It is taking shape the agri-food and environmental “center”,attached to the Multi-annual Plan for research of the Autonomous Province of Trento, which has been on the table for some time.
The Mach Foundation and the University of Trento, in their respective boards of directors, have approved the framework convention which constitutes the Center for Agriculture, Food, Environment at San Michele all’Adige.
It is in the San Michele headquarter where the activities will be held (Photo Archivio FEM). The Center will be deal with both education and research; it will be a field of common work for professors and researchers that in the two partner institutions are engaged in the areas of agriculture, food, and environment. The center will allow to increase the scientific production and the joint participation to research projects, building critical mass and raising the opportunities to acquire European resources.
«With FEM we found a perfect understanding to put together our skills and energy in a stable platform» says Paolo Collini, rector of the University of Trento. «The university areas engaged -explains - will be environmental engineering, biotechnologies, and might be possible an involvement from other areas such as maths, and judicial economic». Collini goes on: «From the point of view of the education, the idea is to root the Viticulture and Enology degree on our territory, which was started with the University of Udine».
«The framework convention with the University of Trento will increase the competences thought-out in many years by the Foundation» declares the director of the Edmund Mach Foundation, Andrea Segrè. «The Center for Agriculture, Food, Environment UNITN-FEM will enrich, also in formal terms, the synergic relationship research-education: there is no positive research without good teaching, and vice-versa. All this starting with the Viticulture and Enology degree which is foreseen to be based in San Michele in the future. The existing collaborations will be retained and they will be broaden, in perspective, to the Libera Università di Bolzano and to the Centro di Sperimentazione Agraria e Forestale di Laimburg».
Viticulture and Enology: a course in stable growth
The courses of Vinologist in San Michele all’Adige started twenty years ago, first as a university diploma and then and a 3-year university degree. Since 2011 the degree course became an intra-university Degree in Viticulture and Enology, achieved in collaboration with the University of Udine.
At the moment the courses of the first year are held at the Mach Foundation, or, by the student’s choice, in Udine. The second year is mandatory in Udine, and in the third and last year can be done also in Germany at the Hochschule of Geisenheim, where the student receives the Bachelor degree in Viticulture and Enology. It is also functioning a double-degree agreement with the University of Mendoza in Argentine. In San Michele all’Adige are held the summer specialisation courses of the Summer School.
Since 2011 the enrolments at the degree courses have been in growing constantly: the first year of intra-university degree there were 40 students, last year there were 100. At the entrance-test of a couple of weeks ago there were 142 prospective students.