Verbania Pallanza (Italy) and online – 12/05/2025 – 14/05/2025
Location: CNR-IRSA Pallanza, Largo Tonolli 50, 98922 Verbania Pallanza, Italy and online
Local Organisers: Laura Garzoli, CNR-IRSA, Manuela Coci, CNR-IRBIM
The first Management Committee and Network Meeting of ParAqua GP4 took place on 12 of May in Pallanza (Italy) at the historical hydrobiology institute on the shore of Lake Maggiore. The meeting was held as usual in hybrid mode to allow a large participation. The meeting was hosted by Serena Rasconi (Action Chair) and co-hosted by Laura Garzoli (WG1 Co-Leader)
The hosting team welcomed 45 participants from 17 countries. The meeting was organised following a participatory methodology and all Action MC and WG Members were invited to attend and participate to the discussions.
Main objectives were to update and inform on Action functioning since the last MC meeting that was held in September 2024 hybrid and hosted in Lyon (FR). The Action Chair presented the new Action participations, the budget status and reported on the GP activities and achievements. WG leaders and Committee Coordinators presented progress of each Working Group.
Meeting materials (participants list and presentations) are approved by MC e-vote and are available to all Action Participants in the Members area (https://paraqua-cost.eu/members-area/topic/mc-meeting-minutes/)
The training school entitled ‘Regulation of Culture Collections, strain preparation and characterisation’ aims to provide a broad but specific overview of methods dedicated to preserve microorganisms and possibilities offered by the Culture Collections (CCs) existing European networks and European Research Infrastructures. Therefore, the training school aims to offer a multidisciplinary look at the subject, approaching it from different points of view, including scientific and administrative challenges.
The training school is structured in three days divided into theoretical and practical sections. The days include practical sessions dedicated to culturing techniques of bacteria (Dr. Manuela Coci – CNR IRBIM, Zacarias Fresno Lopez – CNR-IRSA), fungi (Dr. Laura Garzoli, Dr. Pietro Marchese, Dr. Selene Chinaglia – CNR IRSA), diatoms (Dr. Lukasz Peszek – Rzeszów University), cyanobacteria (Dr. Lukasz Wejnerowski – Adam Mickiewicz University), picocyanobacteria (Cristiana Callieri, Raffaella Sabatino – CNR IRSA), Zoosporic Parasites (Dr. Albert Reñe, CSIC), and aquatic hyphomycetes (Bruder Andreas, Isabel Rodrigues Fernandes – SUPSI).
Opportunities provided by international networks of CCs will will be provided during the theoretical lectures (Prof. Cristina Varese – University of Turin, MIRRI-IT; Prof. Maria Gullo, ECCO, University of University of Modena and Reggio Emilia). Trainees will also learn about CCs strains valorization with proteomic (Dr. Emanuele Ferrari, CNR-IRSA) and whole genome seq. (Dr. Ester Eckert, CNR-IRSA). Furthermore, during the training school, participants will be able to discuss legal and regulatory issues such as the Nagoya Protocol (Melania Nelly Munoz-Garcia – Leibniz Institute DSMZ and the German Nagoya Hub). All this with a view to updating and raising awareness on the topic.
The video lectures are available on the YouTube channel
The Method booklet will be updated soon with the new chapter “Microbial cultures preparation and characterisation”
