This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from EU Member States and third countries associated to Erasmus+ to any country in the world. 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.

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

This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from EU Member States and third countries associated to Erasmus+ to any country in the world. 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.

The implementation of the project will significantly improve the quality of undergraduate and postgraduate education as well as the professional level of the teachers of the universities involved in the project. The project goals are: a) create quality electronic teaching materials with innovative content for food study programs, b) create common modules of lectures and workshops of reputable experts on specific topics of food quality and safety, c) apply informatization and digitization in the food industry as a tool for improving the quality of education, (d) enhance the quality, integrity and efficiency of postgraduate education, (e) increase the professional potential of university teachers and their teaching and didactic skills. In addition to the applicant, three other universities are involved in the project. Project investigators have been cooperating on a long-term basis and contribute significantly to the education and training of food professionals in their countries. The profile of the project participants fully corresponds to the established project objectives. The project solves three key activities. KA1 Improving the quality of undergraduate education, KA2 Improving the quality of postgraduate education, KA3 Improving the quality of education of university teachers. The activities cover the needs of improving the quality of education and guarantee the fulfilment of project objectives. Project methodology includes elements of analysis, creativity, innovation, comparison, application and implementation of new knowledge, approaches, methods, forms and technologies. It connects students, teachers, universities, practice and countries so that the results of the project benefit each partner. The project outputs will be: a) innovated joint e-learning materials for undergraduate and postgraduate education, b) innovated joint lectures and workshops of teachers, c) innovated curricula of postgraduate education, c) joint conferences and workshops for postgraduate students, d) joint seminars, professional and scientific events for undergraduate, postgraduate students, teachers and food practitioners. The project results will be both tangible and intangible. The project outputs will be electronic publications, lectures, methodologies, methodological procedures, concepts and technologies. The obtained results will have a long-term contribution to improving quality and education in the area of food quality and safety. At the same time, the project will also set criteria for innovation of educational content in the areas: a) implementation of EU legislation, b) implementation of environmental and climate change impacts, c) implementation of innovation and food reformulation, d) implementation of information and digitalisation elements. The results of the project will allow in the next period: a) targeted development of study programs, b) extension of cooperation and its forms, c) improvement of undergraduate and postgraduate content of education d) continuous improvement of teacher training, e) continuous cooperation of partners in form of courses, workshops, seminars and conferences.

Human populations residing in coastal lowlands, such as in some parts of West Africa, are considered to be among the most vulnerable to climatic changes. There is an urgent need for place-specific research on impacts of climate change at the local scale (1) that will shed light on how climatic changes are experienced locally and how communities and households are adapting to these changes. In this context, there have been calls for the coproduction of knowledge between local communities and scientists and for research and development initiatives to empower local, marginalized groups to make their voices heard locally and globally on their experience and knowledge of climate change. Focusing on a National Park in Guinea-Bissau, we propose an exploratory study that will seek to answer the following questions: 1) what are the local impacts of climatic changes on local households? 2) What are the strategies adopted by local households and communities to cope with and adapt to the perceived climatic changes? And 3) how do local conservation policies and initiatives contribute to mitigate and/or exacerbate impacts of climate change on local livelihoods? Answering calls for the inclusion of local knowledge of climatic change in scientific research, we will explore these three questions from the point of view of the local land users. We thus propose an exploratory one-year study that will engage local farming communities in the production of knowledge on local climatic changes, by innovatively combining a Participatory Action Research method (2) – more specifically, Photovoice (3) - with ethnographic work to investigate local perceptions of climatic impacts and local coping strategies of farming communities residing within the national park. Members of the local community, as project's participants, will document impacts of climatic changes and coping strategies with photography and story telling. This project will test this participatory action research approach where it has never been adopted before, and will produce scientific data on these topics for a country where, where to our knowledge, no such study has been conducted. Both the research goals and the methodological approach are highly innovative and timely. Based on the international and multidisciplinary team’s long-term experience investigating local knowledge of natural resources and issues at the intersection of conservation policies and global environmental changes, in both west and east Africa, we intend this exploratory project to lay the basis for a broader comparative study of local adaptation to climate change in Guinea-Bissau and Kenya, to be proposed to FCT in the future. Most importantly, though, we expect that our groundbreaking approach will yield results that both advance the field of adaptation and resilience to global environmental changes in Africa while giving a voice to a marginalized group that has so far been little heard in the context of past decades’ top-down conservation and development policies (4), the local farmers. As populações das faixas costeiras em alguma partes da África Ocidental são consideradas das mais vulneráveis às mudanças climáticas globais (11, 12). É urgente investigar os impactos das mudanças climáticas à escala local (1) de forma a perceber como é que estas mudanças são localmente experenciadas e vividas e como é que as comunidades se estão a adaptar as mesmas. Neste contexto, tem-se assistido a apelos para a co-produção de conhecimento entre comunidades locais e cientistas e para iniciativas de investigação e desenvolvimento que capacitem grupos marginalizados que passem assim a fazer-se ouvir localmente e globalmente quanto aos seus conhecimentos sobre as mudanças climáticas. Focando um Parque Nacional na Guiné-Bissau, propomos um estudo exploratório que procura responder às seguintes questões: 1) quais são os impactos locais das mudanças climáticas nos agregados familiares locais? 2) Quais são as estratégias adoptadas pelos agregados familiares locais e as comunidades para lidarem e se adaptarem às mudanças climáticas percepcionadas? 3) De que maneira as políticas de conservação da biodiversidade ajudam a mitigar e/ou exacerbar os impactos das mudanças climáticas nas comunidades locais? Para responder aos pedidos de inclusão do conhecimento local sobre as mudanças climáticas em investigação científica, exploramos estas três questões do ponto de vista daqueles que usam os recursos locais. Assim, propomos um estudo exploratório de 1 ano que irá envolver as comunidades agrícolas locais na produção de conhecimento sobre as mudanças climáticas, através da combinação inovadora da técnica de investigação-acção participativa (2) – concretamente “Photovoice” (3) – e de trabalho etnográfico para investigar as percepções locais sobre os impactos climáticos e as estratégias locais para lidar com os mesmos por parte das comunidades agrícolas residentes no parque nacional. Membros das comunidades locais documentarão os impactos das alterações climaticas através da fotografias tiradas por eles e narrativas. Este projecto testará o método Photovoice onde nunca foi aplicado e produzirá dados científicos sobre o assunto das alterações para um país para o qual não existem estudos. Ambos os objectivos de pesquisa e a abordagem metodológica são altamente inovadores e actuais. Com o auxílio da equipa internacional de investigadores com longa experiência de terreno a investigar o conhecimento local dos recursos naturais, bem como temas relacionados com políticas de conservação e mudanças ambientais globais em ambas as “Áfricas” Ocidental e Oriental, pretendemos que este estudo exploratório crie as bases para um futuro estudo comparativo mais alargado sobre as adaptações locais às mudanças climáticas na Guiné-Bissau e no Quénia, a ser proximamente proposto à FCT. Acima de tudo, esperamos que a nossa abordagem traga resultados que avancem o estado da arte no campo da adaptação e resiliência às mudanças ambientais enquanto simultaneamente se dá voz a um grupo marginalizado que até agora tem sido pouco ouvido no contexto de décadas passadas de políticas de conservação e desenvolvimento implementados de “cima para baixo” (4), os agricultores que vivem no parque nacional.