To: Professor Peter Strohsneider
Chair of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture
ASSOCIATION FOR EUROPEAN LIFE SCIENCE UNIVERSITIES – ICA
COMMITTED TO TAKE THE STRATEGIC DIALOGUE ON THE FUTURE OF EU AGRICULTURE FURTHER
The Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, launched in January of 2024 by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, approaches its conclusions. All politicians, policy makers, the farmer’s community, and the general public look forward to the outcomes and their conversion into policy and other actions.
Also, the European life science universities and faculties, cooperating in the European Association ICA, are keen to know about the Dialogue’s outcome and are very committed to taking them further in research, education, and policy support. Indeed, the mission of Life Science Universities is to improve the fundamental understanding of the components of the agri-food system and forest product supply chains, their interrelationships, including those with climate and biodiversity, their trends and dynamics, and their functional significance for the sustainability of the global and local societies.
Life Science universities:
- Combine solution-oriented research on components of the agri-food system and forest product supply chains with a quest for nature-based solutions, contributing to the health of people and animals, to the conservation, restoration, and enhancement of biodiversity along with climate neutrality and sustainable food production in a circular bioeconomy;
- Offer to their students – the professionals and decision-makers of the future – interdisciplinary education so that they can internalise all available understanding of the need, means, and paths for society to achieve self-sufficiency in healthy agricultural and forest products, stabilise the climate and restore biodiversity in all types of terrestrial and marine ecosystems;
- Protect and enhance the environmental health and biodiversity of their life science university grounds, campuses, and other estates, for them to become enlightening examples and teaching tools for sustainable production, One health, climate neutrality, biodiversity, and nature-based solutions;
- Share their understanding and solutions with policymakers and society, and enhance active collaboration with economic and societal sectors and actors in regions across Europe. They engage with the marine, agri-food, forestry, and biobased industries to stimulate and implement concrete behavioural and institutional changes to advance the transition to food-secure, healthy, biodiverse, and climate-neutral societies.
A first illustration of ICA’s and ICA-members’ commitment to a sustainable future of agriculture and forestry throughout Europe is the devotion of the 14th ICA Rectors and Deans Forum to the discussion of the implication for Life Science Universities of the process and outcome of the ‘Strategic dialogue for the future of EU agriculture’ to be held on 24 and 25 October at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Croatia.
The Association for European Life Science Universities is available for scientific reflection and action regarding the Dialogue’s intermediate and outcomes, now and in the future.
List of ICA universities
AL Agricultural University of Tirana
AT University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
BE Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liege
BE Ghent University
BE KU Leuven
BE UC Louvain
BE University College PXL
CH Bern University of Applied Sciences
CZ Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
CZ Mendel University in Brno
DE Geisenheim University
DE University of Hohenheim
DK Aarhus University
EE Estonian University of Life Sciences
FI University of Eastern Finland
FI University of Helsinki
FR AgroParisTech
FR FranceAgro3
FR French Agricultural, Veterinary and Forestry Institute (AGREENIUM)
FR Institut Polytechnique UniLaSalle
FR Institut Agro
FR University of Reims Champagne Adrenne
HR Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Agriculture
HR University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture
HU Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences
IE University College Dublin
IS Agricultural University of Iceland
IT Catholic University of the Sacred Heart
IT Free University of Bozen - Bolzano
IT University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
KZ Kazakh National Agrarian Research University
LT Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy
LV Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies
NL Avans University of Applied Sciences
NL Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences
NL Wageningen University and Research Centre
NO Norwegian University of Life Sciences
PL University of Agriculture in Krakow
PL Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW
PL Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences
PT University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro
RO University of Life Sciences ‘’King Michael I’’ from Timișoara
RO University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca
RO University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine - Bucharest
SE Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
SI University of Ljubljana
SK Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra
UA Dmytro Motornyi Tavria State Agrotechnological University
UA National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine
UK University of Reading
August 2024