Biozoon and CENTIV, representing GRAIL, will attend the 12th Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. This conference will take place on May  28^th -30^th.

Conference description:

“Our world is facing challenges through climate change combined with population growth and unsustainable practices. Food is portrayed as particularly vulnerable and at the same time essential for human survival. Food raises ethical dilemmas, covering the entire process and related institutions, starting from primary producers to final consumer with innovation crucial for all aspects of the value chain.

Responsible researchers from many disciplines need to address a number of challenges, and this has to be done in an inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary manner. New platforms for dialogues among scholars with and for society are called for in the food sector. Knowledge of various kinds needs to be mobilized and produced in these interactions, realizing though the inherent uncertainties and values surrounding food. In an unsustainable world we need to strive for sustainable development, which will challenge aspects of our food cultures. Globalised food production creates dilemmas regarding the fair distributions of benefits and risks, which goes beyond the capacity of markets to regulate.

It is stated that we should know our food and we are what we eat, but do we really know what we are eating? This conference intends to highlight the prospects and limits of scientific knowledge and philosophical argument – and their mutual interaction – in the food area.

When consider food ethics, who is an expert in food ethics? In many ways we all have many capacities as consumers, scientific experts, reflective ethicists, and citizens. Society needs all actors to collaborate in this field.

In terms of innovation in food, should we be concerned or should we put our hopes in the innovation process in the food sector? At this conference, multiple ethical dimensions of innovation will be raised: from food technologies to production and management practices, to institutional framework and governance.

These are the main issues of the upcoming EurSafe conference, which invites contributions from many disciplines and countries, and encourages both young and established scholars to present their work and views. The conference is held in the city of Cluj-Napoca in the heart of Transylvania, a place of historic cultural confluences with visible influences on society and food culture.”

http://eursafe2015.usamvcluj.ro/) .

On the continuation of ISGC-2, a key objective of this third edition was to provide an environment that facilitates widespread interdisciplinary communication. To this end, ISGC-2015 offered to public and private scientists an ideal platform for sharing fundamental knowledge with industrial research and development

ISGC-2015, organized in May 2015 in La Rochelle (France) covered nine general topics related to 1. biomass conversion, 2. clean hydrogen production, 3. alternative solvents, 4. waste, 5. polymers and materials, 6. atom-economy synthesis, 7. eco-technology, 8. predictive methods and 9. environmental and ethical assessments. Each topic has been introduced by a plenary lecture delivered by an eminent scientist of the field.

GRAIL was represented during this edition by the YK partner, THE QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST.One poster and one oral presentation have been presented discussing the GRAIL project:

• Poster: “EU FP7 GRAIL: Glycerol Biorefinery Approach for the Production of High Quality Products of Industrial Value“. Poster authors: F. Lorenzini, Y.-M. Wang, X. Liu, M. Rebros and A. C. Marr
• Oral presentation: “Combining Bio- and Chemo-catalysis for the Conversion of Bio-Renewable Alcohols“. Poster authors: Dr Andrew C. Marr. SCCE and QUILL.

For more information about the conference: http://www.isgc2015.com/welcome.html,1,20,0,0,0

 

The 2nd European Life Cycle Assessment Workshop will be held on 29th and 30th of April 2015 at Casino Palais de la Méditerranée, Nice (France). Vertech, as an organisator, and DBFZ DEUTSCHES BIOMASSEFORSCHUNGSZENTRUMGEMEINNUETZIGE as a participant, will represent the GRAIL project.

The increased awareness of the importance of environmental protection, and the possible impacts associated with products, both manufactured and consumed, has increased interest in the development of methods to better understand and address these impacts. One of the existing techniques for this purpose is life cycle assessment (LCA).
LCA addresses the environmental aspects and potential environmental impacts (e.g. use of resources and the environmental consequences of releases) throughout a product’s life cycle from raw material acquisition through production, use, end-of-life treatment, recycling and final disposal (i.e. cradle-to-grave).

BACKGROUND
These workshops have emerged from the necessity and mutual beneficial impact to share experiences and closely cooperate among European research projects involving LCA in their current technological development.

The first event of this type was held last February 6th in Leoben (Austria), in where important conclusions were gathered and as a fruitful and constant continuation of our work,Vertech Group is organizing the 2nd EU Life Cycle Assessment Workshop, that will be held next 29th and 30th of April in Nice, South of France.
It will include short summaries of reference projects, benefits from the LCA in those projects, challenges faced during the LCA analyses, discussion sessions and existing tools.

R&D Projects Brokerage event session
Participants will have the opportunity to present their project ideas and partnership requirements for upcoming H2020 calls, through brief 10-minute presentations both days of the event.

MORE INFORMATION
Date and Place // How to get there

http://vertech-group.com/lifecycleassessmentworkshop/index.php

Or contact:
Dr. Paola Castrillo
VERTECH GROUP
Tel: (+33) 0981096862 // (+34) 910228874
[email protected] // www.vertech-group.com

GRAIL was also represented and introduced on 5.12.2014, in Brussels at PLEASURE Final Conference of the FP7 EU funded project PLEASURE – Novel Processing Approaches for the Development of Food Products Low in Fat, Salt and Sugar, Project coordinated by BZN (partner in GRAIL, Matthias Kück – CEO Biozoon and Dr. Alexandru Rusu)

http://www.eurofir.org/?page_id=4011#

GRAIL’ partners Centiv (Dr. Monica Trif) and BZN (Dr. Alexandru Rusu)  participated and disseminated GRAIL project on 21-23.10.2014, in Paris at “SIAL – the world’s largest food innovation marketplace”. At this event partner BZN exhibited and dissemination materials were available at the stand. Besides were distributed at IN-FOOD Centre – Ingredients, sourcing & ideas, and during the fair especially in the Semi-processed food products and ingredients sector of the fair.

http://www.sialparis.com/

SIAL press release: SIAL Paris 2014 Post show report

 

CENTIV, partner of the GRAIL project, will attend the “Salon International de l’Agroalimentaire”(SIAL), the largest food innovation observatory in the world, which will take place in Paris, from 19 to 23 October 2014.
Ms Monica Trif, CENTIV, will spread information about GRAIL project to the interested stakeholders.

More information about the SIAL’s event: http://www.sialparis.fr/

In addition,  Ms Trif will visit Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) – Center for Taste and Feeding Behaviour from Dijon (FRANCE) on 23rd of October to present GRAIL project.

The project “Glycerol Biorefinery Approach Towards the Production of High Quality Products of Industrial Value” (GRAIL) was presented in the month of September at two main events in Spain.

First, the project was presented to the biotechnological society at Biospain2014, held in Santiago de Compostela. The event had more than 200 exibitors and 2.000 visitors with over  4.000 one-2-one presnal meetings, which make this event the 4th largest fair in the world in biotechnology after Bio (EEUU), Bioeurope and Bioeurope Spring, and the first one organized by a single country. GRAIL presented graphical information of the project. Attendees showed a high interest on the project, Dr Castells and Dr Estevez had the chance to talk with interested industrial representatives about the project details.

CSO Carles estevez and CEO Josep castells presenting the GRAIL project

CEO Josep Castells presenting GRAIL the project

The following week, the project was set at Expoquimia, the main show of the chemical industry in Spain, held in Barcelona. There were 490 exhibitors from all sectors of the chemical industry and more than 20.000 visitor ranging sectors from the fine chemistry, to plastic and lubricants. InKemia IUCT group, presented the GRAIL project among the visitors. The CSO of InKemia, Carles Estevez, gave a series of presentations of the project.
The profile of visitors of Expoquimia is more general and not specialized in science. There was a significant number of students from secondary education to University level visiting and asking about the latest trends in Research at InKemia, where GRAIL has a main role.

After these two weeks, we can say that GRAIL objectives interest the chemical and biotecnological sector.

The group of Hauke Hilz at University of Apllied Sciences Bremerhaven presented a poster about GRAIL during the German Food Chemists Day 2014.

This conference with more than 500 participants took place in Gießen, Germany, in September 2014

Please find here the poster of the presentation available in German:
GRAIL – German Food Chemists Day 2014