The LEARN project took part in the IDEAL Cluster Summit in Brussels, an event promoted by seven Horizon Europe projects involving more than 120 organisations and over €50 million in funding. The Summit brought together policymakers, researchers, industry representatives and public authorities from across Europe to discuss indoor air quality and its impact on health.
Although LEARN officially ended in April, the project was invited to contribute to the event and share its main results with the wider IDEAL Cluster community.
During the Summit, the LEARN project coordinator, Ernesto Alfaro-Moreno (INL), presented the project’s key scientific outcomes. He also participated in a session on the health impacts of indoor air pollution, where he shared the non-animal models (NAMs) used in the LEARN project, including multi-sensing devices, complex tissue models, organ-on-a-chip integration, and high-throughput screening. He also introduced the project’s C. elegans model as a bridging approach to investigate neurodegeneration in the context of indoor air pollution.
The event also highlighted the LEARN project’s work on communication and dissemination. Marina Marcos (FI Group by EPSA) presented the project’s indoor air quality board game as an example of an innovative material designed to raise awareness and support engagement with children. The board game attracted significant interest during the Summit and was also given as an award in audience engagement activities. Marina Marcos also shared awareness materials developed by other cluster projects.
In the closing session, Sean Kelly (NIA) joined a panel discussion on the legacy of the IDEAL Cluster. His intervention underlined the importance of future research initiatives that build on the results already achieved and help bring them closer to real-world impact.
Other researchers from the LEARN project partners Hasselt University, KU Leuven, and MANN+HUMMEL, were also present at the event, which was an excellent opportunity to exchange with other IDEAL Cluster projects, including K-HEALTHinAIR, TWINAIR, InChildHealth, INQUIRE, and SynAir-G.
