From March 23 to March 24, 2023, the MURmap consortium held its first annual meeting. The meeting was organized by Ulrike Moser and Johanna Irrgeher of Montanuniversität Leoben (MUL) with support from Barbara Čeplak (Geological Survey of Slovenia, GeoZS) who is currently on a research stay at the Chair of General and Analytical Chemistry in Leoben (more information on Barbara’s stay will follow soon). Participants of the meeting included Gorazd Žibret (GeoZS), Polona Kralj (GeoZS), Martin Šala (National Insitute of Chemistry, NIC), Alexia Tischberger-Aldrian (MUL), as well as Stefan Wagner, Shaun Lancaster and Antonia Siebenbrunner (all MUL) who joined the dinner on March 23.

On Thursday, March 23, Johanna Irrgeher first presented the work done based on work packages and defined the next steps in the project in cooperation with the other project members. It was noted that the project is running smoothly according to the project proposal. Later, Ulrike Moser presented the ICP-MS results of the water analysis based on the three campaigns as well as ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotope ratios of water samples of the 1st campaign acquired via MC ICP-MS. Afterwards, Polona Kralj presented the ICP-MS results of stream sediments from the second sampling campaign as well as the results of suspended particular matter and water from the first and second sampling campaigns provided by NIC. After the presentation of the results, all participants of the project consortium had a fruitful discussion based on the results followed by a meet-up with all MURmap-involved colleagues from MUL for dinner.

Friday morning, Johanna gave a tour through the laboratory facilities of the Chair of General and Analytical Chemistry before we had a final discussion on next steps in the project and publications.

The meeting was very productive, and we are all looking forward to start into the next necessary steps for the successful completion of the MURmap project.