11th International Scientific Conference “Rural Development 2023: Bioeconomy for The Green Deal”

We kindly invite You to the 11th International Scientific Conference “RURAL DEVELOPMENT 2023: Bioeconomy for the Green Deal”, which will take place in Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy (Lithuania), 26-28 September, 2023.
This conference is aimed at providing interdisciplinary scientific discussion, presenting new ideas for rural development processes in the context of Bioeconomy, Climate Change, Innovations and Social Progress.

The main topics of Conference sessions:

Agro-innovations and Food Technologies;
Biosystems Engineering and Environmental Integrity;
Multifunctional Approach for Sustainable Use of Bio-Resources;
Social Research for Sustainable Bioeconomy and Climate Change.

Business and Science Forum “Connecting the Dots: A Roadmap for Lithuanian Bioeconomy Development” will be held during the Conference.

Conference keywords: Innovations, Integrity, Bio-resources, Well-being.

Important dates and deadlines:

Until September 15th, 2023 – registration  (extended)
Until September 26th, 2023 – article submission (extended)
Until September 10th, 2023 – payment of participation fee
January, 2024 – publishing of the Conference proceedings

Participation fee	In person (EUR)	Online (EUR)
Authors until August 27th	250	170
Authors after August 27th	300	220
PhD students	125	100
Non-authors	150	Free of charge

Participation fee in person covers not only the Conference proceedings, but also coffee breaks, lunches and gala dinner. The costs of accommodation, cultural (social) programme and transport should be covered by the participants of the Conference.

Speakers of the conference pay the participation fee after receiving information about the confirmation of the topic of the presentation.

Certificates of participants will be sent by e-mail after the conference.

More information about the Conference
Online Registration on the Conference website.
Information for authors.

New design, more user-friendly Conference website: https://www.ruraldevelopment.lt/
Conference e-mail: rural.development@vdu.lt

This Conference starts a cycle of events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy.

VMU Agriculture Academy Graduation Ceremonies

On 16-23 June, Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) invites everyone to participate in festive graduation events.

On 21 June, a graduation ceremony will be held for the graduates of the VMU Agriculture Academy, Faculty of Forest Sciences and Ecology, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Bioeconomy Development, and Faculty of Agronomy.

FESTIVE HALL OF VMU AGRICULTURE ACADEMY | STUDENTŲ G. 11, AKADEMIJA, KAUNO RAJ.

10 a.m. Graduation ceremony of the AA Faculty of Forest Sciences and Ecology

12 p.m. Graduation ceremony of the AA Faculty of Engineering

2 p.m. Graduation ceremony of the AA Faculty of Bioeconomy Development

4 p.m. Graduation ceremony of the AA Faculty of Agronomy

The events will be photographed and/or filmed; therefore, please note that you might be featured in photos or videos which can be published in various media outlets.

The Erasmus+ project “Medical beekeeping – for beekeepers”

Bees provide a crucial ecological service by pollinating plants, which is essential for plant life. Beekeepers use these insects to harvest honey, pollen, bee pitch, royal jelly, wax, bee venom, and other useful and helpful elements for health. These products, however, must be produced in a secure and proper way.

The Erasmus+ project “Medical beekeeping – for beekeepers” (MEDI-BEEB) addresses these issues. Adnan Menderes University (Turkey) is the project coordinator, project partners include the Confederation of Italian Farmers of Umbria, Onsekiz Mart University of Cenakale, Wroclaw University of Environment and Life Sciences, Aydin Province Beekeepers’ Association, and Vytautas Magnus University (VMU). The third meeting of the project “Medical beekeeping for beekeepers” took place on May 16-17 at the Wroclaw University of Environment and Life Sciences (Poland). Prof. dr. Virginija Dulskienė and assoc. prof. dr. Anželika Dautartė of the Department of Environment and Ecology at the Faculty of Forest Sciences and Ecology at VMU Agriculture Academy participated in the meeting. The training materials being prepared in a virtual environment, where video topics of best practice examples are discussed to diversify, develop and increase the value of the production produced by beekeepers and its application for apitherapy purposes. Soon this information will also be available on the project website and mobile app. The final meeting of the project will be held on November 8-9 at Vytautas Magnus University.

More information about the project can be found at the project website: https://www.medibeeb.eu/

The third meeting of the project “Medicinal beekeeping – for beekeepers” [MEDI-BEEB] in Wroclaw

The Erasmus+ project “Medical beekeeping – for beekeepers” (MEDI-BEEB) addresses these issues. Adnan Menderes University (Turkey) is the project coordinator; project partners include the Confederation of Italian Farmers of Umbria, Onsekiz Mart University of Cenakale, Wroclaw University of Environment and Life Sciences, Aydin Province Beekeepers’ Association, and Vytautas Magnus University. The third meeting of the project “Medical beekeeping for beekeepers” took place on May 16-17 at the Wroclaw University of Environment and Life Sciences (Poland). Prof. dr. Virginija Dulskienė and assoc. prof. dr. Anželika Dautartė of the Department of Environment and Ecology participated in the meeting. The training materials being prepared in a virtual environment, video topics of best practice examples are discussed here, to diversify, develop and increase the value of the production produced by beekeepers and its application for apitherapy purposes. Soon this information will also be available on the project website and mobile app. The final meeting of the project will be held on November 8-9 at our university.

More information about the project can be found at https://www.medibeeb.eu/

VISIT OF TEACHERS OF VMU AGRICULTURE ACADEMY TO CZECH UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES PRAGUE

The teachers of Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy assoc. prof. dr. Midona Dapkienė (Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Engineering), prof. dr. Laima Česonienė and assoc. prof. dr. Daiva Šileikienė (Department of Environment and Ecology, Faculty of Forest Sciences and Ecology) visited Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU) according to Erasmus+ Mobility agreement on April 17th to 20th 2023.
The Czech University of Life Sciences is a public university. Currently the University has more than 18 000 students (10% are international students), 6 Faculties and 1 Institute. CZU offers over 170 accredited study programmes at BSc, MSc and PhD levels (in 9 BSc, 20 MSc and 18 PhD programmes the language of instruction is English). The University has 1 700 employees, of which more than 700 are professors or associate professors.
The one of faculties of CZU – the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences is a unique institution in central Europe. The mission of this Faculty is the higher education of foreign and Czech students in the fields of tropical agriculture, rural development and the sustainable management of natural and energy resources in the tropics. This experience would be useful in VMU Agriculture Academy, as a large number of students from various African and Asian countries are attracted to study in this Faculty.
The representatives of VMU Agriculture Academy gave the lectures for bachelor, master and Erasmus students of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences in the field of wastewater treatment and reuse, influence of climate change on surface water status, environmental policy and Green Deal.
The Faculty of Environmental Sciences is divided into six departments (Department of Water Resources and Environmental Modeling, Department of Applied Ecology, Department of Ecology and other) which cover the whole field of education and science at the Faculty.
The teachers had an opportunity to familiarize with the study process and reasearch at CZU, to visit the laboratories of Faculty as well as to discuss the possibilities of the joint project.
The representatives of Agriculture Academy also had an opportunity to visit Amálie Smart Landscape, located in a rural area near Prague. The Amálie site is one of the pilot projects of the CZU, in which experts are implementing specific measures to increase the adaptation of the landscape to climate change. On an area of approximately 500 hectares of agricultural land owned by the CZU, measures are being implemented, in particular to retain surface water, restore natural wetlands, secure erosion-prone slopes and monitor the hydrological regime. The Head of Department of Applied Ecology prof. Jan Vymazal showed all the components of the pilot, introduced to the goals of the ongoing project and the benefits of Smart Landscape.

11th International Scientific Conference “Rural Development 2023: Bioeconomy for The Green Deal”

The main topics of Conference sessions:

Agro-innovations and Food Technologies;
Biosystems Engineering and Environmental Integrity;
Multifunctional Approach for Sustainable Use of Bio-Resources;
Social Research for Sustainable Bioeconomy and Climate Change.

Business and Science Forum “Connecting the Dots: A Roadmap for Lithuanian Bioeconomy Development” will be held during the Conference.

Conference keywords: Innovations, Integrity, Bio-resources, Well-being.

Important dates and deadlines:

Until September 15th, 2023 – registration  (extended)
Until September 26th, 2023 – article submission (extended)
Until September 10th, 2023 – payment of participation fee
January, 2024 – publishing of the Conference proceedings

Participation fee	In person (EUR)	Online (EUR)
Authors until August 27th	250	170
Authors after August 27th	300	220
PhD students	125	100
Non-authors	150	Free of charge

Speakers of the conference pay the participation fee after receiving information about the confirmation of the topic of the presentation.

Certificates of participants will be sent by e-mail after the conference.

More information about the Conference
Online Registration on the Conference website.
Information for authors.

New design, more user-friendly Conference website: https://www.ruraldevelopment.lt/
Conference e-mail: rural.development@vdu.lt

This Conference starts a cycle of events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy.

The second transnational partners meeting of the Erasmus+ MARIPET project in Kaunas

Over three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. However, today we are seeing 30 percent of the world’s fish stocks overexploited. FAO estimates that total fish production is 179 million tonnes in 2018 and about 88% of the mentioned amount was utilized for human consumption directly and the rest (12%) was described as used for “non-food purposes” and “waste”. Reducing by-catch and discard is an important issue for fishery management. Not only ecological impacts on biodiversity but also economical losses are enormously tragic problems worldwide. More than 40 fish species are caught per operation in bottom-trawl fishing, especially in Mediterranean waters because of its multi-species fishery characteristics. Among these, species that are discarded for various reasons besides those that are evaluated commercially have a significant amount in the total catch. A large proportion of fisheries production (35 percent of the global harvest) is either lost or wasted.

For this, it is aimed to provide training on the possibilities of using discarded fishery products as pet food by bringing them to shore. MARIPET Project intends to create an awareness to use discard products by captured-based fisheries into the pet food industry. Although fish meal and fish oil which are the most valuable feed ingredients in the fish feed industry have been produced by using discarded fishes, it needs still a huge amount of investment to create economically valuable products. By contrast, most of the discarded fishes can be used as “Biologically Appropriate Raw Food” (BARF). The barf diet is obtained by blending foods that are useful and nutritious for cats and dogs in certain proportions. It means biologically suitable raw foods which is a diet that has been formulated considering the diet of cats and dogs in their evolutionary process. The main theme of MARIPET includes more than one value chain step from the marine environment to pet food plant and any single step can create a difference itself. an innovative 5-module training programme, a virtual dedicated environment with an online education kit, platforms for discard fisheries and pet food trainers/experts and pet food manufacturers/experts, and an e-book/guidebook on European Discard Fisheries and Pet Food Production will be developed. The Training workshops and Multiplier events in five countries will finalise the project activities.

The project was launched on February 28, 2022; in 2023 January 10-11 the second international meeting of project partners was held at Vytautas Magnus University. Project implementation issues and the creation of training programme modules were covered during the meeting.

The meeting participants visited the Aquaculture Centre at the VMU Academy of Agriculture, where the centre’s director, A. Žibas, introduced the technologies used here, the scientific research being conducted, the fish species being cultivated, the daily challenges that arise, and expressed satisfaction with the centre’s accomplishments. The project’s achievements were reviewed with the chancellor of the Academy of Agriculture prof. Dr. Astrida Miceikienė and the dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Ecology prof. Dr. Vitas Marozas. The possibility of collaboration in arranging studies and performing scientific research was also addressed.

Tadas Laurinavičius, head of UAB Baltic Facility Management’s aquarium maintenance, introduced the project participants to the aquarium housed in PLC Mega. It is the largest and tallest aquarium in the Baltic countries, and it is ranked in the top ten in the world. The aquarium is 10 metres high and 4 metres wide, with a length of 11 metres and a water capacity of 170,000 gallons. With more than 10 tonnes of salt dissolved in it, the aquarium maintains an average water temperature of 25 degrees Celsius. Computer systems maintain water quality and temperature. The aquarium is home to around 170 tropical fish species from the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Red, Mediterranean, and Caribbean seas. T. Laurinavičius got many questions about assuring fish viability, nutrition, well-being, cohabitation, and ecological functioning. The quarantine system built in the aquarium’s technical premises, which is used for the acclimation of new fish and the treatment of ill ones, as well as technological gadgets that maintain the life of the aquarium’s residents, piqued the curiosity of project participants.

The project is coordinated by Ege University (Turkey), project partners: University of Balikesir (Turkey), University of Dubrovnik (Croatia), Agricultural University of Iceland, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality (Turkey), Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Vytautas Magnus University.

The project’s next meeting will be held at Dubrovnik University (Croatia) in June 2023.
The project will last until February 28, 2024.

Greetings from VMU Agriculture Academy. Happy and hopeful holidays!

The second meeting of the Erasmus+ project MEDIBEEB in Perugia

Honey, propolis, pollen, royal jelly, beeswax, venom, and other bee products are extremely beneficial to human health. These products, however, must be produced in a safe and proper manner. The Erasmus+ project “Medical beekeeping – for beekeepers” (MEDI-BEEB) addresses these issues. Adnan Menderes University (Turkey) is the project coordinator; project partners include the Confederation of Italian Farmers of Umbria, Onsekiz Mart University of Cenakale, Wroclaw University of Environment and Life Sciences, Aydin Province Beekeepers’ Association, and Vytautas Magnus University. On December 5-6, the project “Medical beekeeping – for beekeepers” held its second meeting in Perugia, Italy. Prof. dr. Virginija Dulskienė and assoc. dr. Anželika Dautartė of the Department of Environment and Ecology participated in the meeting, discussed the importance of training activities that help beekeepers diversify their operations, improve their techniques, and increase the market value of their products to meet growing apitherapy demands. Within the framework of the project, it is planned to create virtual training materials, a video of best practise examples, meetings with the target group in each country to present the project’s results, and other relevant activities. The next project meeting will take place in Wroclaw in May.

More information about the project can be found at https://www.medibeeb.eu/

VMU AA scientist visited the Polytechnic Institute of Beja

On November 8-11 Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy (VMU AA) assoc. prof. dr. Anželika Dautartė from department of Environment and Ecology at Faculty of Forest Sciences and Ecology, visited the Polytechnic Institute of Beja (Portugal), as part of the “Erasmus+” teaching programme. The impact of agricultural activity on the environment, eutrophication of water bodies, changes in biodiversity, and prospects were discussed with students and faculty representatives. The possibilities for exchanges, studies, double diploma degrees, and internships at VMU AA were discussed with interested students and professors. Prospective research collaborations and ways to improve scientific collaborations with staff members of the Department of Technologies and Applied Sciences at the Polytechnic Institute of Beja were explored on behalf of the International Responsible for Bachelor and Master of Environment Engineering, dr Jorge M. R. Tavares.