The LIFE-FLAREX consortium traveled to Italy on December for the participation at the Boostalps networking event in Milan on December 18^th and to held the project midterm meeting on December 19^th and 20^th in Biella.

At Boostalps, representatives from AEI Tèxtils and POINTEX participated in the networking session aimed at finding synergies between the textile industry and the automotive industry for a more prosperous future. The topic of huge relevance for the LIFE-FLAREX consortium.

The next days, the consortium met at Citta Study in Biella, home of the Italian cluster POINTEX where the consortium reviewed in depth the progress of all the actions of the project. Several points were treated with utmost detail; particularly, the pre-industrial trials of the different alternative flame retardants highlight the potential of some of them. The complete results will be available by the end of February with the first industrial trials during the first half of 2019. Several industrial demonstrators are already confirmed including Bonditex and Pertex in Spain, TF2000 and Giordanetto in Italy.

Other important aspects discussed during the meeting were the strategic plan for promoting substitution towards safer chemicals in the textile finishing process. It was decided to define a joint strategy for all the regions involved in the project and to seek regional synergies with ongoing programs and authorities. It is important to highlight best practices and experiences that companies can relate to in order to make an effective communication that can engage other companies to follow and lead.

Lastly, the meeting included a review of the different dissemination and communication activities that have been performed during the first half of the project. It is noteworthy the presentation of the project at several international conferences including ECOFRAM, SETAC, avniR and the 8^th international conference on applied research on textiles.