On December 4 and 5, the Polytechnic University of Torino organized the 2^nd Meeting of the General Assembly of SOCRATCES.

This general assembly has been a very intense work meeting since it has achieved a fundamental phase of the project. Within this stage it has obtained very interesting results regarding the materials chosen for the prototype and its behaviour in energy storage, a crucial point for the development of the SOCRATCES prototype.

The meeting began with a general overview of the project by Ricardo Chacartegui, general coordinator of the project, who pointed out how there isn't any significant delay in the research and works carried out. He also emphasized that December is a key month for the delivery of many technical reports to the European Commission.

The coordinator took the opportunity to introduce VIRTUALMECH, the new partner of the consortium, which was represented by Juan Valverde in this meeting and he informed the attendees about the state of the amendment that is in progress with the European Commission for the incorporation of VIRTUALMECH. From the beginning of the project, this company expressed its interest to collaborate in SOCRATCES, becoming finally in a key factor to achieve all our ambitious objectives thanks to its great capabilities and enthusiasm.

During the meeting the partners shared their research and works carried out in the last 6 months. The material characterization phase has concluded with very positive results regarding the limestone and its behavior to store energy.

MMost of the partners are now focused on the design of the individual parts of the prototype and at the beginning of 2019 the phase of integration of them will begin.