In mid November, the CHARTER project held its final general assembly on ‘home ground’ in Rovaniemi, closing the circle on this project that started in 2019. It was rather fitting that as we launched the project in the midst of the pandemic, and our first assembly was entirely online, that this last assembly was entirely in person. We are grateful that so many of the CHARTER team travelled here in person from across Europe and North America with nearly 70 people here in Rovaniemi for several days.
In the opening session, the local coordination team welcomed the visitors. Osmo Rätti from the Arctic Centre also welcomed CHARTER group to Rovaniemi and to the final project meeting, and Bruce Forbes, the project PI, gave his opening speech. Both reminded us about difficult conditions during the beginning of the project because of COVID-19, and because of the war in Ukraine – and also reminded about reaching some of the ambitious goals we set in 2019. Read the full minutes of the final meeting below.
Panels were held, lessons learned were shared, final results discussed and good times were had. Importantly, a strong network has been developed and already during the last brunch together, plans were being made for future work and collaborations.