From 20th to 24th November 2023 the CESAREF consortium descended upon Austria to take part in training and visit the sites of our Austrian partners. The Mid-Term Meeting (MTM) was also included as one of the key events of the week providing us with the opportunity to meet face-to-face with our Project Officer from the REA.
The week started with two days of training, provided by TU Wien, in Smart Industrial Concepts (SIC). The Smart Industrial Concept training include the following topics :
• Introduction to industrial energy systems
• Introduction to thermodynamics of energy efficiency and heat (energy, exergy, 1st law, 2nd law, ….)
• Energy procurement for industry (European electricity market, where do prices come from, CO2 taxes, …)
• Decarbonization of industrial energy systems
A lab tour of the Thermodynamics and Thermal Engineering laboratory was organised and provided the CESAREF PhDs with the opportunity to see interesting examples of Hydraulic Fluid Flow machinery.

The MTM took place on Wednesday 22^nd November at TUW where the project officer was able to meet face-to-face with the 15 doctoral candidates and the majority of the CESAREF consortium. The management, training and communication activities of the project were presented and each of the doctoral candidates presented themselves and their projects. The project officer reminded us of our various obligations and met with the students to ensure all was going as smoothly as possible.

Following on from the MTM, we moved to Leoben to visit our colleagues from RHI-Magnesita and Montanuniversität Leoben. RHI-Magnesita introduced us to the entire product development and distribution process, from its design in the laboratory to its manufacturing, customer interaction and support, post-mortem analysis, and recycling. We were taken on a tour of their Technology centre, the Mitterdorf recycling plant and the Prettachfeld site.

The week was finished off with presentations of the cutting-edge research taking place at Montanuniversität Leoben and a tour of the laboratory.

And of course, we couldn’t go all the way to Austria and not enjoy (briefly) some of the sites and typical culture! Visits to traditional Christmas markets and sampling of typical Austrian dishes (and Iranian also!) were also very much enjoyed.

Many thanks to all the people from RHI-Magnesita, MUL and TUW who helped put together such a memorable occasion!