The ABIONET Final Event took place online on October 12, 2021. More than 45 participants were present to listen to the project’s results and achievements. This was followed by a lively and informative discussion on “The future of bio-based and agricultural products in Armenia: The approach of science, education and innovation" with the involvement of invited speakers from academia and industry. The invited speakers were:
• Dr. Tim Hogg - Co-Chair ETP Food4Life (etp.fooddrinkeurope.eu), ex Scientific Director and founder CoLAB Vines&Wines (www.colabvinesandwines.pt/en/)
• Dr. Anna Tadevosyan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Hydroponics Problems. Current Research and future perspectives
• Dr. Themis Kokkotos, University of Patras, Greece
• Dr. Davit Pipoyan - Head of Informational Analytical Centre for Risk Assessment of Food Chain, CENS, NAS, Member of Erasmus+ MENVIPRO Project
• Mr. Davit Martirosyan, Acting Director of "Gyumri Breeding Station"
• Dr. Yana Baluyants -"BECON PRODUCT" LLC. Meat Processing Factory, Quality Assurance
• Mrs. Anahit Margaryan, Institute of Biochemistry of NAS of RA,
The event concluded with a round table discusion that included interventions from Lusine Hambaryan, Gayane Marmaryan and Marco Faieta who reflected on the mobility of ANAU staff to Teramo; Mariam Movsisyan, Vice-rector for International Relations and Educational Reforms, ANAU who explaned the benefits that the University derived from ABIONET project and finally Ms. Mery Christo Hambardzumyan - ANAU Food Safety Master student who gave a lively account of her experience at participating at the Masters program facilitated by ABIONET.
The proceeding of the event can be found on Youtube:
•Session 1: The ABIONET results and achievents
•Dr. Tim Hogg’s presentation
•Dr. Anna Tadevosyan’s presentation
•Dr. Themis Kokkotos’ presentation
•Dr. Davit Pipoyan’s presentation
•Mr. Davit Martirosyan’s presentation
•Dr. Yana Baluyants’ presentation
•Mrs. Anahit Margaryan’s presentation
•The roundtable discussion
The cutting-edge equipment and facilities acquired within the framework of the ABioNet project have contributed to the capacity building of not only the first generation of ANAU’s Food Safety Master Program students but are also impacting the second generation. This comes to prove that the Food Safety Master Program piloted at the Agrarian University in the frame of ABioNet has been successful and meets the demands of the labour market. Master students showed great enthusiasm in trying to develop their capacities at the ANAU Food Quality Control educational laboratory and to learn to operate the equipment in order to display their specialist skills in the labour market in the future. The students carried out experiments in the field of Food Biochemistry, Food Chemical analysis, were introduced to the fundamentals of working with the Fluorescent Microscope. They conducted experiments on milk quality control in enzymes, sugars as well as other tests. The facilities obtained through ABioNet are bound to further contribute to the capacity building of future students from both the Food Safety and Food Technology departments of the Agrarian University.
Gavar State University is a partner of EU “ERASMUS + Armenian Network of Excellence in Bio-Products Science and Technology (ABIONET)" project, which has been launched since the end of 2017.
A number of online and offline workshops and meetings were held, all the work packages and the work done within them, organizational and financial problems, current issues of the project were discussed during the four years work. Online workshops were held in Thessaloniki, Teramo and Dresden.
Gavar State University has improved Master program of "Biology" by introducing 6 new courses with the required format within the framework of the project. Two of these courses have been introduced from the curriculum proposed by Technical University of Dresden, and four courses were formed as a result of the discussions in the Chair for the purpose of improving the professional component of Master's degree program. New Course programs and relevant handbooks have been developed for the latter.
Online and offline training courses were continuously organized by foreign partners within the frame of the project in order to develop professional, pedagogical, methodological and practical skills of GSU academic staff, with the participation of 5 GSU lecturers.
The colleagues of Technical University of Dresden have organized a 2-day workshop for Gavar State University students and professors with the purpose of improving start-up projects’ development and implementation skills. The students were enrolled in the online start-up courses and have presented start-up projects in the result of the courses.
One of the main goals of the project was to acquire material and technical equipment, in particular laboratory equipment, for partner universities. GSU Laboratory of Natural Sciences of Armenia was enriched with new laboratory equipment for carrying out various research activities in biology, microbiology, biochemistry and chemistry (climatostat, microscope, spectrophotometer, nitrometer, air sterilizer, centrifuge), as well as computer equipment within the framework of the project.
For the establishment of the Armenian network, Gavar State University has involved various external stakeholders by concluding 4 cooperation agreements.
GSU have also actively participated in the coverage of the project activities; dissemination of information about the project by providing more than 30 activities in the forms of dissemination and sharing of news, organizing information days. They have been circulated online and offline platforms. Dissemination of the project was done especially through the official websites of Gavar State University - www.gsu.am, www.international.gsu and Facebook platforms.
Although the project implementation coincided with COVID-19 epidemic and the martial law declared in Armenia, it was fruitful and effective for Gavar State University.
All the ABIONET training webinars are available on youtube. You can visit them by clicking to the following links:
Biopolymer based packaging: applications for the food sector
Liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry for the determination of pesticides in food samples
Rapid sensing of phenolic compounds in foods
Cereal Bioactive Compounds: the case of fibers
Business Strategy a practical methodology to develop a business model
Formulation Strategies to Enhance Health and Nutritional Value of Foods
Environmental challenges and agro-food systems
Developing a Business Plan: a tool and a case study
Case study: Learning strategies for new product innovation for the agrofood & environmental systems
Case study: Phytomanagement of metal(loid)s contaminated soils
Microbial - assisted crop production in agriculture - Case studies
