A fruitful combination – GoodBerry Progress Meeting & Berry School held in Málaga

From 21-22 March 2017, the GoodBerry consortium came together for its first progress meeting, which was linked to the one week’s programme of the first Berry School. Both events were hosted and organised by the coordinating institution Universidad de Málaga (UMA) and Instituto de Investigación y Formación Agraria y Pesquera (IFAPA) on the premises of UMA in Málaga, Spain.

The project meeting was arranged as a two days event with two morning sessions on 21 and 22 March that were complemented by two afternoon sessions of the Berry School. The Berry School continued on 23 March and closed with a technical field trip to Huelva on 24 March 2017.

All participants of the GoodBerry project meeting were committed to share what has been achieved during the first year of the project and to structure the tasks ahead. The meeting agenda gave each partner the opportunity to address the progress and challenges within the different work packages of the project including updates and outlooks on research, dissemination and management activities.

Prof. Yves Desjardins from the Université Laval in Québec, Canada attended the progress meeting as scientific advisor and shared his valuable insights and expertise on berry research. Prof. Desjardins remarked the outstanding quality of the science and diverse set of expertise demonstrated by the GoodBerry partners.

1st Berry School in the frame of GoodBerry and in line with the projects’ objectives

The first Berry School did not only address early-stage researchers involved in berry research, but also technicians and experts from the berry production sectors so that young scientists as well as berry breeders followed the call for application. 30 participants from several countries, such as Chile, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Spain & United Kingdom, attended the training school.

The overall topic of the training school focused on Plant genetics and physiology and fruit quality control. 15 speakers of the GoodBerry consortium and the scientific advisor Prof. Desjardins contributed with their expertise & insights into research activities to six multidisciplinary sessions on:

  • Improved tools for phenotyping and breeding berries
  • Cultivation techniques for yield stability and season extension
  • Development of molecular markers for MAS
  • Production of high quality berry fruit
  • High quality production systems
  • Reducing environmental impact

On the last day of the Berry School, participants had the chance to meet with representatives of experimental farm “El Cebollar” in Moguer and to visit a local grower’s cooperative during a technical field trip to Huelva, the main area of strawberry production in Spain.

To continue this fruitful combination of events, the next GoodBerry Progress Meeting & Berry School will take place in March 2018 in Bordeaux, France.

Find more impressions from the 1st GoodBerry Progress Meeting & Berry School in our Media Center.