On September 15, AMPT monthly regional chapter meeting gathered the new and existing members of the AMPT to discuss ongoing activities. The agenda involved the discussion of the major Working group developments and work products from US, Europe, and various other countries across the globe.

Dr. Zina Cinker, Director General of AMPT discussed the expansion of AMPT’s focus to “Future Preparedness” which includes but is not limited to global health emergencies and pandemics. The 3 verticals of FP include: emergency & disasters, global challenges and Emerging needs and how advanced material community can be prepared to respond to these verticals. How can we build an international infrastructure through AMPT that allows us to take actions and respond quickly and effectively.

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It is extremely important to have an international, impartial organization which crosses boundaries and borders of countries, discipline and industries and can assess where advanced materials can add value and solve challenges with a focus on integrity and not academic or professional accolades or self-interest or corporate or national motives.

Once a global need arises, the international machinery of AMPT can quickly gather critical information and intelligence, call in members to create a taskforce to strategize, communicate the strategy through international networks, coordinate activities aligned with the strategy, mobilize expertise and resources and RESPOND to solve the challenge.

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The agenda included:

1. A welcome note to the new members all to all the regional chapter members.

2. The transformation of Advanced Materials Pandemic Taskforce to Advanced Materials Future Prepared Taskforce-focusing on the future of preparedness. AMPT is an independent, impartial, unique initiative involving people irrespective of their borders, countries, discipline, or company.

3. EU partnership strategy by Dr Carlo Iorio highlighted the similarity of the work initiatives of AMPT with European commission. European framework program will focus on the real societal challenges and will be launched in European Green deal 2021. This will open many applicative opportunities for AMPT European chapter.

4. Formation of an AMPT Sub-WG to work on determine the definition and terminology for “Advanced Materials” as it concerns AMPT members. The sub WG will be in communication with the newly formed ISO study group. Dr. Cinker was nominated by ANSI to serve as the US expert on the ISO TC 229/ JWG1 study group. AMPT activities will be aligned with the international standards development. There will be an AMPT meeting for stakeholders who want to be involved in development of the international terminology. The meeting will be on Oct 8th at 10 AM CT.

5. AMPT’s first state of knowledge report with Dr. Baig Al-Muhit: The first report on the idea of anti-viral coatings using advanced materials has come up after rigorous literature survey. It will be of immense use to the industry professional to be able to see the state-of-the-art advancements in academia for commercialization in industry. The report also focuses on the property of super hydrophobicity of the nanomaterials to obtain coatings for surfaces in public areas. The next edition of the AMPT “State of Knowledge” report will be on the topic of diagnostics with advanced materials.

6. Public health and EHS WG update:

a) AMPT regulatory matrix is one of the most important resources that AMPT has been developing since its inception. The matrix will help industry to navigate the US regulatory landscape and be able to fast track development of products and bringing them to the market.

Kazi Tasneem discussed how the scientific and regulatory gaps between the health emergencies and the advanced materials can be fixed by figuring out the collective data on the microbial testing tools.

This resource which will be available to AMPT organizational members will facilitate the transition of nanomaterials to industry.

b) Testing facilitation: Greg Nichols the WG lead discussed the WG’s current activities on facilitating testing for the effectiveness of products for pandemic solutions and access to live virus for R&D purposes for academia and industry.

8. Introducing “AMPT Navigator” course series: AMPT has created its own Online learning platform to provide highly tailored education for professionals who are seeking very targeted information on advanced materials. The first course “Public Health Navigator: "A Beginner's Guide to Advanced Materials in Public Health” will be offered mid-October. Pre registration is now open to public.

9. Partnership engagement WG update:

a) Student engagement opportunity: AMPT has created a career development and internship opportunities for students in collaboration with AMPT and affiliated university. Dr. Yu Noda explained that AMPT is currently involving 3 students from University of TN in this scope and that the WG is in discussion with various universities who are interested in having more students engaged with AMPT.

b) NOR (needs, Opportunities, resources) panoramic- This new resource/tool from will be the central source in the match making platform for AMPT and will be launched soon.  The resource provides a panoramic Snapshot of stakeholder’s expertise organizational resources and specific needs for collaboration, funding and targeted opportunities. It will enable AMPT to connect users and partnerships according to their needs, opportunities, and resources through algorithms and AMPT database.

The use of resource will be by-invitation only for the time being. Hopefully with more resources

10. Outreach to policymakers by Alan Hill:

Public policy is becoming a bigger effort with the continuous growth of AMPT. An international initiative, such as AMPT is uniquely positioned to inform global policy. Outreach to governmental institutions is vital to drive any significant change. Changing existing public  policies, or adopting completely new policies, requires years of dedicated engagement.  Developing “champions” in legislative and regulatory bodies provides a critical component of this process

11. Strategy committee:

a) AMPT World strategy forum: Richmond Holloway discussed positioning AMPT as an impartial international think-tank and “policy recommending” body to formulate advanced material-focused priorities for global issues under the umbrella of Future Preparedness. The Think Tank direction for AMPT will become a focal point in the upcoming months.

The AMPT world strategy forum will be an exclusive annual event & round table to convene policy makers, scientific councils, NGO’s and corporate leaders  and facilitate a dialogue centered around “Materials For Impact”

The result of the forum will be the formulization  and publication of an annual strategy document including list of most critical advanced materials research priorities for global issues.

The objectives are:

a. Provide public platform to highlight impact of advanced materials research on global issues

b. Inform and affect public scientific research policy on global priorities at national level

c. Inform and affect private sector investment in global opportunities

b) Need for support by Dr. Carlo Iorio: Carlo highlighted the importance of funding for effective working of the organization.

He encouraged all AMPT regional chapter members to donate and contribute even as small as $10 so that AMPT as a fully-volunteer run organization can sustain its operation and continue to exist. AMPT does not currently impose a membership fee for its individual members so it is giving its members the freedom to contribute as much as they can to support the AMPT mission.

The Paypal donation link is active now on the website.

12. The next edition of AMPT “Vision Accelerator” event will be in November.

Carlo encouraged all regional chapter members to start identifying sponsors for this event from their country and region. The sponsorship information is available on AMPT website.

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13. AMPT WG Member of the Month, goes to Kazi Tasneem, for her rigorous and valuable work as a member of the Public Health and EHS Working group. Kazi’s article “how can advanced materials help solve the challenges of public health emergencies like covid-19?” was recently featured on Women in Toxicology publication.

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Thank you everyone and see you next month!

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