"Project ""Quality Food & Consumer Studies"" thematically followed the ""European Consumer Agenda - Boosting confidence and growth for 2012 - 2020"" that identified the key measures needed to empower consumer and boost their trust. In the field of research and innovation it payed attention to deeper scientific understanding of consumer behavior and the health, safety and sustainability aspects of the choices they face. Recent initiatives included also the ""Quality Package"" adopted by the Commission in 2010, which aimed to improve information for consumers on food quality through a comprehensive policy on certification schemes, value - adding terms and standards for agricultural products.The aim of the project was to modernize and improve the quality of university education in the field of food science, food marketing and consumer studies, applied through the synergic effect of international cooperation, transfer of innovation and creation of new values in project consortium of 10 partners from 9 EU countries. The partnership was geographically balanced and composed of 8 universities (Slovak Republic, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Spain, United Kingdom - they left project partnership and Denmark) and 2 institutions/companies from the business sector (Germany, Netherlands). In terms of characteristics of participants, the main target groups were university teachers and university students. The third target group were people from enterprises, and research institutes with the aim to transfer knowledge from theory into practice. In terms of project profile, it was focused on 2 topics - Food Science (Food Quality section) and Sales and Marketing (Consumer Studies section).Project in the form of international mobility and training activities as well as through transfer of knowledge and creation of new values created a framework and conditions for the development and pilot implementation of 6 intellectual outputs focused on food quality, safety, sensory studies, sensory and aroma marketing, neuromarketing for food marketers, augmented reality for food marketers and consumers, health, nutrition, food consumer trends and product development. Intellectual outcomes in three cases represented not only innovative, but an entirely new product in the field of education , which had not been used in the educational process at partner universities so far (aroma and sensory marketing, neuromarketing for food marketers, augmented reality for food marketers).Intellectual outcomes were presented in the form of books, methodologies, supplemented by CDs, videopresentations so that they can subsequently be used for the pilot implementation of blended learning in two online modules and summer schools (Food & Sensory & Consumer and Neuromarketing and Augmented Reality). To disseminate the results at local, national and European / transnational level, two international workshops and participation at two presentations events (International Scientific Days in Nitra in Slovakia and at the same time Festival of Science and Education in Poland and Agricultural exhibition AGROKOMPLEX 2017 in Slovakia) were planned apart from the usual dissemination activities.Results of the project were contribute to the quality and modernization of teaching content and methodology of teaching at partner universities, contribute to quality education of future graduates, who would be prepared to bring innovative solutions into the food industry and trade as well as they would available for transfer into the business sector."

The objective of the proposal is to train 8 early stage researches (ESR) in an innovative, international PhD program, to become top-class specialists and professional leaders, highly demanded in the job market, ready to introduce innovations and manage advanced research. The completion of the training programme will provide ESRs with appropriate knowledge, skills and awareness of the science-business reality, crucial for scientific and/or commercial based research projects. The training objectives will be achieved by participation in: -specialized courses, to gain: a) knowledge in food science, microbiology, malting and brewing technology, b) experience in using high-tech analytical equipment, c) managerial and business skills (generic skills, industrial economics, project management, research design and data analysis); -an international research project team, using the facilities of multi-institutional consortium; -academic and industrial internships. Consequently, ESRs will be awarded a double doctoral degree in food science and/or engineering. The main goals of the research are: 1) development of innovations in malting and brewing technologies (to reduce demand for energy) and new protocols for yeast preparation; 2) verification of their impact on the quality and stability of the products; 3) acquiring new scientific knowledge on formation and release of staling aldehydes. The consortium of top class universities, institutes and industrial partners, with an on-going history of co-operation, will provide an outstanding opportunity for young, ambitious and brave researchers to realize their potential. The academic organizations involved (University of Agriculture in Krakow PL, University of Copenhagen DK, University of Nottingham UK, University of Ghent BE, Technische University Berlin DE, and KU Leuven BE), will be supported by partners: VLB Berlin DE, FlavorActiV UK, Carlsberg Group DK and Boortmalt BE, to ensure well balanced research-business environment.

"European agriculture faces many challenges, including producing food and non-food products in sufficient quantity and quality and creating added value for farmers and actors in the food chain, while reducing agriculture's impact on the environment. Agroecology, defined as ""the study of the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment within agricultural systems"", is considered a highly relevant option for reorienting European agriculture to meet these major challenges.However, the education provided in European universities is not yet fully adapted to train current and future agricultural professionals in agroecology. In particular, multidisciplinary approaches are not well developed in existing curricula. Moreover, current teaching methods often lack the interactive and digital dimensions that are promising learning methods. Innovative tools are therefore urgently needed to help university teachers provide high quality and attractive multidisciplinary training on agroecology to agricultural students and professionals.The SEGAE project therefore aims to facilitate a multidisciplinary and systemic understanding of agroecology for secondary and higher education students and agricultural professionals through the development of a digital training tool. To achieve this objective, we have brought together a consortium of six European universities: University of Liège (BE), Agrocampus Ouest (FR), Groupe ESA (FR), Oniris (FR), Agricultural University of Krakow (PL) and University of Bologna (IT).This tool takes the form of a serious game, i.e. a computer simulation game that helps players to understand in concrete terms how to implement agroecology on a farm. In concrete terms, the player manages a virtual farm combining crops and dairy cattle breeding, where she/he can implement and evaluate the impacts of agricultural practices on indicators related to the environmental, economic and social sustainability of her/his farm. She/He can make her/his choices on aspects as varied as the choice of cattle breed, animal feed ration, choice of crops, tillage method, etc. And see directly and over time the impact of her/his choices on the various indicators. Four European farm types are proposed by default: French, Italian, Belgian and Polish.The game is aimed at teachers at universities and agricultural schools, as well as agricultural advisers in continuing education. Several pedagogical objectives can be achieved with the game: understanding the effects of different agroecological practices, global analysis of the farm, management of agroecological transitions. In addition, a scenario editor allows teachers to develop their own tailor-made pedagogical scenarios, thus meeting different learning objectives and reaching different audiences. The game is accompanied by video tutorials and a pedagogical platform that includes a teaching guide for teachers, turnkey exercise sheets, as well as lessons on the different dimensions of agroecology addressed in the game. The game, the tutorial and the teaching tools are freely available in 6 languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish).In the framework of the project, more than 800 students have used the game. A training session involving 51 students demonstrated the educational interest of the game and resulted in a scientific publication (Jouan et al., 2020). Nearly 700 teachers, researchers and higher and technical education staff also received information or training on the game. Finally, more than 4,800 people have used the game since it went online.We hope that this serious game will help train high school and university students as well as agricultural professionals to contribute to the agroecological transition of European agriculture."

The project Malopolska Researchers' Night will be implemented in the years 2014 and 2015 respectively for the eighth and ninth time. The event has already permanently inscribed in the calendar of Malopolska scientific events, enjoying growing from year to year popular among participants and becoming one of the biggest Nights in Europe. In 2013, this event was attended by over 55 thousand people, while in the first year of the project (2007) the event was attended only by 3.5 thousand people. The event program specified in the application is even richer than before – it will take over 1 thousand activities, mainly interactive workshops, presentations, demonstrations and experiments as well as shows with the participation of scientists. It is estimated that 60 thousand people will participate in the events in 2014 and 65 thousand people in 2015. Malopolska Researchers' Night is to first of all show participants how interesting is the work of scientists and how fascinating they are people. Through fun, in accessible and understandable way for everybody, we want to show that all around us is the science, and that scientists in their laboratories are working every day to make our life better, easier and more modern. The main motto of the project for the years 2014 and 2015 will be to present the successes of Malopolska scientists working in international scientific-research teams. The event will be held in six cities of the Region: Krakow, Tarnow, Nowy Sacz and Niepolomice and - for the first time in 2014 - also in Skawina and Andrychow. In addition, it is planned the live broadcast from selected locations via event website. The program will be prepared by almost 900 researchers, more than 1 600 students, about 120 research groups from more than 30 partners. Thanks to the extensive promotional campaign the information about the event will reach to nearly 3.5 million people each year.

The HIGHLANDS’ goal is to contribute to Inclusive Sustainable Development in Highlands (ISDH) through collective and impact-driven Research & Innovation (R&I), based on capacity building, sharing of local-global knowledge, experience, and tools. It will drive a co-innovation process through secondments and research and innovative sessions (R&IS) involving public/private and non-academic partners, to build a shared vision of ISDH, enhance the capacities of researchers, managers, users, policymakers, thus bridging the gap between research and development. Our activities will be organized in 5 integrated work packages (WP): Coordination & management (WP1); Methodology & capacity building for ISDH (WP2); Analysis, comparison and modelling of ISDH (WP3); Building a multi-actor ISDH Decision-Support Platform (DSP) (WP4); Communication, Dissemination & Exploitation of results (WP5). HIGHLANDS is supported by a network of 43 institutions including 31 partners from Europe (~35% non-academic), and skilled and motivated female and male researchers and local stakeholders. The work plan will run 8 successive R&IS (5 in Europe, 3 outside) to promote the exchange among participants as a foundation for innovation. Each R&IS will build upon collective learning principles and a holistic systemic approach, exposing participants to a wide range of world views that will encourage experimentation with practice. Each R&IS will focus on a particular aspect of sustainable highland development and will include collective learning, collaborative research, and capacity-building on data collection/analysis, modeling. To complement the R&IS, long-term secondments will be implemented for researchers and practitioners to deeply train and work together on specific issues identified by the consortium. Collected data on ISDHs will be stored in an online collaborative and interactive decision-support platform that will then be transferred to existing mountain networks.