On May 9th and 10th members of the CoCID consortium convened at the Alba synchrotron for the second, in-person, CoCID meeting. Twenty participants with representatives from all seven CoCID partners updated each other on their research progress.

On day-1 we focused on updating all partners on recent developments with the laboratory-based soft x-ray microscope, which led to very interesting discussions on the cell images presented. This discussion highlighted the importance of the sample-preparation process and it was great to have so many experts on sample-preparation present who could provide useful suggestions for improving the quality and reliability of the process.

On day-2 the focus changed to update partners on the progress made in achieving the deliverables defined under the four virus Use Cases. It was great to hear that some of this research work was ahead of schedule and would allow for additional research to be undertaken.

I believe that everyone really appreciated the high level of interaction between project partners with lots of advice and suggestions being shared on topics such as; cell-cryo-preparation, cell imaging, and correlative techniques as well as common areas of interest across the four viruses Use Cases.

A big thank you to Eva and her team at Alba for their wonderful hospitality, the informative facility tours, the social arrangements and especially for sharing their deep expertise in soft x-ray tomography so willingly with all participants.