The aim of this WP is to create impact though dissemination, publication, and exploitation of the project results, including appropriate training for end users. The WP will maximise the impact of the scientific work delivered by the project through a combination of interaction with major stakeholders and end-users, including two-way information exchange, input into European standards, engagement with scientists dealing with Hg analysis and speciation, NMIs, policy makers in the areas of environment and public health, international organisations (such as UNEP and IEA CCC), and regional and global programmes (AMAP, GMOS, GEO).

Task 5.1 Knowledge transfer

Activity numberActivity descriptionPartners (Leadinbold)
A5.1.1 Stakeholder Committee

The role of the Stakeholder Committee (SC) will be to advise and agree upon the needs of interested parties and to help oversee the direction of the project, to ensure that outputs have impact on the stakeholder communities, and to maximise publicity. The terms of reference of the SC will be discussed during the establishment of the committee and agreed upon shortly afterwards. The SC will have at least 20 members (ideally from 12 organisations representing up to 6 EU countries, USA, Canada, Japan) from outside the consortium and it is expected to include:
  • Two representatives from the EMRP JRP ENV51 MeTra that are not partners in this project in order to secure continuity and avoid duplication with the EMRP JRP ENV51 MeTra.
  • Representatives from policy relevant bodies/organisations: e.g. UNEP Chemicals and IECT that are responsible for the Minamata Convention; International Energy Agency and the Clean Coal Centre that are responsible for the implementation of the UNEP's partnership programme on Hg from Coal; Association of Cement Industry in Europe (CEMBUREAU); national Environmental Agencies.
  • Two representatives from NIST and from the US EPA who are currently deeply involved in Hg speciation in the gaseous phase.
  • Regional and global monitoring programmes: e.g. Group of Earth Observations (GEO), Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP).
  • Representatives from the research community from the University of Reno, USA and from McGill University, Canada. Both have many years of experience in key questions related to Hg measurements in the gaseous phase.
  • Representatives from industry, e.g. instrument producer Tekran from Canada who collaborated with EMRP JRP ENV51 MeTra; and has excellent knowledge and experience in both stack emission and atmospheric measurements.

The SC will be established prior to the kick-off meeting and will closely collaborate with the partners. Strong interaction with the SC will be maintained via meetings alongside project progress meetings, information flow (including progress updates) via a central website (see A5.1.2), teleconferences and ad-hoc meetings where a quorum of the committee are in attendance, as appropriate.

JSI, all partners
A5.1.2 Project website

A project webpage will be created on the JSI website with public access and parts restricted for the SC and/or partners only. The webpage will be regularly updated with information from partners such as project reports, progress updates, papers published by the partners, and details of project meetings. In addition, there will be a special section dedicated to “project News” where information about workshops, public reports, presentations, etc. will be available to the public. Partners' profiles will show the partner's expertise and contacts.

A part of the website with restricted access will be dedicated to exchanging information, data, papers and reports between partners. It will also include a digital archive of all presentations, reports and papers from the project. It is anticipated that the website will also link to the EURAMET repository link, where peer-review publication links from the project will be archived.

Information about the project (printable handouts for conferences, flyers, etc. see A5.1.3) will be available for downloading on the website for partners to promote the project. The website will also contain an online contact form for interested parties and will also be used to disseminate the deliverables and outputs of the project. As appropriate, social media (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) may be used and linked to the project website.
JSI, all partners
A5.1.3 Newsletters and flyers

The project will distribute handouts, flyers, etc. Special emphasis will be on promoting the importance of the basic principles of metrology and its implication for Hg measurements in the Hg community.

By registering on the project website (A5.1.2) interested parties will be able to subscribe to a newsletter and show their interest in the project. The biannual newsletter will cover general information about the project, project results and upcoming events.
UBA, all partners
A5.1.4 Conferences

The partners plan to present at least 10 papers at the following target international and national conferences:

  • European Geophysical Union (EGU), Vienna, April 2018.
  • International Conference on Mercury as Global Pollutant (ICMGP), Krakow, Poland in 2019.
  • MEGA symposium, June 2017.
  • 10th Air Quality - Science and Application, March 2018.
  • CEM - Continuous Emission Monitoring Conference, 2018.
  • Mercury Emission from Coal – MEC series of meetings, May 2018, 2019.
  • The Gas Analysis Symposium.
  • International conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment (ICHMET), September 2018.
Further relevant conferences may be identified during the project.

The work of the project will be presented as oral or poster presentations.

The work will also be presented at the bi-/tri-annual International Conference on Biological and Environmental Reference Materials - BERM, which represents a unique opportunity to meet representatives and scientists from all over the world dealing with issues related to reference materials and measurements. All presenters will clearly acknowledge the financial support provided by EURAMET.
UBA, all partners
A5.1.5 Open access peer reviewed publications

The partners will submit at least 12 papers in relevant, high-impact peer reviewed journals during the course of the project (2 papers from WP1, 5 papers from WP2, 3 papers from WP3 and 2 papers from WP4). Target journals include Metrologia, ACQUAL, Analytical and Bioanalyical Chemistry, Atmospheric Environment, Analytical Methods, Analytical Chemistry and other high impact journals that are relevant for practitioners e.g. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Chemosphere, Fuel, The Science of Total Environment, Journal of Cleaner Production, etc.). The authors of the peer reviewed papers will clearly acknowledge the financial support provided through the EMPIR as required by EURAMET.
UBA, all partners
A5.1.6 Trade journals

In collaboration with the SC (A5.1.1), the consortium will identify project outputs best suited for publication as non-peer reviewed publications such as, targeted trade journal articles (e.g. Analytical Instrumentation, Analytic News, Industrial Analytical Instrumentation). This will help inform the wider community about the project.
UBA, all partners
A5.1.7 Standardisation and technical committees

Information on the progress and results from the project will be disseminated to a range of standards bodies and committees and feedback sought (see table below). The committees expect the outcomes of the project to be key inputs to the standards that they develop – all of which will be adopted as reference methods under European Directives.

The representatives on the corresponding committee or WG will jointly ask the chairperson to include a point in the agenda to briefly present the outputs of the project related to the WG activities and will ask for comments from the other committee/WG members. Where appropriate a written report will be submitted for consideration by the committee or WG.

Standards Committee / Technical Committee / Working GroupPartners involvedLikely area of impact / activities undertaken by partners related to standard / committee
CEN TC264, WG8 (Mercury in stationary source emissions) PSA, CNR, JSI Disseminating the outputs of WP1 – WP3 and advice on the future development of EC legislation on Hg. Ensuring the standards produced by this committee are traceable to the SI, and methods used are validated.
CEN TC264, WG25 (Mercury in ambient air) PSA, CNR, JSI Dissemination of the outputs of WP1 – WP4 to ensure the standards produced by this committee are traceable to the SI, and methods used are validated.
UK BSI committee EH/2/1 on stationary source emissions PSA, Dissemination of the outputs of WP1 to this UK mirror committee on stationary source standards and receiving feedback on the updates of EN 13211 and EN 14884.
ISO TC146 SC3 Ambient Air PSA Dissemination of the outputs of WP1 & WP4 to ensure international cooperation for Hg measurement for other international ambient air standards.
ISO TC146 SC1 Stationary Source Emissions PSA Dissemination of the outputs of WP1-WP4 to ensure international cooperation for Hg measurement for other international stationary source emissions standards.
ISO TC158 (Gas analysis) VSL Dissemination of the outputs of WP1 to ensure international cooperation for Hg measurement.
EMEP Steering Body CNR Transfer of methods developed within WP1 – WP4 to improve comparability of atmospheric mercury measurements of elemental and oxidised mercury.
EURAMET TC-MC JSI, VSL, LGC, VTT Transfer of methods developed within WP1 – WP4 to European NMIs, in particular through TCs Metrology in Chemistry's Inorganic Sub- Committee and Metrology in Chemistry's Gas Sub-Committee. Presentation of the project results, participation in future comparisons and sharing of measurement procedures.
CCQM GAWG VSL Dissemination of the outputs of WP1-WP4 to the international community i.e. to the Minamata treaty community. Presentation of the project results, participation in future comparisons and sharing of measurement procedures.
CCQM IAWG LGC, JSI Disseminating the outputs of WP1 – WP4 to the international community i.e. to the Minamata treaty community. Presentation of the project results, participation in future comparisons and sharing of measurement procedures.
ISO/REMCO JSI, LGC Transfer of information from WP1 on calibrations for Hg measurements and speciation in air – reference measurements.
Inter-American Metrology System (SIM) MWG 8: Chemistry (Amount of Substance) CENAM CENAM will disseminate the outputs of WP1-WP4 to the SIM region. CENAM will make a summary report, and give technical presentations during SIM MWG 8: Chemistry meetings
UBA, all partners
A5.1.8 Good practice guide

A good practice guide will be produced as D5, on Hg sample preparation and interspecies conversion. It will be produced as part of Task 2.2 by LGC, TUBITAK, UPPA, CENAM, JSI and will be made available to end users (who need to make samples of Hg) for download from the project website A5.1.2.
LGC, TUBITAK, UPPA, CENAM, JSI

Task 5.2 Training and capacity building

Activity numberActivity descriptionPartners (Leadinbold)
A5.2.1 Workshops

Three workshops for stakeholders will be organised and held during the project. They will be undertaken to support the acceptance of methods developed within the project; and to ensure that the methods, techniques and standards developed by the project are widely implemented.

The first one will be organised by JSI with support from all partners during the first day of the kick off meeting at JSI (month 1, Oct 2017) a special 0.5-day session will be dedicated to a workshop for the stakeholder community. European NMIs and DIs that are not partners, EMRP JRP ENV51 MeTra partners that are not included in MercOx, relevant research laboratories and instrument manufacturers will be invited, together with the SC. The target number of delegates will be between 40 and 60. Potential attendees among the project stakeholders will be contacted directly by e-mail. The speakers will include partners and external attendees, as needed. The main objective will be to fine-tune the needs and ideas of the SC and other attendees at the start of the project in order to maximise the impact of the project and to ensure that proper relationships and channels of communication are established.
The second workshop will be organised by UBA with support from all partners in month 6, March 2018 and will be open to all NMIs, those involved in Hg measurements, such as the community involved in regular monitoring programmes across Europe, and instrument manufacturers. Potential attendees among the project stakeholders will be contacted directly by e-mail, and the workshop will be advertised on the project website. SC will also be invited to suggest potential attendees. Representatives from regulatory and standardisation bodies will also be invited. This 2 day workshop will be organised in Berlin by UBA in conjunction with the 3rd project meeting. The target number of participants is around 40 to 60.

The third workshop will be organised by JSI with support from all partners in conjunction with the 15th ICMGP Conference, 2019, Krakow, Poland. This event will allow the wide participation of stakeholders, most of whom are from the science community, compliance monitoring bodies, instrument manufactures, representatives of international programmes within and outside of Europe, regulatory bodies and representatives of the Minamata Convention. This will also provide an opportunity to present the results of the project to the stakeholders on a global scale. The invitations will be advertised on the project’s website and the ICMGP conference web page. The target number of participants is 80-100.

Workshop material, presentations and training material will be shared on the project’s website as part of A5.1.2.
UBA, all partners
A5.2.2 Training courses / research stays

Training needs will be identified amongst the partners as well as the SC A5.1.1 at the start of the project. In most cases it is expected that small group training courses will be organised at the partners on specific technological issues as identified (for example the use of MC ICP-MS). Field measurements using CEM at stack gas emission sources will also be used for training purposes.

The exchange of technical experience and knowledge among partners and industrial settings will also proceed through research stays. Some partners already have advanced experience in the area of Hg measurements and research, while others have excellent facilities and instrumentation but less experience in the fieldwork and implications of sampling on Hg analysis and speciation.
UBA, all partners

Task 5.3 Uptake and exploitation

Activity numberActivity descriptionPartners (Leadinbold)
A5.3.1 An Intellectual Property (IP) exploitation plan will be developed. The IP strategy will be discussed at the kick-off meeting and subsequently a proposal for the IP strategy will be circulated to all partners. JSI has access to the Office for Technology Transfer and Innovation (https://www.ijs.si/ijsw/Technology) that will help to develop a sound and practical plan. The exploitation plan will be reviewed and updated as appropriate at each project meeting. JSI, all partners
A5.3.2 Primary standards and calibration procedures will be exploited from WP1 i.e.: transfer standards for the calibration of a portable HgCl2 generator and a portable HgCl2 generator. VSL, all partners

All IP and potential licencing/exploitation will be handled in accordance with the Grant Agreement and the Consortium Agreement.