The general objective was to use the potential of Europe’s human and social capital originating from higher education’s institutes and the meat industry, in order to exchange and transfer knowledge and know-how in meat science and technology education, by the creation and development of a network that will provide opportunities for cooperation among stakeholders, in order to foster employability and socio-educational and personal development, as well as participation in civic and social life. As specific objectives, we planned: - To analyse the situation or the Meat Science and Technology studies in the curricula of Food Sci./Food Sci. and Technology of the universities around Europe, with special reference to the countries participating. - To produce innovative digital education material, focused on Products, Processes, Quality, Safety, Environment/Sustainability & Entrepreneurship of the Meat Sector - To use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and design of a free, online Learning Management system (Moodle) - To share knowledge, competences and skills among the partners and connection with the meat industry.
In previous projects funded by the Erasmus+ Programme and leaded by the University of Thessaly (Greece), a number of consortia had been formed by several higher education institutions in some EU countries. This encouraged us to look for other partners and apply for the present project. After the success of previous projects, we realized that a new one focused on the development of innovative, digital training material for students and professionals of the meat sector could be of interest. Meat production and processing are some of the most important and complex components of the food system and is undergoing recent technological changes. The European Union (EU) is engaged in processes for digital transformation that demand actions to create comprehensive and up-to-date digitised educational material regarding the formal and continuing education in different fields, such as food/meat science and technology among others. There seem to be a lack of comprehensive and accessible online learning material elaborated by higher educational teams in the topic of Meat Science and Technology.