of the LIFE-RESPIRE networking activities (see section 3), Giancarlo Ciotoli introduced the talks of the Advisory Board members concerning the European networking activities in which the project is involved. During the afternoon, various researchers presented specific LIFE-RESPIRE results obtained over the first 1.5 years of the project.
