On September 15th and 16th, the Committee group of ERNST action had their initial meeting via Zoom. Firstly, there short explanation about COST and COST action was performed to introduce the action.

This meeting was to establish the starting points of the project, set the committee core group, elect the chair and vice chair, Science Communication Manager, leaders of the Working Groups, STSM coordinator and Training School coordinator.

The elected candidates, which will form up the core, were the following:

• Science Communication Manager: Susanna Tella (Finland)
• WG1 Network Promotion. Marius Ungureanu (Romania).
• WG2 Review and description of the State-of-the-Art. Kris Vanhaecht (Belgium) & Massimiliano Panella (Italy).
• WG3 Making it happen. Paulo Sousa (Portugal).
• WG4 Facilitators and Barriers. Lucia Prihodova (Ireland) & Sandra Buttigieg (Malta)
• Short-Term-Scientific-Mission (STSM): Bojana Knezevic (Croatia)
• Training School (TS): Sofía Guerra (Portugal)
• Vice Chair Reinhard Strametz (Germany) 
• Chair Jose Mira (Spain)

The elected Grant Holders Institution was FISABIO (Fundación para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomedicina de la Comunidad Valenciana).

Besides the action plan for each group was discussed, focusing on the objectives of each team, the work plan and the budget for the initial period. Some small meetings to discuss the objectives achievement took place also. 

Meetings topics and rapporteurs:

1. All WGs (network promotion, review and description of the state-of-the-art, making it happen, facilitators and barriers) – Yolanda Agra (SPAIN)
2. Proposals of work in progress across Europe and how to articulate this Action with them – Barbara Kutryba (POLAND) 
3. Which stakeholders you consider to be key for the Communication and Dissemination Plan of this Action – Lucia Prihodova (IRELAND)
4. Managing; Growing the network – Katalin Alföldi (COST Association) José Mira (Spain)
5. Defining a communication strategy- Karima Ben Salah (COST Association)
6. Managing requests to join the Working Groups – Susanna Tella (FINLAND)
7. Decide who to invite and reimburse for Action meetings – Bojana Knezevic (CROACIA) 
8. Grant awarding – STSMs and ITC CGs + Organising Training Schools – Marius Ungureanu (ROMANIA)

A work plan was discussed and specific activities for the first Grant Period were approved.

Next meeting would be around April 2021. Regarding the circumstances at that time the platform will be chosen.