The main objective of the Action was to improve the knowledge on bioencapsulation in developing reliable, economical and safe industrial encapsulation processes and applications. The Action also aims to deepen cooperation in Europe, by regular meetings, scientific contribution to international conferences and collaboration with industries, in order: Direct scientific and technological objectives: 1. To consider and integrate the multiscale and interactive dimension of the processes in designing bioencapsulation applications. 2. To identify the gaps in the knowledge and to propose concerted actions, such as round robins, to develop especially fundamental research, by involving experts even from outside of the bioencapsulation community 3. To develop characterisation and analytical tools for evaluating performances and meeting high quality and safety requirements in industrial processes. 4. To provide method standardisation to insure safety, quality and reliability during bioencapsulation and subsequent applications (e.g. GLP, GMP) and make the information easily and reliably available to everyone. Societal Objectives: 1. To disseminate the acquired knowledge among the EU scientific community involved in bioencapsulation, especially, giving access to bioencapsulation standard through easy Internet connection. 2. To evaluate this knowledge to provide support to the academic and industrial communities in defining their objectives in terms of economy, social impact, technological limitations, feasibility, potential partners and so on. 3. To support the establishment of new SME’s, based on the identification of potential markets. 4. To contribute to the training through STSM’s, participation of young scientists, summer school or even application for a Marie Curie Thematic Network. 5. To promote the leadership of Europe in bioencapsulation while extending the collaboration outside of the actual COST area, by inviting outstanding researchers to participate to the meetings and activities, and applying for support from other organisations such as INTAS, NATO or UNESCO, to reach this objective. A particular goal of the Action would be establishing of collaboration with the relevant COST Actions, such as COST 856, 921, and 926. In addition, the Action would focus on connection to some ongoing European projects, i.e. MICRONFIX, FLOCAP, NANOIMPRINT, and to some transnational and national projects. Moreover, the contacts would be made with UNESCO, INTAS, EUREKA and NATO to fulfil the Action’s mission and evaluate an expansion of the Action’s ideas Actual networking activities revealed that the current industrial development in bioencapsulation was far beyond the potential market. A strong development would require improvement of the fundamental knowledge and standardisation of bioencapsulation methods, which are among the aims of this Action. Bioencapsulation was an original and powerful approach for resolving many scientific, agricultural, industrial and medical challenges. By promoting coordination and collaboration in bioencapsulation, the Action would contribute to scientific, social and industrial development in Europe.
