Author: Rita Vilaça
During the past months, FLAVOURsome Working Groups have continued to strengthen collaboration across the network through dedicated in-person meetings held in different European countries. These meetings provided valuable opportunities to discuss scientific progress, define future activities and develop new collaborative initiatives beyond the regular workshops and conferences.
WG3 meets in Stockholm to advance collaborative research
On 22 June 2026, members of Working Group 3 gathered at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm (Sweden) for an in-person meeting focused on the group’s ongoing scientific activities.
“The WG3 meeting held at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm brought together Nagihan Bostanci, Anastasios Grigoriadis, Fabrice Neiers, Atefeh Amiri Rigi, Francesca Bot, Adamantini Paraskevopoulou, Hatice Kalkan Yıldırım and Mathieu Schwartz, with Elsa Brandão joining online. Following scientific presentations from the participants, the group discussed recent advances linking food structure, rheology and tribology, aroma release, oral processing and sensory perception. The group also discussed the finalization of its second publication, now supervised by Elsa Brandão and Atefeh Amiri Rigi and building on the initial work conducted by Alessandra Rinaldi. Finally, the participants defined the scope of the next collaborative report, focusing on the sensory perception of plant-based foods through an integrated consideration of rheology, tribology and aroma. The next steps will be to finalize the ongoing publication, structure this new joint report and explore opportunities for broader collaborations and future European funding applications.” Fabrice Neiers and Nagihan Bostanci, WG3 leaders
WG4 members gathers in Tartu to plan future collaboration activities
Members of Working Group 4 met on 25 May 2026 at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu (Estonia). The meeting was hosted by WG4 Leader Sana Ben Othman and focused on developing future collaborative opportunities for the FLAVOURsome network.
“The meeting brought together Toonika Rinken (Estonia), Kristi Kerner (Estonia), Kristine Majore (Latvia), Luis Cunha (Portugal), Vasileios Papasotiropoulos (Greece) with David Hunt (Belgium) and Chloe Mayo (UK) joining online. The focus of this meeting was to brainstorm the organization of a matchmaking workshop to maintain the FLAVOURsome network function beyond the lifetime of the COST Action grant through the development of project ideas to address important research gaps in plant protein flavour chemistry identified during the lifetime of the FLAVOURsome Action and, where possible, match them to upcoming funding calls. The meeting started with a presentation by David Hunt (WG4 Co-leader) of events promoting collaboration and matchmaking in the field of alternative proteins previously co-organized by the Good Food Institute. After going through different events examples (event programme, what worked well during the event and what could have been better), we discussed different aspects of organizing such event beginning of 2027 to target upcoming funding calls for 2027-2028.” Sana Ben Othman, WG4 leader.
These meetings illustrate the continuous work taking place within the FLAVOURsome Working Groups to foster scientific collaboration, develop joint publications, prepare future funding opportunities and strengthen the long-term impact of the Action. Through regular exchanges such as these, FLAVOURsome continues to build a vibrant and interdisciplinary research community dedicated to advancing flavour science for plant-based foods.