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April, 2015
Newsletter
Issue 6
Welcome
to the
sixth newsletter of the MOSSCLONE
project which is financed by the EU
Commission’s Seventh Framework
Programme. The aim of this project
was to develop and implement a method
to control the air quality by using
a devitalized moss clone as passive
contaminant sensor.
The project encompassed the
hard work of more than 30 experts from
11 organisations representing 5 EU
countries (Spain, Italy, France, Ireland
and Germany).
This newsletter summarizes the
development of the last 6 months of
MOSSCLONE project. This newsletter
is the last of a series of 6 newsletters
that were published twice a year and
were edited by the Project Manager
([email protected]).
We can say that Europe has
funded the development of an important
and essential tool for measuring any
kind of air pollution and anywhere.
Currently, we just need to extend
the environmental awareness and
knowledge of this new application.
Thus, the certified mossphere will be
used to measure air pollution in places
that was previuosly impossible or
unthinkable.
What is MOSSCLONE?
MOSSCLONE has meant the solution to avoid the
problems
associated
with
the
traditional
moss-bag
technique to measure air pollution.
These problems were:
• The absence of well-suited moss species living in urban,
extra-urban, and even indoor reference environments
• The availability of natural and clean moss
• The natural variability on moss elemental composition
• The absence of a verified and standardized method
Two key studies helped to overcome those problems:
• Cultivation in the laboratory of a selected moss clone
to always have clean and homogeneous material
• High degree of standardization of the method.
Edited by Carlos Carballeira
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RECENT MOSSCLONE EVENTS
Decision-making meeting
(A Coruña , Spain)
The Mossclone DoW included several meetings during project development.
However, there was a period of one year without any meeting, between the midterm
meeting (month 18) and the 3rd WP leaders meeting (month 30), so partners related
with the last Mossclone tasks decided to met themseleves at A Coruña (Spain). This
meeting was held the 13th of January (2015) at UDC facilities. The event was planned
for the correct development of WP4 (Detectors) because partners encountered some
sampling problems. USC, UDC, AMRA and BIOVIA attended the meeting.
talked about the future of Mossclone results
and the possibilities of collaboration on other
projects.
The second day was focused on showing
to the general public how Mossclone has been
developed, the results that were obtained
in every activity and the advantages or
disadvantages of the Mossclone method.
This event was disseminated by the host
university (UNINA) and Italian press and
radio.
The meeting attendants received a set of
merchandising products of mossclone for
the project dissemination; a mousepad (see
picture below), a pen, a triptych, a notebook
and a USB memory. All this products were
carefully designed and were selected for the
best dissemination procedure. Moreover,
Final meeting at Naples (Italy)
This work was carried out as part of
WP5 (Dissemination and exploitation) of
which the main objectives were: exchange
of final results from finished activities,
to discuss the ways to disseminate the
mossclone method, to discuss patent
applications and to help partners with the
closure of the project. All WP leaders,
one member of the advisory board and,
at least, one representative of every
partner attended the meeting. The Project
Officer and several stakeholders were
also invited to attend the meeting.
This meeting took place on the 9 th,
th
10 and 11th of March (2015) at the Aula
Magna from the Congress Center Unina
Federico II, located in Via Partenope of
Naples (Italy). AMRA was the partner
in charge of this meeting. The rector
and several eminences of this university
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(UNINA) welcomed all the attendants
and explained their interest on the
Mossclone project.
The meeting was opened by Mrs.
D. Simonetta Giordano, Professor of
environmental and applied botanic, and
Mr. D. José Ángel Fernández Escribano,
as Scientific Coordinator, who welcomed
the participants to the meeting. The
Rector of the host institution/partner,
Universita’ degli Studi di Napoli Federico
II, also welcomed and thanked people
attendance. Other eminences of the
host university appreciated the people
assistance and described their interest in
the Mossclone project.
During the first day, the final results
of almost all activities of the project were
presented and discussed, the patenting
conditions were dealt and partners also
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several Mossclone videos were projected
as a summary of project activities.
The evening of the second day Mossclone
members enjoyed a pleasant and tasty
social dinner at Ze Teresa restaurant which
is located in front of the meeting point.
The last day most of the partners went
on an excursion to the Amalfitan coast;
Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, Scala… The
day was sunny and all partners enjoyed
a beautiful and informative journey
accompanied by a tour guide.
The meeting ended as a friendly event
where the finished activities were discussed
and the expectations of all attendees were
fulfilled.
The schedule of the agenda was almost
adjusted to perfection (see page 4).
Meeting Agenda
The final meeting lasted three days; one day of private meeting, one day of
public and dissemination meeting and one day of fieldtrip.
Monday 9th March
9:30-09:45 Welcome addresses and General presentation of the meeting (AMRA)
09:45-10:15 WP4: Tasks, Aims and procedures (ORION)
10:15-10:45 Results from Tasks 4.1 and 4.2 - Metals (AMRA)
10:45-11:00 TelLab activities
Coffee break
11:30-12:00 Results from Tasks 4.1 and 4.2 - PAHs (UDC)
12:30-13:00 Results from Task 4.3 (UDC)
13:00-13:30 Results from Task 4.4 (USC)
Lunch
15:00-15:15 Skype meeting with Aridane González (CNRS)
15:15-15:30 Monitoring Hg Experiments (Roberto Bargagli)
15:30-16:00 General discussion and final conclusions WP4 (All)
16:00-16:30 WP1 Project Management (USC)
Coffee break
17:00-17:30 WP5 Exploitation and dissemination - Patenting (ALU-FR)
17:30-18:00 Future perspectives for the Mossclone Consortium and Conclusions (All)
EUNETAIR Workshop at Riga
EUNETAIR is a COST ACTION
which means European network on new
sensing technologies for air-pollution
control and environmental sustainability.
On the other hand, COST is the longestrunning European framework supporting
trans-national
cooperation
among
researchers, engineers and scholars
across Europe. In this case, the main
objective of EUNETAIR is to create
a cooperative network to explore new
sensing technologies for low-cost airpollution control through field studies
and laboratory experiments to transfer the
results into preventive real-time control
practises and global sustainability for
monitoring climate changes and outdoor/
indoor energy efficiency. EUNETAIR
involves the coordinated work of 63
partners from different European
countries.
The 3rd EUNETAIR Workshop, based
on New Trends and Challenges for Air
Quality Control, was held the 26th and
27th of March (2015) in Riga, the capital
and the largest city of Latvia. Workshop
attendants enjoyed a two days event
where partners and other stakeholders
presented their studies and opinions
through oral and poster presentations,
discussions, social dinners and breaks...
They also live contacted Hans Hartmann
Pedersen, EC DG R&I Policy Officer.
MOSSCLONE Coordinators were
invited to attend this interesting
EUNETAIR workshop. José Ángel
Fernández (MOSSCLONE Scientific
Coordinator, University of Santiago
de Compostela) explained how the
MOSSCLONE project has developed and
obtained a tool for monitoring air quality
using moss as passive sensor.
For more information please visit
www.eunetair.it.
Tuesday 10th March
09:00-09:30 Welcome addresses (AMRA)
9:40-10:00 General presentation of Mossclone Project (USC)
10:00-10:20 What is MOSSCLONE? (USC video)
10:20-10:40 Moss clone cultivation (ALU-FR)
10:40-11:00 Moss clone characterization (AMRA, CNRS)
Coffee break
11:30-11:50 Tool development: Standardization of the method (AMRA)
11:50-12:10 Tool development: Moss bag preparation and scaling up (BIOVIA)
12:10-12:30 Detectors: Comparison with traditional methods (ORION)
Lunch
15:00-15:30 Welcome addresses (AMRA, UNINA Federico II, Stakeholders)
15:30-15:50 What is MOSSCLONE? (USC video)
15:50-16:10 Exploitation and dissemination (ALU-FR)
16:10-16:30 Advisory Board Notes
16:30-17:00 Future perspectives and Conclusions
Wednesday 11th March
One day excursion to the Amalfitan coast; Positano, Amalfi, Ravello and Scala.
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5
Mossclone Workshop pictures
Mossclone Workshop at Santiago de
Compostela (Spain): The Mossphere
Mossphere was publicly presented the
last day of the project (31st of march, 2015)
during a Workshop at Edificio Cersia,
Santiago de Compostela (Spain). The place
where the workshop was held belongs to
Santiago de Compostela City Council who
ceded the building for the Mossclone event.
The workshop was broadcasted online
and several media reported about the
workshop: national and regional tv news,
spanish national radio and regional press.
Mossphere devices, posters and boxes were
distributed around the room for the widest
possible
dissemination.
Furthermore,
Mossphere USB memories were given to the
invited people.
Different stakeholders and authorities
presented and attended the presentation of
mossphere:
-Ethel Vázquez, Counselour for the
Environment, Land and Infrastructure
(Xunta de Galicia).
-Reyes Leis, Councilor for Economic,
with responsibilities in the areas of economic
promotion, trade, markets, municipal
slaughterhouse, employment and tourism
(Santiago de Compostela city Council).
-Isabel Rodríguez Moldes, Vice
Chancellor for Research at University of
Santiago de Compostela.
-Sonia Pazos, Area Director of Axencia
Galega da Innovación centers.
-Prof. Dr. Miguel Ángel Ríos
Fernández, Chairman of Real Academia
Galegas das Ciencias (RAGDC).
A couple of Mossclone partners and
the Scientific Coordinator described
development and the results of the project
and they explained the advantages of using
the mossphere instead of conventional
methods.
A snack was served after the
presentations to enhance the collaboration
and exchange of information between
meeting attendants.
The agenda of the workshop is shown
below:
MOSSCLONE Workshop at Santiago de Compostela
Tuesday 31st of March (2015)
18:15 Authorities and Stakeholders Welcome
18:40 Dr. Angel Fernandez Escribano - Scientific Mossclone Coordinator and Professor at University of Santiago de Compostela (USC)
19:00 Dr. María Piñeiro Iglesias - Superior Technician in Analytical Instrumentation at IUMA (University of La Coruña, UDC). Mossclone Partner.
19:20 Mrs. Ana Isabel Rey Asensio - CEO at BIOVIA. Mossclone Partner.
19:45 Snack
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WP4 Detectors
Tasks from WP4 (Detectors) finished on the last month of the project, some of them
took 3 months more than planned. Samples from cloned Sphagnum palustre were exposed
together with traditional techniques; standard bulk deposition collectors, particle and
gaseous samplers. Moss samples exposure was adapted to the conditions needed for the
comparison with the results from traditional techniques. Moss samples were be covered,
sheltered or used as passive diffusers. The development of WP4 tasks involved several
problems so experiments were repeated in order to have a full set of data.
The results obtained in this working package are very promising because they
support the use of the Mossphere and the Mossclone method as useful air monitoring
tools. For this reason, the application for patenting the moss clone, the method and the
exposure device has been recently presented.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS AND TASKS
There are no more planned events and tasks because the project has recently finished
(31st of March, 2015). However, further mossclone news will be published both on the
website and social media (Facebook and Twitter Mossclone accounts).
Project Achievements
The MOSSCLONE project has definitively achieved all the objectives:
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
Selection of moss species
Creating a pilot bioreactor
Characterization of the selected moss clone
Scaling up moss clone cultivation
Design and methodological standardization
Moss-bags validation versus current state-of-the-art
Initial validation for the detection of pollution focus
MOSSCLONE Dissemination
In the last 6 months the Mossclone project has been deeply disseminated:
The MOSSCLONE project has been recently mentioned in the News of two
Spanish regional TV channels (V and RTVG).
TV
Newspapers
Radio
More than 9 articles have been published in different Spanish and
Italian newspapers; national, regional and online.
The Final Meeting and the Mossclone
Workshop were mentioned in several radio
channels from Spain and Italy. During these
events some partners were interviewed.
Find out more on our website
www.mossclone.eu
Find Me on
Facebook
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facebook.com/MOSSCLONE
Follow US on
Twitter
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@MOSSCLONE
Thanks for your
interest on our
Project!
We would also like to thank Advisory Board
members (Dr. Javier Abaigar and Dr. Harald
Zechmeister), authorities and governments who
made possible the development of this project,
especially the European Commision and the 7th
Framework program (FP7).
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