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Thursday 22 January
Aaron Lad
At the end of November, Iris and I travelled to the next Hydrogen Academy General Assembly in Brussels to hear updates on the project and to work with our partners to brainstorm ideas on how to progress the project. You can read more about the Hydrogen Academy Project and our aims here: The Hydrogen Academy.
Tuesday 25 November
Tuesday 25 November
At 9am Iris and I planned to meet at Birmingham New Street station to catch our train to London Euston, but discovered that our train had been cancelled. Luckily, there was a train 10 minutes earlier that we could catch so we boarded it and headed on our way to London Euston. On the train we chased up some contacts that we were keen to convince to join the project’s school network of 500+ schools and discussed how we could increase engagement in the project.
From London Euston, we made the short walk to London St Pancras International where we grabbed a quick coffee and snack before boarding the Eurostar to Brussels Midi Zuid. I have never travelled via the Eurostar into central Europe so this was an amazing experience for me! I definitely preferred the additional movement room and the ability to continue our work compared to an aeroplane, although maintaining a reliable WiFi connection was often challenging. Key to our conversations at London St Pancras International and on the Eurostar were ideas on how we can diversify the HyAcademy schools network. As the project is a European project, it is crucial for there to be the appropriate representation of each country in the school’s network, so there are both the challenges of engaging enough schools and also engaging a diverse range of schools.
Upon arriving at Brussels Midi Zuid, we caught an Uber to our hotel (as the tram line we needed to catch was on strike) and spent some time unpacking before catching up with Tiziana. Together we had Lebanese food and spoke about the recent project review, particularly how we can action the results to increase the number of schools in the network by employing both a bottom up and a top down approach (asking local educational bodies to distribute information about the project, as well as contacting teachers).
Wednesday 26 November
Wednesday 26 November
Although Wednesday was the first official day of the HyAcademy General Assembly, the morning and early afternoon sessions had been left open to visit the Hydrogen Europe General Assembly. Tiziana, Iris and I had decided that the best use of this time would instead be to contact schools and prepare the Network 500+ Hybrid Event planned for Thursday (more on this later!). Therefore, we all met for breakfast and discussed what pressing tasks needed to be completed before the General Assembly officially began later in the day. I spent the morning contacting schools and creating a survey for the Network 500+ Hybrid Event, before meeting Tiziana and Iris for lunch and travelling to the Université Libre de Bruxelles campus.
At the Université Libre de Bruxelles campus, we met our project partners again, such as Markus Lermen from DVGW, Sile Brennan from Ulster University and many more familiar faces (you can learn more about our different partners here: Project Partners). We began our meeting with updates from some of the work packages that we are not a direct contributor to, and then from Tiziana about the progress of the school network. We ended the day with a meal between project partners, where I discussed with Sile and Martin Paidar from the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague about fire safety with hydrogen and the types of detection systems that might be required when hydrogen is more widely used (similar to how carbon monoxide and gas detection systems are required for natural gas boilers currently). I also spoke to Petre (Vasile) Virginia from the National University of Science and Technology Politechnica Bucharest about how we better approach contacting Romanian schools to join the school’s network.
Thursday 27 November
Thursday 27 November
For the second day of the General Assembly, we met at the Royal Palace of Brussels for separate events for the Network 100+ (for universities) and Network 500+ (for schools). The aim of each of these events was to involve members of the university and school networks in the project, creating engaging discussions and showcasing what the project has to offer.
As the morning session was dedicated to the Network 100+ event only, I spent some time going over our plan for creating school resources at each educational level (primary, secondary and vocational). For this, I analysed various curriculums across Europe to understand where hydrogen currently features and in what areas it could be included in, and also used information collected during a teacher focus group on what types of resources they would like us to produce. Key to this plan is the idea that hydrogen education is not a topic that has to be exclusively taught in science lessons, there is the scope to include it in subjects like geography, business, economics, careers and more!
In the afternoon, we had the Network 500+ event, where Tiziana gave presentations on our project’s aims, then Daria Vladikova (our partner from Trakia University) presented about the Hydrogen Game which is being created in another EU Horizon project, but will feature in our resources. There were also presentations from Alessandra Landini, a principal at a comprehensive institute in Italy, about her school’s experience in the FCHgo! project (Tiziana's previous EU Horizon project), and a practical demonstration from Lilo Maclachlan, a chemistry teacher from South Africa, who was involved in a Siemens Stiftung project which included hydrogen education (learn more about the project here: HyAcademy Interview with Lilo Maclachlan).
After the Network 500+ event concluded, we ventured into Brussels town centre for a project meal with partners. As always, this was a great opportunity to get to know our project partners better and spend time brainstorming ideas together. In particular, we discussed social media campaigns that we could pursue to engage more schools and universities in the project and how our approach for increasing our followers will vary depending on the platform used.
Friday 28 November
Friday 28 November
For the final day of the General Assembly, I met Iris and Tiziana for breakfast with Mariia Iamkovaia and Guillermo Giménez Rota, our partners at the Fundación del Hidrógeno Aragón in Spain, as they were staying at the same hotel. We travelled together to Université Libre de Bruxelles campus again to meet all of our partners and continue the project updates from Wednesday for the remaining work packages, which brought us to the end of the General Assembly. Over lunch we all discussed the next steps from the meeting to make the project a success, although many partners had flights to catch so people slowly left to travel back home.
After saying goodbye to everyone, Iris, Tiziana and I travelled back to our hotel for a short break, and then ventured into Brussels city centre again for the opening of the Brussels Christmas markets. The lights display for the opening of the markets and lighting of the Christmas tree was truly amazing and I am very glad that we stayed to see it! I also bought some presents for my housemates and family, before we all headed back to the hotel. This was my last time seeing Tiziana, since she had a very early flight on Saturday morning so we said goodbye until the next General Assembly.
Saturday 29 November
Saturday 29 November
For our final morning, Iris and I ventured to find another place for breakfast outside of our usual place in the hotel. We discovered a small bakery, where we each had a cappuccino and a pain au chocolat and reflected on our time in Brussels. We had both had an incredible trip, but there was a lot of work to do once we got back home!
Iris and I walked back to the hotel, where we said our goodbyes. Iris was travelling next to Mönchengladbach in Germany as part of the Lisel Haas Project (blog coming soon from Jen), so I would be travelling back home by myself. I packed my bags and caught the tram to Brussels Midi Zuid station, the Eurostar and regular train to Birmingham New Street, and then headed home, excited to continue work on the Hydrogen Academy Project.
The Brussels Blog: Part Two
The Brussels Blog: Part Two
Both Iris and Jen (our Projects Manager) promised me that Brussels would be amazing and I can confirm that the city definitely lived up to its reputation! With an incredibly rich culture and friendly people, I would definitely love to return to Brussels one day to explore it further.
This General Assembly has helped me to understand better how different elements of the project can easily collaborate together and has given me lots of new exciting ideas for school resources. As always, these last few days have been incredibly productive, although there is lots of work still to be done to make the project a success and improve hydrogen education across Europe.
The European Hydrogen Academy and Net-Zero Hydrogen Academy are supported by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members under Grant Agreement No: 101137988, by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and the Swiss Confederation Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI)
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