The Annual Meeting of the membership would have occurred during the World Conference in June in Monterrey, Mexico. Because of the cancellation of the conference due to the Coronavirus Pandemic the Board of Directors have decided to hold the meeting via a Zoom Meeting.

As a packaging professional this provides you with a no travel, lower cost opportunity to learn about what has gone on this past twelve months in the field of packaging research, education, and package testing from world leading experts. • IAPRI members: $ 300 USD • Ph.D. / MS students & authorized authors: $ 100 USD

By late May, there were indications that some IAPRI members, at least, in certain parts of the world were able to relax some of the restrictions on their operations that had been necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Preliminary insights into the impact of the pandemic on the activities of IAPRI members paint a picture of very mixed experiences but often quite damaging effects on operations, with little clarity about when and in what form those activities might be able to resume.

IAPRI has a web page to highlight our member’s current research projects. All members are encouraged to let others know about projects that could be of interest to the packaging world.

The IAPRI member institutes have elected three new directors representing the institute (Full) members and one director representing the corporate members to a three term.

An assistant professor in Michigan State University’s (MSU’s) School of Packaging led the team behind a newly-published paper looking at the development of ‘soft humanoid’ robotic ‘hands with a large grasping force’ using flexible hybrid pneumatic actuators.

VTT, Finland, has published a discussion paper examining the Circular Economy of Plastics, with proposals including a combination of bio-based feedstock, mechanically- and chemically-recycled feedstock, carbon capture and renewable energy sources to help ensure the plastics value chain can minimise its contribution to climate change.

Lund University, Sweden, has signed its first ever five-year strategic partnership with Tetra Pak which, while operating at an all-university level, will have significant implications for packaging and packaging research, with the engineering faculty currently dominating collaboration.

IAPRI members ITENE and the Institute of Agrochemical and Food Technology (IATA), part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), have jointly launched Spain’s first packaging technology master’s degree to be conducted almost entirely online.

The competition is designed to encourage and show the talents of students as well as new and innovative ideas and thinking in the field of packaging.

There are signs that organisations are starting to look beyond the Covid-19 peak and are organising face-to-face events for early in 2021, with Clemson University in the US, for example, planning its first Food, Packaging & Sustainability Summit in February next year as part of its Sonoco FRESH initiative.

Spain’s ITENE has been working with local start-up company CONTROLNANO on a new biosensor-based device to detect Covid-19 both in ambient air and in biological fluids, offering a compact, portable design, low cost and “instant results”.

Graduate research scholarships are available for exceptional international candidates (subject to a competitive application process ) include tuition fees as well as a living allowance (stipend) of AU$28,200 (2020 rate) per year.

In the first of several monthly articles bringing together different strands from the IAPRI 2020 Online Conference, we look at a couple of the keynote presentations and what they say about the future of packaging.

There are at least two reasons why Spain’s Safe Load Testing Technologies (Safe Load TT) should be of interest to institutes carrying out their own packaging research and testing: firstly, because this company is a key supplier of a wide range of test and simulation equipment; and secondly, because it demonstrates the potential of spinning off a successful commercial technology business from an R&D operation.

Ever since the German government fuelled awareness of the concept by utilising it to present its technology strategy back in 2011, the theme of Industry 4.0 has inspired development across the consumer goods, equipment, automation and packaging sectors (among many others), bound in as it is with other prominent buzzwords such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data.

I regret to convey the sad passing of Shri. P. V. Narayanan, Hon. Chairman of the SIES School of Packaging on 28th June 2020. Professor P V Narayanan, a familiar face to the Indian – and global – packaging community died at the age of 79 from Covid-19.