A fruitful combination – GoodBerry Progress Meeting & Berry School held in Málaga

From 21-22 March 2017, the GoodBerry consortium came together for its first progress meeting, which was linked to the one week’s programme of the first Berry School. Both events were hosted and organised by the coordinating institution Universidad de Málaga (UMA) and Instituto de Investigación y Formación Agraria y Pesquera (IFAPA) on the premises of UMA in Málaga, Spain.

The project meeting was arranged as a two days event with two morning sessions on 21 and 22 March that were complemented by two afternoon sessions of the Berry School. The Berry School continued on 23 March and closed with a technical field trip to Huelva on 24 March 2017.

All participants of the GoodBerry project meeting were committed to share what has been achieved during the first year of the project and to structure the tasks ahead. The meeting agenda gave each partner the opportunity to address the progress and challenges within the different work packages of the project including updates and outlooks on research, dissemination and management activities.

Prof. Yves Desjardins from the Université Laval in Québec, Canada attended the progress meeting as scientific advisor and shared his valuable insights and expertise on berry research. Prof. Desjardins remarked the outstanding quality of the science and diverse set of expertise demonstrated by the GoodBerry partners.

1^st Berry School in the frame of GoodBerry and in line with the projects’ objectives

The first Berry School did not only address early-stage researchers involved in berry research, but also technicians and experts from the berry production sectors so that young scientists as well as berry breeders followed the call for application. 30 participants from several countries, such as Chile, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Spain & United Kingdom, attended the training school.

The overall topic of the training school focused on Plant genetics and physiology and fruit quality control. 15 speakers of the GoodBerry consortium and the scientific advisor Prof. Desjardins contributed with their expertise & insights into research activities to six multidisciplinary sessions embedded in the overall topic. On the last day of the Berry School, participants had the chance to meet with representatives of experimental farm “El Cebollar” in Moguer and to visit a local grower’s cooperative during a technical field trip to Huelva, the main area of strawberry production in Spain.

Eurice is management partner of GoodBerry and supports the consortium in the successful performance during the course of the project. As part of the progress meeting, Eurice addressed project management, contractual and administrative as well as dissemination and exploitation issues to inform the project partners about H2020 regulations and procedures.