Title: CONCLUDING REMARKS

Concluding Remarks

Methodology-related

The organisation of the integration workshops has enabled the multiplication of interactions, the raising of consensus and the development of a common knowledge base aiming at creating permanent links among FIDIS partner organisations. In line with the objectives of the FIDIS NoE, through these integration workshops, it was possible for FIDIS partners to come together, collaborate, exchange their knowledge and expertise, thus promoting and facilitating integration and networking. 

Moreover, there was an opportunity to involve and combine subjects / issues from various Workpackages (e.g. WP2, WP5, WP11 etc.), on which participants exchanged information and expertise, and participated in relevant discussions and debates. It was thus possible to promote content integration between the various Workpackages of FIDIS, this being an important objective for the WP8. 

Furthermore, in the context of these workshops, and especially through the discussions and debates, research gaps have been identified, that is, interesting points / areas for further consideration that had not been identified from the beginning, while deciding on the content of each workshop. These issues were and will be dealt with in the research oriented Workpackages. For example the FIDIS Deliverables D5.2a and D3.6 already deal with results and open issues from the first two WP8-workshops, for other Deliverables such as the first three Deliverables within WP11 and the biometrics related Deliverables in the third Workplan the integration of results of the second and third WP8-workshops is planned. 

In relation to the organisation of the inter-disciplinary workshops a number of issues have emerged that created obstacles. The main one is that of attracting as many FIDIS partners as possible on a given day and for a given theme. Since there are so many events happening throughout the year (whether organised by FIDIS or not) it is always very difficult to attract speakers to these workshops. As a result the participation in the workshops involved not in all cases as many partner organisations as we intended.  

Organising events well in advance will of course help in increasing participation. However, there is always a priority conflict between the speakers that have an important message to diffuse or a new topic to discuss and the attendees that can make it to the workshop on any given day. IPTS in trying to achieve its objective of enhancing integration among the Network of Excellence partners, was able to find an appropriate balance of speakers and participants for all three events organised.