A kick-off to the first event of the European FoodPackLab project in Hanover where 2 more are framed in Barcelona and France

On January 29th, the first "Partnership Building event" was held at Laser Zentrum en Hanover. Where 23 participants from all over Europe had the opportunity to learn about the FoodPackLab project and the Laser Zentrum.

The meeting began with a brief presentation of the project for Gawel Walczak, highlighting food security, hygiene, food waste and the circular economy. Secondly, Norberd Reichl, as an outreach of the day, presented Dr. L. Overmeyer, the chairman of the Scientific Directorate and member of the Board of Directors, LZH, who made a presentation about LZH. In addition, three people form the LZH center told us about the different laser solutions with they work, plastic welding with laser radiation, various processes and applications, glass processing with laser radiation, marking, shaping, joining and laser-based measurement methods for quality assessment of weld seams. After that, the attending companies also had the opportunity to explain the photonics solutions within the food sector, where solutions for the detection of food products for their separation were highlighted, sensors for the detection of food status, 3d printing, among others.

Next, the B2B meetings were held among the participants, where they could know better each other and possible collaborations between them. Later on, a visit to the LZH center was made, where it was possible to see the different photonic applications that they have been presented at the beginning of the day.

At the end of the event, a roadmap has been made to talk about the internationalization and the positioning of the packaging, food and photonics sectors. Related to the possible missions that will be carried out in the strand II of the project.

The day concluded with a Supper of brotherhood with all the participants.

In the framework of the FoodPackLab project, the second "Partnership Building event" will take place in Barcelona on the 16th and 17th of May.

The FoodPackLab project,  funded by the COSME program of the European Commission, stems from a strategic partnership of 5 clusters that join different activities, industries and countries. It focuses on cooperation for internationalization, offering time and space to different stakeholders to work on innovative solutions to one of the most important challenges facing contemporary society: food security.

This type of projects form part of one of our strategic axes "Internationalization and global positioning", allows us to interact with other homologous entities on an international scale, jointly analyze future trends, and jointly work on specific challenges to be solved.