FOEBE study week in Warsaw
A look back at the second summer school of FOEBE, which took place in Warsaw, Poland, in June 2023.
After 16 weeks of online training on bioeconomy entrepreneurship, the second cohort of FOEBE students finally gathered to create innovative bioeconomy projects. Indeed, 21 FOEBE students met in person for the first time on July 12th at the Warsaw University of life sciences (WULS).
During the first day, students had the opportunity to meet their peers and discover the WULS. FOEBE students prepared their final group work with the help of their teachers. They were pleased to listen to Karina Jasinska, a former FOEBE student from Cohort 1, who detailed her past experience with FOEBE as well as her current thesis work, which is in fact strongly linked to her FOEBE project.
Then, the participants enjoyed a well-deserved welcome cocktail together at the Rectorate of the University.
On day two, FOEBE students followed several lectures taught by their professors: Ossi Turunen about idea generation, Magdalena Madrasawicka about finance and investment and Emiel Wubben on bioeconomy startups in today’s production cycle. The lectures were followed by an intense group work session focussing on the final group projects.
On day three, the students spent most of their day learning more about bioeconomy startups and green startups, alternating between group work sessions and interventions of startups and specialists such as Fibri.tech and Euroinstal/Ecocup.
On day four, FOEBE students left the campus to visit the company Ecobeans, which turns coffee waste into sustainable chemicals. This informative visit was concluded with an interesting presentation of the startup, after which the group got back, eager to polish the last details for the final presentations taking place the day after!
On the last day, the students presented a wide range of interesting topics, including the use of banana peels to create clothing, the use of waste from rice production to make fertilizer or biogas, the use of citrus peelings to make cosmetics and even a proposal for a label to recognise the environmental benefits of start-ups, with the aim of combating the concept of greenwashing often pursued by certain companies. The week ended with a cultural visit to the King’s castle walking in the beautiful streets of the “old city” and a diner along the waterfront of the river Vistula. All in all, it was a delightful program.
This Erasmus+ training programme was carried out thanks to a pedagogical team set up by all the members of the European Bioeconomy University. They took time and energy to teach bioeconomy entrepreneurship with innovative teaching formats. A big thank you to:
AgroParisTech: Benoit GABRIELLE
University of Hohenheim: Sebastian Hinderer
University of Eastern Finland: Ossi Turunen, Tommi Laukkanen, Helen Reijonen and Timo Muhonen
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna: Parthena Chatzinikolaou, RINO GHELFI and Filippo Ferrari
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU): Bernhard Koch and Michael AMBROS
Wageningen University & Research: Emiel Wubben
Warsaw University of life sciences (WULS): Magdalena Mądra, Agata Malak-Rawlikovska and a special acknowledgement to the Polish team, Marcin Zbiec, Wioleta Sobczak and Nina Drejerska for organising this memorable week.
A special thanks also to Julie Cavallasca, pedagogical engineer at AgroParisTech, who carefully designed the learning format of FOEBE.
Finally, the management of the whole project was carried out first by Laura Leblanc, followed by Marie-Vaea Le Guiner (both under the supervision of Marine Godaux and Elodie Popenda). Thanks for their involvement!
FOEBE Final Event
The FOEBE project team is pleased to invite interested parties to its final event to share the results and findings of the project. The event is addressed towards all interested in innovative practices to teach entrepreneurship to students and a multicultural public.
The event will take place in a hybrid format on August 28 from 14:00 to 17:00, at AgroParisTech Palaiseau campus, amphitheater B1.01 for the face-to-face event.
To register: https://lnkd.in/ejJHFnFB