Archives: Projects

Multi-agent Agri-food living labs for new supply chain Mediterranean systems

The main objective of LAB4SUPPLY is to provide practical solutions to address the current difficulties of Mediterranean smallholders and traditional farmers, who face the main challenges that arise in the Agri-food value chain.

The Project will offer innovative and viable solutions and opportunities to allow local smallholders to increase their competitiveness and profitability, using optimised agri-food supply chain and improving adaptation capacity to unexpected market changes, which at the same time are better perceived by the consumers.

The project will empower agri-food smallholders in the Mediterranean through the definition, enhancement and transfer of competitive and efficient food supply chain alternatives.

Website: https://www.lab4supply.eu/ 

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Source of funding

PRIMA-MED Programme funded by ANR

Programme and contact references

Maite Puig de Morales – Project Coordinator, puigdemorales@iamm.fr, +33(0)4.67.04.60.82

Partners

• Center for Agro-Food Economics and Development-CREDA – Espagne
• Mouloud Mammeri University in Tizi Ouzou -UMMTO – Algeria
• National Agronomic School at El Harrach – ENSA – Algeria
• Smartec Systems – SMARTEC – Égypte
• Agricultural University of Athens-AUA – Grèce
• HORTA S.R.L.- HORTA – Italie
• National Institute for Agronomic Research at Morocco INRA-MOROCCO – Maroc
• Sultan Moulay Slimane University – USMS – Maroc
• International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies – Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier CIHEAM-IAMM – France

Data-Enabled Business Models and Market Linkages Enhancing Value Creation and Distribution in Mediterranean Fruit and Vegetable Supply Chains

MED-LINKS aims at providing small-scale producers with tailored and effective solutions enhancing efficiency, sustainability and fairness along fruit and vegetable supply chains in Mediterranean countries.

The project tackles five Specific Objectives:

1. to assess the competitive performance of Mediterranean fruit and vegetable supply chains and consumer preferences;
2. to support the adoption of quality and sustainability standards among small-scale supply chain actors;
3. to provide innovative IT tools supporting decision making;
4. to provide small-scale actors with optimised management practices and business relations enhancing quality, sustainability and profitability;
5. to encourage stakeholders to exploit the results for local communities.

MED-LINKS approach is based on the combination of three groups of optimization tools:

1. quality and sustainability standards and protocols,
2. digital platform empowered with blockchain technology (smart contracts)
3. managerial tools and coordination strategies (i.e. Business Models).

These will be customized based on the actual conditions of local actors participating in three different supply chain systems representative of commercial circuits in the Mediterranean region, namely:

• Local Short Food Supply Chains,
• Green Public Procurement,
• Export-Oriented Supply Chains.

The project will target and engage local clusters of small-scale producers in Egypt, France, Greece, Italy and Morocco to enhance their capability to adopt quality, environmental and social standards and thus to connect with other supply chain actors and profitability, while meeting final consumers’ needs.

After a recognition of the major existing public and private quality and sustainability schemes in each of the three supply chain systems, innovative quality and sustainability tools or strategies tailored for SMEs (e.g. voluntary certifications schemes, Participatory Guarantee Systems, etc.) will be proposed.

The second optimization set of strategies concerns the exploitation of innovative business models. An experts’ pool will evaluate and select the BM to optimize within specific clusters. Finally, partners will propose guidelines for pilot actions, bringing about technological innovation’s proposals compatible with selected optimized BMs.

As a third set of optimization tools, a web-based digital platform will be developed to support small producers in (i) networking with other supply chain actors and final consumers, (ii) increasing opportunities and reputation (iii) adopting quality and sustainability standards and (iii) managing commercial B2B transactions.

In order to scale out and scale up the proposed innovations, context-specific response strategies enhancing the competitiveness and sustainability of local SMEs and value chains of interest will be implemented and demonstrated through five Pilot Actions. Compatibility between the proposed certification paths, business models and digital solutions will be tested and their potential benefits will be verified in real contexts, in each target Country. MED-LINKS will also develop training and advisory activities, while stakeholders’ feedback will be monitored and drivers determining acceptance or refusal of the solutions proposed will be analyzed.

>> Site web

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Source of funding

• European Union: PRIMA Section 2 Call 2020 – Multi-topic

Programme and contact references

• Coordinator: University of Bologna – info@med-links.eu
• Principal Investigator at CIHEAM Montpellier: Paolo Prosperi , Lecturer-researcher – prosperi@iamm.fr

Partners

• ALMA MATER STUDIORUM – Università di Bologna, Coordinator, Italy
• Romagna Tech S.C.p.A., Italy
• Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, Italy
• Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development, Egypt
• Isis for Food Industries LTD, Egypt
• Sekem Development Foundation, Egypt
• Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes – Institut Agronomique Mediterranéen de Montpellier, France
• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
• International Hellenic University, Greece
• University of Cadi Ayyad, Morocco
• University of Moulay Ismail, Morocco

Sustainable Hub to Engage into Rural Policies with Actors

SHERPA aims to gather knowledge that contributes to the formulation of recommendations for future policies relevant to EU rural areas, by creating a science-society-policy interface which provides a hub for knowledge and policy.

SHERPA will contribute to policy development in three main areas:

Provision of inputs for the design of future research policies, with a focus on the preparation of work programmes under Horizon Europe.
Support for implementation of policies relevant to rural areas in the programming period 2021-2027; and
Supporting for setting the direction of rural policy in the next programming period.
To achieve this, the project will:

• Map the main drivers of future trends and dynamics of EU rural areas;
• Establish 40 Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) across the EU as effective and sustainable Science-Society-Policy interfaces;
• Create a shared knowledge base relevant to EU rural policy by taking stock of results of past and ongoing research projects;
• Engage in a dialogue between citizens, researchers and policy-makers across EU territories;
• Formulate recommendations linked to different scenarios for the development of modern rural policies at European, national and regional levels, as well as for the future rural research agenda.

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More information

Source of funding

• European Union: Horizon 2020

Programme and contact references

• Project Coordinator: Olivier Chartier and Elodie Salle (ECORYS), Belgique, sherpa@ecorys.com
• Project Manager at CIHEAM Montpellier: Samuel Féret, feret@iamm.fr

Partners

• CIHEAM Montpellier
• ECORYS
• WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY & RESEARCH
• AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS
• AEIDL
• NORDREGIO
• UNIVERSITA DE PISE
• UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID
• THE JAMES HUTTON INSTITUTE
• JOHANN HEINRICH VON THEUENEN INSTITUT
• INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AISBL
• UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI
• EUROPEAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
• ALMA MATER STURIORUM-UNI BOLOGNE
• UNIVERSIDAD DE SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
• CONSULAI, CONSULTORIA AGRO INDUSTRIATRIAL LDA
• ASSOCIATION DES AGENCES DE LA DEMOCRATIE LOCALE

Innovative education for sustainable development in peripheral rural areas

RUR’UP is an international cooperation project between Higher Education Institutions (HEI), intergovernmental organisations and rural development stakeholders, funded by the EU Programme Erasmus+. The project aims to support Higher Education institutions in equipping their graduates with skills and competencies relevant for specific labour market and societal needs of peripheral rural regions in the EU (HNV areas). The project will develop new e-learning blended modules through an educational transdisciplinary approach and by using innovative pedagogies such as student-centred and project problem -based learning, and therefore, will support the development of the HEI curricula based on learning-outcomes. Specifically, the project will also develop and test a unique modular course design (including online, intensive learning modules and case studies and on-field work.

RUR’UP is built up on HNV-Link H2020 project: 

>> Website

Objectives

Peripheral rural areas play an essential role in our territories and contribute to the sustainable development of agro-pastoralism, to the preservation of the environment, and are essential for biodiversity, rural heritage and traditional practices, while improving the socio-economic conditions of rural communities. However, there is still a gap between professional needs and student’s practices and skills. Teachers and academia should bridge this gap and enlarge teaching and learning scope while raise awareness among future professionals on peripheral rural specificities.

Activities

Main activities of RUR’UP are the following:

1. The assessment of the education needs and gaps for the sustainable development of the EU peripheral rural areas
2. Elaboration of a blended e-learning course
3. Elaboration of a Bank of Case Studies – including ready-to-use training capsules
4. Development of a Digital Teaching Platform and Digital Learning Resource
5. Organisation of an training on-field Intensive Study Activity

Results et Impacts

Main expected outputs and impacts are to:

1. Build understanding on the specific needs by the labor market in peripheral rural regions (high nature value areas – HNV areas)
2. Support curricula development to ensure learning for the skills and competencies
3. Strengthen collaboration between HE and potential regional and cross-regional employers
4. Support professional competencies of the HE educators in such regions, and
5. Contribute to the international pool of open educational resources (OER).

The project will enhance skills and professional competencies of at least one hundred (100) participating students and fifty (50) academic staff and researchers.
Therefore, RUR’UP will have a positive impact on field approaches concerning sustainable development of peripheral areas.

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Coordinator

University of Thessaly (UTH) – Grèce

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Educational innovation for the development of urban and peri-urban agriculture

The IPAUP project is co-financed by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and within the framework of the Solidarity Fund for Innovative Projects or “Seed Fund to support projects to support the development of higher education French in West and Central Africa (ADESFA II) ”. It is coordinated by the International Center for Pedagogical Studies (CIEP), now FEI.

Trainers and teachers in higher or professional Moroccan agricultural education (initial or lifelong education), are the main target of the project.

The project benefits from the experience of the multidisciplinary group of French project partners, at CIHEAM-IAMM in Montpellier, and in the following structures affiliated to Agreenium: INPT-ENSAT in Toulouse, Institut Agro Montpellier, INRAE, and CIRAD in Montpellier.

The IPAUP project is an action-training based on project-based pedagogy. It aims to design and produce digital educational ressources on the theme of AUP, thanks to close collaboration between the Moroccan and French teams, both in terms of didactic content and educational engineering.

Goals

• The Moroccan team will strengthen its skills in innovative pedagogies for hybrid dissemination (face-to-face / distance). She will create the scenarios and resources for the course while taking charge of new distance training tools and innovative teaching methods; she will independently supervise a test session of the product chapters.

• A Moodle platform will be created at ENAM to distribute this course as well as the School’s other online training courses.

• A 40-hour hybrid course will be carried out for a professional audience, with 15% face-to-face (2 face-to-face meetings) and 85% at a distance.

• A course intended for engineering students will be declined, with additional activities, in particular conceptual.

In the medium term, this project should enable ENAM to pursue the following objectives:

• Create a resource center for educational innovation at ENAM for the teaching and learning of AUP;
• Approach the next 2023/2024 accreditation campaign with a revised agricultural engineer training, prepared for greater internationalization;
• Restore gender balances in the recruitment and employability of learners in the AUP sector, especially women;
• Develop a mechanism for dialogue with the social, socio-economic and public policy sectors, for greater employability of learners;
• Provide a renovated quality assurance framework to evaluate the training produced by the new resource center for educational innovation.

More information

Source of funding

ADESFA II

Programme and contact references

Pierre Grenier – AGREENIUM

Partners

• ENAM – Morocco
• RIAM – Morocco
• ONCA – Morocco
• DEFR – Morocco
• CAR Fès/Meknes – Morocco
• INRAE – France
• CIRAD – France
• CIHEAM Montpellier – France
• Institut Agro Montpellier – France
• INPT-ENSAT – France

Master in European Innovations for a Sustainable Management of Albanian Territories, rural areas and agriculture: Instruments, policies, strategies

The SmartAL Project –Sustainable management of Albanian Territories, rural areas and agriculture: Instrument, policies, strategies– was selected by the European Commission in August 2017.

It is undertaken under the framework of the Erasmus+ programme “Cooperation for Innovation and the exchange of good practices – Capacity building in the field of Higher Education”, which purpose is to modernize higher education systems. SmartAL aims at promoting sustainable development of rural territories in Albania –the partner Western Balkan country– and contributing more broadly to its process of integration into the European Union.

>> Site web

Objectives

SmartAL’s main objective is to strengthen the capacities of three Albanian universities by creating a Master 2 which complies with the European specifications. Focusing on the sustainable development of Albanian rural and agricultural areas, by the use of instruments, policies and strategies, the final objective is to complete the accreditation process of this Master, in line with the Albanian legal framework and the European standards (Bologna Process).

Teaching Content

The Master will be composed of 9 modules: a common basis of 5 modules led by the Agricultural University of Tirana (UBT), completed by 4 specialization modules with 2 alternative options, respectively supported by the European University of Tirana (UET) and the University Fan S. Noli Korçë (UNKO). Such inter-university cooperation has the benefit of a strong territorial anchorage ensuring the coherence between the teaching content and territorial needs.

The pedagogical content, intended for Albanian junior executives and decision makers, will enable them to develop the necessary skills to participate to the European negotiation dialogue, but also to implement public policies in a national context of structural reforms with regard to decentralization.

Methodology

After a first survey conducted among institutional partners, professional organizations and private partners, which lead to the identification of employment needs (Job Market Review), the training contents to be developed and the European universities likely to provide them will be identified.

Albanian teachers will then beneficiate from a training and coaching by European universities in a view to co-build the pedagogical content of the future Master.

The European universities (teachers and students), and the partners implied in the consortium as a whole, will be mobilized for training seminars (in and ex-situ), field studies, PhD internships and public feedback conferences. The development of the project, as well as the designing of teaching modules, will be committed to a quality approach in order to ensure a continuous improvement process.

Coordinator

CIHEAM-IAM Montpellier – France

En savoir plus

Source of funding : Erasmus+ Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education (co-funding)

Contact : Magali Maire, CIHEAM-IAMM (maire@iamm.fr)

Total budget : 758 308 €

Partners :

• Fan S. Noli University Korce (UNKO) – Albania
• Universiteti Europian i Tiranës (U.E.T. SHPK) – Albania
• Universiteti Bujqesor i Tiranës (UBT) – Albania
• Panteio Panepistimio Koinonikon Kaipolitikon Epistimon (UPSPS) – Greece
• Universitaet Hohenheim (UHOH) – Germany
• Université Paul Valéry de Montpellier (UPV) – France
• (Associated partner) Ministry of Education and Sports – Albania
• (Associated partner) Albanian Network for Rural Development – Albania
• (Associated partner) Ministry of Agriculture and rural development – Albania
• (Associated partner) Ministry of urban development – Albania
• (Associated partner) Korçe regional Council – Albania