Summer School 2018

This year, the Summer School on Bioeconomy did not take place exclusively under the umbrella of BECY, but in cooperation with the Euroleague for Life Sciences (ELLS) network. The merger of the two networks enabled an even more intensive professional and cultural exchange - both among the students and among the professors.

The two-week program from 03-14 September offered participants an insight into the complete life cycle of bio-based products: Bioenergy, biomaterials, food technology as well as socio-economic and ethical aspects of a future economy. In addition, the participants had already dealt with various national strategies of bioeconomics as part of an e-learning task in August. They presented their results on the first day of the program.

A total of eight professors came from foreign partner universities to teach together with their Hohenheim colleagues in a mixture of lectures, practical experiments and excursions. The 16 participants, who were almost as many nationalities, came from BECY and ELLS partner universities in Europe and South America, from Hohenheim and from other universities abroad.

During the first week of the Summer School, the Congress FOOD 2030: Towards sustainable agri-food systems took place in parallel at the University of Hohenheim. The participants attended two lectures on bioeconomics and gained exciting insights into new technologies for sustainable food production. There was also a Dairy Lab and a Meat Lab, where participants were introduced to the production of ice cream and white sausages. Excursions to the experimental stations Unterer Lindenhof and Ihinger Hof, as well as to a regional pasta manufacturer and Lichtenstein Castle completed the program.

This year's Summer School on Bioeconomy was the last one with the participation of BECY. The funding of BECY from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) funding scheme "Strategic Partnerships and Thematic Networks" will expire this year. In order to maintain the Summer School, it will henceforth take place within the framework of the ELLS network and will be organized alternately by the ELLS universities. Next year the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague will be the host. In Hohenheim next year there will be a Summer School on the subject of bioeconomy as part of Humboldt reloaded. This is aimed at Bachelor students, while the ELLS Summer School is aimed at Master and PhD students.