Trinity College Dublin hosted TRACT's midterm review in January 2019. At the halfway point of the project, the team met with the EU commissioner for feedback on TRACT's progress so far. This was a great opportunity for all ESRs and supervisors to meet and discuss each project, and to provide training for ESRs altogether.

Each ESR presented their findings to-date in poster format, allowing a thorough question session to focus on each student's work. This review also gave ESRs the chance to meet with the EU commissioner privately and give honest feedback on how the TRACT programme has worked for each person. Following poster presentations by each ESR and feedback sessions with the whole assembly, the week progressed with training sessions focusing on project management, entrepreneurship and innovation, provided by SureSkills. These training sessions were fantastic, forcing each ESR to think outside the box and to think about careers and the future post-TRACT. 

The week also provided the opportunity to train in the techniques of NMR and Seahorse, provided by Dr Ken Hun Mok and Dr Richie Porter, assisted by ESR11 Marilena Karavyraki. This was a great way to introduce these techniques, learning from the wealth of knowledge from academic experts.

Above all, this week was a great way to network with the other centres and other ESRs, while learning and gaining great advice to take forward for the final year of the projects.