From 19 to 22 October, the consortium met for our first annual meeting, combined with the mid-term check meeting but, due to the pandemic, only four ESRs, three PIs and the management team were able to meet at Fraunhofer ITWM in Kaiserslautern, Germany in person. Everyone else joined online.

Nevertheless, we made the best out of the situation. On the first day, we discussed some last preparations for the mid-term check meeting and forthcoming training activities and heard about the scientific profiles of some of the PIs.

On the second day, our REA project officer and some of our industrial partner organisations joined us for the mid-term check meeting. We discussed the general progress of the overall project and the ESRs each shortly presented themselves and their ESR projects. Although we had and will have changes to the original plan, the project officer was content with the way we handled the project so far and gave us her best wishes for the next year.

On the third day, we discussed the progress in workpackages 1 and 2, made a more detailed plan for communication and dissemination and heard more about the PIs' scientific profiles. The on-site participants visited the test rigs at ITWM. In the afternoon, we had our supervisory board meeting.

On the last day, workpackage 3 was discussed and we listened to the remaining PI presentations. Two of our ESRs, Denise and Martina, enjoyed a tour with ITWM's driving simulator.