This is a higher education student and staff mobility project, please consult the website of the organisation to obtain additional details.

Human impacts such as clearcut harvesting have left forests bereft of the organisms that underpin their functioning. The decline of key plant species has reduced the capacity of forests to store carbon (C) and provide ecosystem services to the people of Europe. The regeneration of forest ecosystem functioning requires a deeper understanding of how the traits of its species can be linked to ecosystem processes. The BEREFT project aims to elucidate how the plant traits of bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus, modulate the dynamics of C and nitrogen (N) within the boreal forest. The project combines advances in chemical ecology with an innovative experimental design situated in Norway pairing experimental plots in formerly clearcut forest plantations with those from near-natural forests. I will collect a comprehensive set of bilberry's chemical traits and test both in-situ and in-vitro experiments to determine the underlying mechanism linking bilberry traits to C and N dynamics. The project goes beyond the state-of-the-art in applying novel methods from chemical ecology to measure bilberry's traits and uses a creative design to link those traits to ecosystem functioning. Through the scope of traits measured and the innovation in experimental design pairing clearcut forests with near-natural forests, this project will significantly advance our knowledge of the ecology of Europe's forest ecosystems. I will receive training in chemical ecology to advance my career as an expert in data generation and exchange with the host my knowledge on long-term ecological experimentation and ecosystem functioning. The project will disseminate deliverables in trait data packages, an open-source chemical ecology pipeline, and a robust measure of the effect size of bilberry's impact on C and N in the boreal forest. Knowledge of bilberry's role in the forest C cycle can be exploited by forestry managers in efforts to maximize C storage to meet the EU's goal of carbon neutrality.

NMBU's ambition is to have 20% of our students on mobility at any time. We are delighted to see that the numbers are increasing year by year, even though we still have a way to go to reach our goal. In 18/19 the number of mobilities have increased since 17/18. The benefits of the Erasmus+ programmes are extensively promoted in order to increase the mobility all the time. Information sessions are held at every faculty and also centrally at the Student Information Center. Webpages are continously being updated and renewed, and social media is being used actively to promote the opportunities in the Erasmus+ programmes. All outbound students are obliged to write study and travel reports from their mobility period in a blog for NMBU exchange students: https://nmbuutveksling.blogspot.com/ In 2018/2019 we sent students to many of the European countries; the Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Belgium. NMBU keeps establishing new bilateral Erasmus+ agreements every year, and we are proud to inform that the faculties have started to work more dedicated with the esatblishment of new Erasmus+ bilateral agreements for mobility. Technical and administrative staff and teachers at NMBU have again increased the number of staff and teacher mobility within Erasmus+. The numbers for 18/19 were higher than ever, and it seems like we have managed better to promote staff mobility at the faculties. The grants have been spent on teaching, training, networking activities, which has led to cooperation with new partner universities and improved cooperation with existing partner universities.

Currently, Dairy Wastewater (DW) is seen as a major global problem, difficult and expensive to treat and potentially very harmful to the environment as it contains high amounts of organic and inorganic content. The current treatment methods (physicochemical and conventional) are energy-intensive and don’t sufficiently remove the nutrients. But, with the high amount that is produced worldwide: 0.2‒10 L wastewater/ L of milk processed; this is potentially a valuable resource that, if utilized appropriately, can provide high-value green chemicals and biofuel. Therefore, a new cost-effective method for the treatment of DW along with the generation of valuable biomass needs to be developed. In this context, AlgalBB proposes the concept of biorefinery for the substantive treatment of DW via microalgae, coupled with biodiesel and bio-succinic acid (SA) production. These objectives will be pursued through 1) The designing of a microalgae consortia that can remediate DW to achieve a zero-waste process and generate lipid/carbohydrate-rich algal biomass; 2) The green synthesis of magnetic nanocatalyst for developing a low-cost, efficient method for in-situ transesterification for wet algal biomass to produce biodiesel; 3) Development of multienzyme magnetic nanocatalyst for efficient enzymatic hydrolysis to recover fermentable sugars from algal biomass; 4) Immobilization of fermentative bacteria for fermentation of sugars into SA. The interdisciplinary AlgalBB will apply cutting edge biology tools to complete the aforesaid objectives. AlgalBB adopts a circular economy approach that directly addresses clean water, clean energy; actions established by the EU Horizon Work Programme and will support the competitiveness of European biorefineries. The acquisition of transferable skills through AlgalBB will increase my employability in industry and especially in academia, allowing me to establish myself as an independent researcher and reach a professor position within 5-10 years.

This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from/to third countries not associated to Erasmus+. Students in all study fields and cycles can take part in a study period or traineeship abroad. Higher education teaching and administrative staff can take part in professional development activities abroad, as well as staff from the field of work in order to teach and train students or staff at higher education institutions.