For students – an idea competition and a summer camp in Italy!

We invite students to take the opportunity to take part in a competition of ideas and, if successful, to take part in a summer camp in Italy with colleagues from all over Europe. More information.

Lectures by Visiting Professor Ewa Czarniecka-Skubina

Ewa Czarniecka-Skubina is a scientific researcher at the Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (WULS-SGGW). She holds academic degrees and the title of professor of agricultural sciences in the discipline of food technology and nutrition. Her research area focuses on food production, new technologies, catering technology, food quality, food safety, human nutrition, food product development, as well as consumer behavior, especially in foodservice. She is the author of numerous articles in scientific journals and books.

At the Faculty of Agronomy in Vytautas Magnus University lectures will be held online, using “MS Teams” platform. Those who are intending to participate, with pleasure are inviting to joint here.

Course’s themes: “Novel plant food” and “Chemical safety of plant raw materials”

Date	Topics	Time
March 21 (Monday)	Trends in the development of new products on the food market (type of new products, innovative food products, pro-healthy and functional products)	11.55-13.25
March 22 (Tuesday)	Trends in the development of new products in foodservice (molecular cuisine, Note by Note). ”	11.55-13.25
March 24 (Thursday)	Plant substitute in food products (steviol glycosides, xylitol, amaranthus, ß-glucans, bioactive components, superfoods etc.) part 1.	8.45-10.20
April 04 (Monday)	Plant substitute in food products (steviol glycosides, xylitol, amaranthus, ß-glucans, bioactive components, superfoods etc. and vegan products) part 2.	11.55-13.25
April 05 (Tuesday)	The process of designing and implementing new food products	10.20-11.55
April 08 (Friday)	Development of new food packaging	13.10-14.40

For more information, please contact prof. dr. Elvyra Jariene e-mail: elvyra.jariene@vdu.lt

English Course at Barcelona, Spain

On 08 – 12 November, 2021 assoc. prof. dr. Jurgita Kulaitienė, lecturer dr. Nijolė Vaitkevičienė and lecturer dr. Dovilė Levickienė of the Department of Plant Biology and Food Sciences from Vytautas Magnus University (VDU) Agriculture Academy, Faculty of Agronomy, were participating at the Staff Training Week- English Course at Barcelona, Spain.

In these courses, teaching and administrative staff from different countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Belgium) were attended.

With this Erasmus+ training visit teachers had the opportunity to work on oral communication skills in an authentic academic setting, attended courses in private language school in Barcelona. Sessions involved short lectures, specific learning tasks, group work, vocabulary building, and pronunciation exercises. Were placed with the right class and level to increase competence in the English language. As well as the visit has given an opportunity to get know their history, culture and people.

The Student Survey “Teaching and Learning Evaluation” is Underway

The University has launched the student survey Teaching and learning evaluation in 2021 autumn semester. In the end of each semester all the students of bachelor, master, integrated and professional studies are invited to share an opinion about teachers and their own work during the semester study courses. The survey is anonymous!
More information.

The visit in university of Palermo

Assoc. professor dr. Jurgita Kulaitienė and lecturer dr. Dovilė Levickienė (Institute of Agriculture and Food Science, Faculty of Agronomy) visited the University of Palermo (UNIPA) the Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Sciences in Palermo, Italy on 15–17 June 2021 under the Erasmus+ staff mobility for training.

Teachers got acquainted with the Palermo higher education system, acquired knowledge and competence in area of modern analytical methods which are used to assess the storage and quality of the raw materials.

The visit has given an opportunity for exchanging the ideas on future education and research cooperation’s, improving the academic relations between relevant institutions of both universities in the academic and scientific field.

Agronomy faculty researches will participate in the International H2020 program project and will implement interdisciplinary, cross-sector and internationally relevant problems of soil fertility changes

In 2021 in April new international H2020 program Project HoliSoils “Forest Soils Research and Innovation Action – Holistic Management Practices, Modelling and Monitoring for European Forest Soils“ will be started. Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy will participate in the Project together with researchers from other 19 countries (Finland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, France, Spain, the Netherlands, etc.). The project aims to exchange the new knowledge on soil assessment processes and assessment methods in order to address the long-term benefits of soil-related ecosystems and climate change policy strategies in line with the European Union strategic standards. Including the UN’s Agenda 2030 SDGs, the Paris Agreement of Climate Convention, the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the EU’s LULUCF Regulation, the EU Forest Strategy (2018), and the European Green Deal. HoliSoils will develop a harmonised soil monitoring framework and identify and test soil management practices aiming to mitigate CC and sustain provision of various ecosystem services essential for human livelihoods and wellbeing.

The multidisciplinary consortium consists of universities and research institutes from across Europe, with leading expertise on soil analysis and databases, development of advanced analytical techniques, complex system modelling, digital soil mapping, soil ecology, disturbance ecology, forest and GHG inventories, social sciences, and communications. It also involves active engagement with diverse stakeholders, including forest owners and managers, industry actors, forest extension services, a certification body, forest and soil researchers, climate policy support and GHG inventory experts, and policymakers.

The following main activities will be carried out in order to implement the project objectives: (WP 1) Analysing soil properties & drivers of microbiological processes, (WP 2) Modelling dynamics of soil properties & element fluxes, (WP 3) Harmonised soil monitoring framework for an EU GHG inventory, (WP 4) Holistic sustainable soil & forest management strategies, (WP 5) Soil resilience & recovery capacity after natural disturbances, (WP 6) Forest soils under different management scenarios in Europe, (WP 7) Stakeholder engagement, dissemination, exploitation & communication (DEC).

Researchers at the VMU Agriculture Academy will be actively involved in all project activities, however, will focus on analysis of soil properties and microbiological processes, evaluation of soil GHG evaluation strategy, development of holistic sustainable soil and forest management strategy, dissemination, communication and harmonization of project results.

Project duration – 54 months.

The total Project budget is 10,035,592.50 EUR, the financing from the European Union funding – 9,999,920.00 EUR. The VMU Agriculture Academy budget is 93,125.00 EUR, the European Union funding – 86,875.00 EUR.

International attention and insights on agro-ecosystems sustainability in Lithuania

On 2-3^rd December, 2020 was held the 3rd International Scientific Conference AgroEco2020: “Agroecosystem Sustainability: Links between Carbon Sequestration, Food Security and Climate Change” organized by Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) Agriculture Academy, Faculty of Agronomy. The conference was held virtually for the first time. The international research infrastructure consortium AnaEE also contributed to the organization of the conference. The conference was attended by about 200 participants from various countries: France, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, India, Denmark and others.

The conference AgroEco2020 was opened by the VMU Agriculture Academy Dean of Agronomy Faculty prof. Aušra Blinstrubienė. Vice-President of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences prof. Zenonas Dabkevičius welcomed all participants of the conference.

The topics of the conference are closely related to the European Commission’s Mission area “Soil Health and Food”. The conference was attended by the Chairman of the Mission Board “Soil Health and Food” prof. Cees Veerman. He presented the Mission and the Board’s activities in plenary session. He has a wide experience as he is a former Dutch Minister of Agriculture, a professor at Wageningen University & Research, and also he is a farmer. Assoc. prof. dr. Zita Kriaučiūnienė from VMU Agriculture Academy, Faculty of Agronomy, Institute of Agroecosystems and Soil Sciences is also a member of Mission Soil Health and Food Board.

The second plenary presentation was about the research infrastructure AnaEE (Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems), presented by Michel Boer, Head of this infrastructure. VMU Academy of Agriculture together with the Lithuanian Agriculture and Forestry Sciences Center (LAMMC) seeks to join this international infrastructure and its project activities. Later in the conference was presented BIOEAST initiative, in which the VMU Academy of Agriculture and its researchers are already participating as partners together with other Central and Eastern European countries, on common agro-ecological problems and insights into sustainable farming. Prof. Abdul M. Mouazen from the University of Ghent (Belgium) presented research on precision agriculture. Active cooperation with this professor has been going on for several years and in 2021 a joint international project will be launched. The famous researcher of allelopathy research prof. Inderjit from the University of Delhi (India) had presentation about weeds in agroecosystems. Professors from Poland presented two more plenary presentations: prof. Ewelina Hallmann on bioactive food components, and prof. Renata Marks-Bielska on the circular bioeconomy in the food chain.

For the rest of the day, oral presentations were presented in three parallel sections. A total of 31 oral presentations were made on the following topics: soil health and carbon sequestration for sustainability; soil and crop management to reduce chemicals in agriculture; biodiversity, crop and product diversification; precision agriculture and digital technologies; food quality and safety; the role of the circular bioeconomy in climate change mitigation.

The conference poster presentations, of which there were 41, and the conference abstract book were published on the Internet.

The second day of the conference was dedicated to the presentation of AnaEE international research infrastructure and its services. During it prof. Algirdas Augustaitis, prof. Arvydas Povilaitis, prof. Vaclovas Bogužas, assoc. prof. Zita Kriaučiūnienė presented agro-, forest- and aquatic ecosystem research infrastructures, laboratory equipment and research and project activities in VMU Agriculture Academy, and the director of LAMMC dr. Gintaras Brazauskas in the Lithuanian Agriculture and Forestry Sciences Center.

Communication with foreign partners is very important to increase the awareness and quality of research. The conference, even in a pandemic, took place and was successful. It is hoped that the experience gained by organizing an international scientific conference virtually will be useful in the future, but wishing that at the AgroEco2022 conference we would have the opportunity to meet live in our nice academic campus and in a wonderful country – Lithuania!

AgroEco2020 organizers:
Assoc. prof. Zita Kriaučiūnienė and prof. Vaclovas Bogužas

Agrobiodiversity Summer School 2021

We invite students to register for the organized Summer School “Agrobiodiversity 2021”, which will take place in Switzerland in August 29 to September 8, 2021.

All the requirements that must be met in order to enter Switzerland for a short-term stay can be found at:
https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/publiservice/weisungen-kreisschreiben/visa/liste1_staatsangehoerigkeit.html

All visa procedures remain the participant’s responsibility and must be arranged prior to arriving in Switzerland. Please note that you cannot apply for a student visa as a participant of the Summer School, as you will not be an officially enrolled student. For the visa application form please visit:
https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/themen/einreise/visumantragsformular.html

Please return this application form until February 7^th, 2021 to: gof.iunr@zhaw.ch
After sending us your application, you will receive a confirmation email. If you do not receive this within a couple of workdays, please check your junk mail folder or contact anna.geiser@zhaw.ch

AGROECO 2020 3rd International Scientific Virtual Conference

The 3rd International Scientific Virtual Conference “AGROECO 2020” will be held online on 2-3 th of December, 2020. The conference is organised by Faculty of Agronomy of Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy.

Conference programme and connections.

Registration for the online regional hackathon HACK AgriFood’20 has started!

AgriFood Lithuania DIH, together with international partners, has announced the beginning of registration for the regional online two-day hackathon HACK AgriFood’20, which will take place on November 21-22, 2020. Participants will be able to choose from 18 unique challenges, divided into 6 different categories, that the agri-food sector is facing today.

During the two-day hackathon innovators from Lithuania and neighboring countries will:

get mentorship and guidance from experts at the top of their fields;
have the opportunity to pitch their ideas during the international AgriFood Forum 2020;
compete for a solid cash prize;
be invited to participate in unique interactive entertainments.

Anyone interested can join HACK AgriFood’20 at www.hackagrifood. Registration for the hakathon will be open until November 18.

Challenge categories: Fighting food loss and food waste; Crisis-averse horticulture; Mitigating labor shortage; Smart animal husbandry; Side-stream valorization; Boosting local production.