Mobility and reciprocal knowledge transfer were the core operational engines of the BRIDGE Twinning action. A total of 41 short- and long-term staff visits and secondments were successfully executed between the consortium partners. This systematic program balanced 22 outward secondments of FORTH researchers and administrators with 19 inward visits from world-class IIT and Fraunhofer IVV scientists, transforming a mentor-mentee dynamic into a sustainable research partnership.
- Technical Infrastructure Planning (IIT, Genoa) Dr Konstantinos Brintakis visited IIT’s Nanochemistry facility to align administrative protocols and finalize the complex engineering blueprints for upgrading FORTH’s custom synthesis infrastructure.
- Immersive Training in Breath Analysis & Sensory Science (Fraunhofer IVV, Freising) Drs Athanasia Kostopoulou and Konstantinos Brintakis undertook long-term secondments at Fraunhofer facilities, receiving proficiency training in breath research standardization, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry (TD-GCxGC-TOF MS), and the IABR Peppermint Experiment protocol.
- Advanced Colloidal Synthesis Training (IIT, Genoa) FORTH co-PIs completed an immersive stay in Italy, gaining practical expertise in solution-processable high-temperature colloidal synthesis (hot-injection methods) for doped and heterostructured nanocrystals.
- Administrative, Management & Technology Transfer Secondments Project Manager Dr Eleni Petala and PI Dr Emmanuel Stratakis executed cross-partner visits focused on administrative capacity building, Horizon Europe grant management guidelines, and IPR/exploitation frameworks with the Technology Transfer directorates of IIT and FHG.
- On-Site Setup Validation & The Peppermint Experiment (FORTH, Heraklion) Fraunhofer scientists Dr Y Lan Pham and Dr Jonathan Beauchamp visited FORTH to supervise the hardware integration and operational execution of the custom-built VOC sensing setup, finalizing the benchmark evaluation of eco-friendly Cs2AgBiBr6 sensing elements.
