EBU Alliance Coordination Group met live in Paris

The EBU Alliance Coordination Group had the pleasure to meet in Paris on December 14 and 15. This first in-person meeting since early 2020, and the last in AgroParisTech historical premises, was the opportunity to review current projects and activities, explore synergies and build together the next development steps for the alliance. The 14 EBU representatives on-site were joined by seven colleagues on the screen.

The meeting was introduced by Laurent Buisson, the newly apppointed Directeur Général of AgroParisTech. Andreas Pyka, Vice President for International Affairs at the University of Hohenheim, also joined the meeting.

This last meeting of 2021 also provided an opportunity to reflect on what the EBU Alliance achieved so far, in the less than favorable pandemic context:

• Launch of 3 EU-funded projects : FOEBE and EBU Label in 2020, Biobec in 2021. Both FOEBE and EBU Label are currently recruiting their first cohorts of students.
• Organization of the first (virtual) Scientific Forum of the Alliance in September 2021, which attracted 312 participants, 65 speakers in 8 parallel and 2 plenary sessions, as well as 3 workshops.
• Organization of a first (virtual) thematic workshop on foresight by UEF in June 2021
• Organization of the workshop “How to shape education for a sustainable circular bioeconomy ” of the Global Bioeconomy Summit 2020.
• Invitation of EBU as speaker in multiple European events including the European Research and Innovation Days 2021 and the European Commission’s workshop “Promoting education, training and skills across the EU bioeconomy”.
• Publication of 3 Position and Opinion Papers.

En passant, the participants enjoyed the rare moment of their reunion to the full by treating themselves to each other’s contributions to the international Christmas goodies buffet and AgroParisTech’s generous dinner invitation.