Project meetings
KICK-OFF MEETING (León, Spain, March 2023)
The KOM of the competitive European Project InnoMeatEdu (KA220-HED Cooperation Partnerships Erasmus +), was successfully completed in León (Spain), on the 20th to the 21st of March.
InnoMeatEdu refers to the development of innovative, digital training material for students, professors and professionals of the meat sector. The topics of the educational material will be selected based on the evaluation of the current curricula in the participating universities and also taking into consideration the views of the meat industry based on the lapses they identify in their technically specialized personnel. The digital material refers to meat production and processing, safety, quality and entrepreneurship, and sustainability in the meat sector. The material will be freely accessible in the format of Massive Open Online Courses – MOOC through an interactive platform that will be developed under the scope of the project and will be available in several languages. InnoMeatEdu is based in the cooperation of different institutions and industries, with the collaboration of several food and meat associations, connecting academia with meat industry, initially through the associated partners and also through the interactive platform that will act as a dissemination tool of the training material to all interested parties.
2nd Transnational Project Meeting (Volos, Greece, September 2023)
The 2nd TPM was successfully held in Agria, Volos (Greece), on September 4 and 5, 2023, coordinated by the University of Thessaly (Greece). The meeting was attended by all the members (from Spain, Italy, Poland and Portugal. Professor Sp. Karamanos, Vice Rector of International Relations, Outreach and Lifelong Education from the University of Thessaly welcome the partnership. Due to the dangerous weather conditions affecting the area during the meeting, the associated partner of the project Black pig of Olympus- Fotiadis Farm participated remotely, while the planned visit to Farma Elassonas was postponed and the partners were given a virtual tour of its facilities.
During the meeting, the completion of the 2nd work package was approved, which was about the evaluation of the existing curricula, in the subjects related to meat science, in the participating universities, but also the capture of the opinion of the meat industry regarding the training gaps of their technically qualified staff. Based on the above results, the project team concluded on the structure and contents of the proposed development of innovative, digital educational material for students, teachers and professionals in the meat sector. In addition, the Project’s Quality Assurance program was validated, dissemination and publicity actions were updated, and the next steps for the Project’s development were planned.
3rd Transnational Project Meeting (Parma, Italy, February 2024)
The 3rd TPM was successfully held in Parma (Italy), on February 8-9th 2024, coordinated by the University of Parma. The meeting was attended by all the partners. Professor Gianni Galaverna, Director of the Department of Food and Drug from the University of Parma welcome the partnership, highlighting the central role of higher and long-life-learing education in several projects of UNIPR. A welcome was given also from Prof. Elenora Carini, head of the School of Advanced Studies on Food and Nutrition (UNIPR), who advised for collaborations between the partnership and the school. During the meeting, two facilities of the associated partner of the project Parmacotto were visited. In addition, Lo Spineto, a small farm where ecological agriculture and ethical farming are conducted, breeding mainly Parma’s black pig, was invited to present the company.
During the meeting, the progress made in WP3 consisting of the development of training materials in meat science and technology was analyzed. Also, WP4 consisting of the digitalization of the material as started. In addition, during the meeting, different issues related to the Quality Assurance system, as well as management and dissemination were addressed.
4th Transnational Project Meeting (Olsztyn, Poland, September 2024)
The 4th TPM was successfully held in Olsztyn (Poland), on September 9-10th 2024, organised by the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. The meeting was attended by all the partners. Prof. Jakub Sawicki, Vice Rector of the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn for Science and International Cooperation and Prof. Justyna Żulewska, Dean of the Faculty of Food Science, from the hosting University, welcomed the partnership. During the meeting the participants meet the industrial partners – representatives of the Mielewczyk company (https://mielewczyk.pl/pl/) and visited Animex meat processing plant (https://www.animex.pl/en/).
During the 4th TPM, which took place at the beginning of the 3rd and last year of the project, the advances in work packages 3 and 4, related to the training material preparation and the digitalisatión, were shown and discussed. More specifically, it was concluded that most of the material (manuals, slides, videos, case studies, etc.) has been produced and is currently under the last review. The digital material that is being developed concerns meat production and processing, safety, quality and entrepreneurship and sustainability in the meat sector. In the next few weeks, the translation to the five languages of the consortium (Italian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish) will start. In addition, the moodle that will host the material has been developed and only some small modifications are needed to finish it. At the end of the project, the material will be freely accessible. Finally, during the meeting, the planning of the activities to be carried out in 2025 were discussed (train the trainees, train the trainers, summer school), and dissemination and publicity actions were updated (including the organisation of multiplier events and a connection with the industry event).
Next Transnational Project Meetings
· TPM5 – CTC (Spain) – July 2025