Minerva’s role within PIMMS was to coordinate, from the final Annexe stage, the Outreach & Dissemination Committees and provide training for Early Stage Researchers (ESRs), to allow them to communicate the significance of their research.

A four-year EU FP7 project, PIMMS (Proton Ionization Molecular Mass Spectrometry), was to address the need for research into relevant areas of mass spectrometry, including EU food, health, the environment, and security.

A relatively new broad-based and rapidly growing analytical technique, proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS), combines excellent chemical specification with ultra-high detection sensitivity in real-time, but is only partially exploited owing to the lack of a focused research programme in terms of its scientific fundamentals and applications.
In particular, the demand for PTR-MS was outstripping the supply of highly qualified chemists who could not only use the technology, but who also had a broad background in analytical chemistry, and were capable of leading multidisciplinary research/commercial activities. There was an urgent need within Europe for the harmonised training of ESRs in analytical chemistry within many sectors and across many disparate scientific disciplines and applications.

Started in 2012, PIMMS provided training across various research disciplines in an inter-sectoral network combining private, governmental, health and academic sectors to address a number of topical analytical issues.

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