SUMMER SCHOOL PROGRAM

Growing Consciousness: RIS Challenge project aimed at revitalising agrofood chains in rural areas through sustainable innovation.

SUMMER SCHOOL
Coordinated by University of Turin

14 th-18th September 2020

The goal of Summer School is to disseminate knowledge about recent trends in agri-food innovations and to develop skills needed for successful interregional cooperation. The program is organized around a sequence of lectures, teamwork sessions and assignments related to agri-food innovations and innovation policy practices.

The Summer School will be organized in a five working-day activity (from Monday to Friday) and it will be directed to MA and PhD students from different backgrounds (ranging from the humanities as Cultural Anthropology or Ecocriticism to Economics, Agriculture engineering etc.) It will be structured in 2 lessons per day, each lesson lasting approximately 2 hours. The lessons will be held mostly by academics and area experts and the main topics will range from food chains to engagement on sustainable ways of producing culture on cultivations, to the impact of food on environment, to climate change and health, and eventually good practices. During the Summer School, the participants, will work in small international teams on ideation projects, linking knowledge of innovations in the agri-food sector and available funding instruments with societal challenges and differentiated regional needs. An important element of our project is the opportunity for networking between representatives of regions from various European countries, which will build long lasting partnerships that could be followed-up by inter-regional collaboration and joint project initiatives.

The training sessions will last for five consecutive days. They will be delivered online using Webex videoconferencing platform. Participation will require stable Internet connection, use of computer with microphone and camera, and time commitment to actively participate in the whole Summer School, 14th-18th September 2020.

Please note that the programme will be intensive and will require daily preparations, interactions with other participants in cross-functional and crosscountry teams, and supervised project work supported by mentors of the Academy. Participants are asked to ensure their full availability during the planned sessions.

The organisers made attempts to ensure appropriate work-life balance of the participants, so that the Summer School programme includes regular breaks. We acknowledge the challenges of remote work and take into account the possibility of family life interferences during the sessions, but we also need to put an emphasis on the intended learning outcomes, quality of the programme and active team interactions. Therefore, we kindly request all participants to plan other parallel commitments in ways that would ensure their full availability during the sessions included in this agenda.

On September 19th, the students who attended the Summer School will take part into the Co-Creation Lab: together with the participants of the workshop will form a joint participation and they will propose new models to maximize quality, sustainability and consumer’s choices.

Detailed sequence of modules and timeslots for specific sessions presented below could be subject to change as the Summer School is a collaborative process involving educators and participants.

DAY ONE – key word: Introductory lessons, presentation of case-studies of similar projects; an anthropological approach to crops and the issue of know-how On the 1st day of activities, participants will become familiar with the subjects of the summer school thanks to case-studies presentation derived from similar earlier projects. The anthropological approach to study the recovery of ancient crops and of the related know-hows will allow them to adopt a new critical point of view.

DAY TWO – keyword: Sustainability declined in an economic and agronomic perspective; On the 2nd day of activities, participants will deal with different declinations of the sustainability, regarding the development of agronomic innovations and the implementation of sustainable agricultural and economic value-chains.

DAY THREE – keyword: food industry, both from the point of view of a business company and of a plant genetist; On the 3rd day of activities, participants will deal with multidisciplinary approaches in the food industry regarding the development of a R&D project and the research on genetics

DAY FOUR – keyword: herbal plants, essential oils, bioactive substances in plants, ancient grain origin, general economic condition of cultivation, bioactive components; On the 4th day of activities, participants will deal with the qualities of crops, herbal plants and essential oils intended both for humans and for animals consumption and their economic potential in the food or cosmetic industries.

DAY FIVE – keyword: food industry, both from the point of view of a business company and of economists. On the 5th day of activities, participants will deal with the second part of the presentation of the R&D project and with the economic implications of environmental innovation (as the value creation) for the food industry.

One more thing as to the Summer School: you’ll see that from day 1 to day 5 the slot 14:30-15 is devoted to startups and entrepreneurial talents: this will be a more down to earth part of the Summer School, as it will be devoted to providing the students the necessary tools and knowledge to get ready for the Co-Creation Lab and the Business competition.