kick off workshop

The IDEA kick off workshop with potential users and project partners, that was organised on March 6th 2009 in Gent (Zebrastraat) was a great succes. We welcomed close to 60 participants, mainly from government organisations, cities and research institutes.

Two well known scientists Prof. Birgitta Berglund (Stockholm University and Karolinska Instituut) and Prof. Ben Nemery (KULeuven) opened the meeting by pointing out recent findings on the effects of noise and particulate matter. Dr. Lefebre (VITO) showed the state of the art in measurement networks and discussed previous initiatives related to the work planned in IDEA. Finally Prof. Botteldooren set the scope for IDEA and introduced the group discussion.

The three working groups that were formed had a lively discussion and came up with various new ideas for application of the IDEA project results. These will further be taken into account during the development of IDEA.

To end the day and start the project in style, the event was closed by a reception where discussions went on for a long, very long time.