The PIONEAR consortium convened for its 5th General Meeting over two days (15–16 October) at the University College Cork (UCC) / Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland. A total of 18 partners participated in the meeting hosted by UCC/Tyndall, which provided a stimulating environment for technical exchange, project planning, and networking among consortium members and host-institution researchers. Fifteen partners attended in person, and three joined remotely, underscoring the consortium’s commitment to inclusive and flexible collaboration. The agenda included sessions on project management, technical work packages, risk assessments, dissemination strategy, and upcoming milestones.
Day 1 – Technical progress and collaboration
Day one was dedicated to detailed technical updates from the project’s Work Package leads and thematic clusters. Highlights included:
Advances in membrane and acoustic chamber design and fabrication, with partners presenting recent test results, challenges, and next steps.
Progress in VCSEL (Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser) design and processing, including discussions of fabrication yields and performance metrics.
Updates on microphone assembly, packaging, and microtransfer printing techniques, with UCC showcasing interim prototypes.
Presentations on signal processing, device integration, and acoustic performance testing, with analyses of measurement data, calibration, and validation strategies.
Day 2 – Coordination, management and dissemination
The second day started with sessions on project coordination and administrative matters. Key topics included:
Updates on deliverables, milestones, periodic reports, and risk management.
Review of the communication and dissemination plan, ensuring consistent outreach, stakeholder engagement, and visibility of PIONEAR outcomes.
Discussions on intellectual property and stakeholder engagement strategy.
Roundtable technical discussions where partners jointly addressed bottlenecks, shared lessons learned, and aligned on mitigation strategies for upcoming development phases.
As part of the meeting, attendees were given a guided tour of Tyndall’s advanced laboratories and facilities, including cleanrooms, photonics testbeds, microfabrication suites, and metrology labs. This enabled consortium members to gain deeper insight into host-institution capabilities and see firsthand how project hardware is being characterised and validated. The tour also fostered informal exchanges and networking among partners.
Outcomes and next steps
Partners reaffirmed their commitment to project deliverables and timelines and agreed on immediate actions for the next six months.
A refined risk register was adopted, with contingency measures for critical technical challenges.
Enhanced coordination was established for upcoming deliverables and for synchronising cross-work-package dependencies.
The dissemination and exploitation roadmap was adjusted to reflect evolving project maturity and external stakeholder interest.
The 5th General Meeting marked another key milestone in PIONEAR’s collaborative journey, reinforcing shared objectives, technical alignment, and mutual commitment across the consortium. Building on the momentum from the earlier 4th General Assembly in Buchs, Switzerland, the Cork meeting sets the stage for further progress of project execution and impact delivery. Stay tuned for further updates on PIONEAR’s progress, and follow the project via its LinkedIn channel.
