Julie Ingram, Pete Gaskell and Jane Mills have been in Italy this week attending the annual VALERIE (VALorising European Research for Innovation in agriculturE and forestry) project meeting.
The meeting took place in Turin from 26th to 28th January, 2016 and was hosted by the University of Turin and Cadir Lab.
The CCRI team convened two sessions, one at the beginning and one at the end of the week, for the six case study partners in the project. Also during the meeting they had an opportunity to test and feedback on the functionality of ask-Valerie, the smart search tool being developed in the project.
A half day was also spent visiting one of the case study sites near Alessandria. This included a trip to a tomato processing factory, a co-operative grain store and to Cadir Lab, the Italian case study partner, where demonstrations were provided of the innovations that are being trialled with the Italian case study farmers
VALERIE is a four-year EU FP7 funded project which concerns research to underpin innovation in the agri-rural sector.
Dr Julie Ingram is leading the CCRI contribution to the project, assisted by Jane Mills, Dr Peter Gaskell and Professor Janet Dwyer.
Research began in the autumn of 2013 and will continue for four years.
This project brings together 14 partners from 6 countries across Europe, and the CCRI is leading the main case study work package.
More information can be found at http://www.valerie.eu/
