“They’re going to succeed!”

The visit of European Commission representatives was a key event in the LIFE Alister Project, and it was thus important to share this with everyone who is following its progression.

The press was thus invited to meet Mrs Païva Rauma, in charge of the financial aspects and Mr Simon Goss, in charge of the technical aspects of the LIFE unit at the European Commission (see his portrait here). They accepted to answer our questions and here’s what they said. Quotes

At the centre, Païva Rauma (in red) and Simon Goss (in beige) speaking with farmers participating in the project. On the far right, Quirin Renard from the European Commission’s external monitoring team.

• L’Alsace, on 16 September, 2016 – Hervé de Chalendar 

“We do receive annual reports, but they’re a little dry…” said Simon Goss. “It’s important to be on the site physically, to see what is going on and see the alchemy that exists between partners.” What was his impression? “This project took a while to get off the ground…. There were unforeseen events: instead of raining, the sun shone, and vice versa. But it’s a very ambitious project: you have to find recipes that suit everyone, people as well as hamsters. More often than not, we know what has to be done; here, we don’t. We have to try to find the best practices. It’s quite a risky project. But today, I’m more optimistic than at the beginning. And I’m even more than optimistic – I’m sure that they’ll succeed!”

“The project can be extended but the Commission won’t be able to allocated extra funding,” added Simon Goss. But other projects will follow. We don’t want to interrupt this dialogue that is in place between the partners.”

• Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace, 16 September, 2016 – Simone Wehrung

Two representative of the European Commission will also be in Alsace until tonight to monitor the correct use of funding and asses the relevance of actions undertaken. They visited the IPHC yesterday and said they were “much more optimistic than at the beginning of the project. It was a risky one but what we’ve seen up to now shows us some really positive dynamics.”
 
 
All of these words really touched the hearts of the LIFE Alister partners and we’re sure that they’ll remember them in their daily tasks during the next two years*. 

*LIFE Alister project (Alsace Life hamSTER), 1st July 2013 – 30 June 2018