Quantitative Tools for Sustainable Food and Energy in the food chain Erasmus Project

Project Title

Quantitative Tools for Sustainable Food and Energy in the food chain

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships addressing more than one field

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Energy and resources; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The food chain comprises agricultural production, manufacturing, distribution, retail and consumption. The agro-food sector is not only one of the largest manufacturing sector in Europe but also has a direct impact on the (environmental) health and vitality of the population. Food security and energy sustainability worldwide faces increased challenges arising from the globalisation of food trade, intensive production systems and changing consumer preferences.
Predictive modelling and Quantitative (Microbial, Chemical) Risk Assessment plays a crucial part in food quality and safety around the globe, providing predictive tools which are used by the food industry, policy makers and managers to formulate and implement risk management policies and controls with the view to protecting human health. In addition, Life Cycle Assessment is required in order to guarantee that the environmental vector is also included in the portfolio.

The specific objectives of this strategic partnership (thematic area of Predictive Modelling and Quantitative Risk Assessment) were:
(i) to develop each participants capacity to design and generate informative experimental data,
(ii) to build skills in developing or selecting modelling structures appropriate to describe quantitatively chemical, microbiological and physical phenomena and develop capabilities for quantifying accurately the sources of stochasticity,
(iii) to make participants familiar with optimisation software and model simulation in research, that can be exploited for developing decision-making and quantitative risk assessment tools.
(Iv) to open participants minds to the holistic approach encompasses by LCA in order to guarantee that environmental impacts are also considered and that transfer of burdens among stages of the value chains do not occur.
(v) to expose participants to industrial environments and involve them with realistic problem based scenarios
(vi) to increase employability of the participants during the coming years

The target group of this strategic partnership was MSc or early stage PhD researchers working in the areas of public health, applied statistics, quantitative microbial/chemical risk assessment, food safety, process automation, food manufacturing. The programme aimed to promote an interactive participation, which stimulated frank and open discussions between young and experienced postgraduate researchers.

The main activities included theoretical lectures that were alternated with problem-based learning (PBL), student placements and dissemination activities. Theoretical lectures covered all the fundamentals and basic principles of predictive modelling. Additionally, PBL pedagogical tools were used in which students worked in groups to solve realistic multifaceted problems with the use of computer programming software. These problems included the construction of experimental designs, model development, regression analysis, sensitivity analysis and safety risk scenarios. Placements were accomplished for a number of students and external industrial, stakeholders and other participants participated in a dissemination event of a conference.

By the end of the programme students: (i) have attained a fundamental understanding of the substantial body of applied modelling, statistics and recent developments in the field of Predictive Modelling and Quantitative Risk Assessment of foods, (ii) have exercised personal responsibility and autonomous initiative in solving complex microbiological problems that are solved in a rigorous and professional approach, (iii) have engaged in critical dialogue and learned to criticise the broader implication of Applied Modelling approaches in Food Science through interactive teaching, (iv) have exploited available software packages and quantitative approaches for enriching current studies in the field in order to communicate results and innovations of research to peers, (v) were aware of the professional environment and (vi) have identified or been able to propose niche employability actions.

The cooperation in the strategic partnership programme resulted in establishing grounds for future knowledge transfer between participating institutions and facilitate the exchange of students for practical training in companies between the countries. Additionally, the multidisciplinary character of this strategic partnership provided an unprecedented opportunity for researchers to communicate, collaborate and advance significantly beyond the current state-of-the-art supporting many pan European research projects as well as other international projects.

The project went also beyond its planned objectives with issuing a proceedings book for the Multiplier Event held in Syros, Greece in April 2017 as well as a book accompanying the electronic material developed in the area of Quantitative Tools for Sustainable Food and Energy in the food chain as part of Intellectual Output 3.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 353270,85 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITA TA MALTA & Country: MT

Project Partners

• THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
• UNIVERSIDAD DE SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
• UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
• Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire, Agroalimentaire et de l’alimentation Nantes Atlantique
• KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
• ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS
• FEIRACO SOCIEDAD COOPERATIVA GALEGA