On December 5th and 6th almost fifty scientists met in Mons, Belgium to discuss the development and testing of antimicrobial coatings at a meeting hosted by the ‘STOP’ project and the European Ceramic Society. Many, but not all, of those present were involved with European Commission funded projects such as the ‘AIMed‘ doctoral network, or the ‘STOP‘, ‘SUSAAN‘, ‘SUPREME‘, ‘NANOBLOC‘ and ‘NOVA‘ research projects. The successful aim of the meeting was to improve communication in this thematic area between materials scientists and microbiologists, and especially to share best practice about how to assess the performance of novel antimicrobial materials.

A prize for the best poster presentation was awarded by Professor Artemis Stamboulis (scientific coordinator of the ‘STOP’ project) to the doctoral student Cristina Cantallops Vilà from the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France.