23/05/22 – MIPLACE recently held its fifth General Assembly and, for the first time since the start of the project, partners were able to meet in person and online. It was a welcome opportunity to talk face-to-face about plastic biodegradation and upcycling. There were excellent presentations describing the progress made towards: microbial hydrolysis of PET and PU; engineering synthetic communities using plastic as feedstock; synthetic microbial communities for monomer production; systems level analysis and design of enhanced communities; and synthesis and characterization of Bio-PU. There was also a presentation on recent RRI and dissemination / outreach activities. The meeting was hosted by coordinating partner, Imperial College London, and took place on Friday 20th May.