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.

Greetings

27th International Scientific-practice Conference HUMAN AND NATURE SAFETY 2021

You are kindly invited to participate in
27^th International Scientific-Practice Conference

HUMAN AND NATURE SAFETY 2021

5–6 May 2021

Annual conference Human and Nature Safety is organized on occasion of the International Days of Health, Environmental Protection and Occupational Safety & Health.

The purpose of the Conference is to discuss interrelated human safety & health and environment protection problems, create opportunities for scientists and other researchers (especially younger) share the research results not only among researchers and students, but also between farmers, agricultural experts, representatives from forestry and other sectors. Also, to promote safe, healthy, and environmentally friendly lifestyle

CONFERENCE SECTIONS, SEMINARS AND TOPICS

CONFERENCE SECTIONS

Ergonomics, Occupational Safety – 6^th May 2021, VMU AA

Ergonomic research, implementation, and their effectiveness.
Research of risk factors, their prevention and management in a working, living and public environments.
Research and management of stress at work.

Sustainable Agricultural Technologies – 6^th May 2021, VMU AA

Technical and technological innovation for sustainable production.
Precision engineering technologies and environmental protection.

Environment and Health – 5^th May 2021, VMU

Research of risk factors in living environment and their effects on human health.
Protection of biodiversity as a natural human environment.

Ecology, Sustainable Forestry – 6^th May 2021, VMU AA

Environmental research of agro, hydro and forestry ecosystems.
Sustainable development, protected areas, and environmental impact assessment of human economic or recreation activities.
Forest protection and wood, game management.

CONFERENCE SEMINARS

Dissemination of scientific knowledge of the research and rational use on medicinal plants in honor to pharmacognosist, botanist and monk Jurgis Ambraziejus Pabrėža (1771–1849) activities in scientific, pedagogical, educational and environmental research areas – 5^th May 2021, Kaunas Botanical Garden, VMU, Lithuanian Centre of Non-formal Youth Education.
Consistency between recreational needs and forestry activities – 7^th May 2021, Faculty of Forest Sciences and Ecology, VMU AA and Lithuanian Union of Foresters

IMPORTANT DATES

Until 19^th February 2021 (Registration is extended until March 1, 2021)

online registration to the conference indicating desirable section or seminar and abstract of the presentation (up to 200 words).

Until 20^th March 2021

e-mail submission (zmogaus.sauga@vdu.lt) of the payment order and the article prepared under the requirements (max. 4 pages). Articles will be reviewed by the members of Scientific Committee.

Until 2^nd April 2021

e-mail submission of the final version of the article, author’s guarantee form and the reviewer’s review with authors’ answers to the reviewer comments (if necessary).

Until 8^th April 2021

organizational scientific committee will decide the conformance of the articles for publishing. Authors will be notified if the article is declined.

OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Conference Coordinators

Requirements for the Article Preparation

Template of the Article

Review form

Author’s guarantee form

PARTICIPATION FEE

Participation fee of the conference is 30 EUR for bachelor and master students and 50 EUR for other participants.

Participant fee should be paid, and payment order should be submitted via e-mail zmogaus.sauga@vdu.lt until 30^th March 2021*.

Participation fee must be transferred to the account of Vytautas Magnus University:

AB SEB Bankas, Bank sorting code: 70440, IBAN: LT35 7044 0600 0290 0835

Payment details: Please indicate „Conference Human and Nature Safety“.

Notice: If the fee is transferred after the indicated deadline, attendance will not be confirmed, presentation will not be included in Conference programme and the article will not be published in the selected papers Human and Nature Safety 2021.

The Conference is organised under supervision of the Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Safety, Agriculture Academy of Vytautas Magnus University

Address:

Conference Human and Nature Safety 2021

Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Safety,

Agriculture Academy of Vytautas Magnus University

Studentų g. 15^a LT-53362 Akademija

Kauno raj. Lithuania

Phone: +370 37 75 23 57

E-mail: zmogaus.sauga@vdu.lt

RURALYOUTH project – 1st Meeting

Assoc. prof. Rasa Pranskūnienė and Erika Zabulionienė from Bioeconomy Development Faculty, Business and Rural Development Research Institute has attended the first online meeting of partners in the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships for youth project “Empowering rural tourism through entreprenuership with youth” (acronym RURALYOUTH). Meeting took place at 7th of December and was hosted by Eskisehir Osmangazi University (Turkey).

The meeting was attended by representatives of 6 project partners, including: project coordinator: Eskisehir Osmangazi University (Turkey) and project partners: Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (Slovakia), University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (Poland), Eskisehir Metropolitan Municipality (Turkey), ProEduca z.s. (Czech Republic). During the meeting partners have shared their institutional presentations, as well the representants of consortium worked on a plan for future project activities.

The project, which has a 24 month implementation period, forms a lifelong education system for tourism students, who would like to be the entrepreneurs in rural areas.

The project creates actions to improve knowledge of agricultural, touristic, rural, cultural and entrepreneurship among young people and will prevent miss-match for tourism students. With this project, which was formed with 6 partners, it was aimed to support the development of rural areas, to support lifelong learning, to increase awareness of the nationality through education and technology-based distance education model and to develop action plans in line with the European Youth Strategy.

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

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Nature-based Solutions for Disaster and Climate Resilience

Massive Open Online Course on ‘Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for Disaster and Climate Resilience’ will officially launch at the end of January 2021. This free course has been developed by experts from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDDR); with support from the European Union. It will be hosted by the SDG Academy, as part of edX, one of the largest online course platforms.

Here are two reasons why this course is different:

The course provides content that is easy to follow, educational, interactive, and entertaining; in contrast to the typical lecture style structure of online courses.
Course instructors cover each topic in simple terms while providing real-life examples, animations, and even a few surprises!

Why sign up for this course:

You will receive a free course certificate from UNEP upon completion of the course.
You can choose to take the course from any one of these 7 languages: English, French, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, and Indonesian.
You will meet & interact with environmental experts and practitioners.
You will have access to 6 hours of free learning materials, with exclusive footage from world leaders.
You will become part of a global learning community with participants from 140+ countries.
You will have the opportunity to expand your professional and personal networks.

SMARTRURAL: Train the Trainers. We learn to teach our students

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.