MuSiC4Diabetes meets in Nîmes – great discussions and two lovely meeting days
On 26th and 27th October, the MuSiC4Diabetes members followed the kind invitation of project partner CHU Montpellier and came together in the beautiful city of Nîmes for their first Progress Meeting. The consortium was honored by the presence of Scientific Advisors Pete Lord (Portal Diabetes) – who joined the meeting in person with Portal Diabetes’ CEO Stacy Chamblis – and Nicola Santoro (Yale University), who participated online. The two-day meeting brought about lively and fruitful discussions among partners and gave a more tangible view of project results, such as the pump and sensor prototype brought by Portal and INDIGO, that projected partners into possible future innovation opportunities.
Day one followed a tight agenda, as progress made in each Work Package was broadly discussed. The first technical developments for the pump, sensor and safety features were presented, as well as FIDAM’s first results of interviews regarding an intraperitoneal device, conducted among ITD patients. These first observations sparked in-depth discussions on patient information and features of the device. Challenges and upcoming tasks were also addressed by the partners, while solutions and next steps could be agreed upon in the following open discussions.
As the project nears the end of its first year, the consortium also tackled the upcoming reporting and review meeting and defined concrete measures for a smooth preparation. Finally, the communication board agreed on the upcoming communication activities that will support communication outreach around MuSiC4Diabetes. 
Throughout the meeting, the consortium benefited from the valuable feedback from Scientific Advisors, who actively took part in the discussions. Pete Lord and Stacy Chambliss also presented the work of Portal Diabetes and raised relevant points regarding the work presented by the Work Package leaders and the next steps in MuSiC4Diabetes.
Despite its late ending, the first day inspired the members of the consortium and gave renewed drive to their work. Later, project partners took the opportunity to explore the Roman city of Nîmes before meeting at the restaurant and continuing some of the discussions there.
On the second day, the consortium had the chance to visit the testing facilities of CHUM in Nîmes – and divide into working groups for in-depth discussions on the spot. Afterwards, the team came together once more at the meeting venue to wrap-up the meeting and make sure that all questions had been answered at the meeting.
Despite a quite long travel to or from the meeting for some of the partners, the whole consortium benefited from this physical gathering that prompted relevant discussions and important decisions. 
A big thank you goes to all the attendees, physically or online, as well as to our hosts at CHUM and our Scientific Advisors, for their commitment and motivation put into the MuSiC4Diabetes project. 