MIBIREM project partners met from 27 to 29 September 2023 for the occasion of the second consortium meeting in Utrecht, Netherlands. The meeting was hosted by the Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University, and marked a successful end to the project’s first year.

MIBIREM consortium partners spent three fruitful days in Utrecht and could discuss and review the project progress in the first year, as well as continue with future project planning. One of the highlights of the meeting included site sampling of three contaminants (cyanides, hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) and petroleum hydrocarbons (PHC)) that started in April 2023 and was envisaged to be completed by November of the same year. Moreover, for this occasion the partners visited the premises of hosts Universiteit Utrecht, got to know young PhD students, and could learn about the host university and their research fields beyond the project scope.

 

Two site visits to the nearby Botanical Gardens and the Griftpark rounded off the meeting experience. The Griftpark is known as one of the first contaminated areas to be remediated in the Netherlands. Here the consortium was hosted by the Grift park manager Wim Horst and could hear interesting stories on the history of this place. They could learn an important move came from the society to get this contaminated area cleaned which in the end helped transform the park into a nature leisure complex with sporting facilities. The decontamination of the Griftpark certainly was one of the milestones in awareness raising for healthy soils and groundwater.

 

In addition, the site visit included an informal exchange with key local stakeholders, i.e. the park manager and the project manager of Bestparc from Utrecht municipality. Bestparc is a Dutch project working on the remediation of the Griftpark site, with which MIBIREM has entered an informal collaboration.

RTDS Group as the meeting organisers are grateful to have been on the spot with all MIBIREM project partners. Having gotten to know each other a little bit better, the partners remain enthusiastic to continue their work and facilitate the very best project results along the way.