New Consortium Member UNITUS Joins Agricultural Competences Project (AGRICOM)

March 4, 2013 - PRLog -- The AGRICOM consortium has announced that the University of Tuscia (UNITUS) based in Viterbo, Italy has joined the AGRICOM consortium. The university will be represented by Guiseppe Colla from the Department of Science and Technology for Agriculture, Forestry, Nature, and Energy (DAFNE). Their experience with Italian agriculture and food production, as well as forestry and energy efforts, will prove invaluable to the AGRICOM consortium, as UNITUS will coordinate the Italian portion of AGRICOM pilot-testing phase. The evaluation, validation, and optimization of the AGRICOM Competence Model (ACM) in the Italian national context thus falls under their responsibilities within the consortium. Their efforts will complement the on-going pilot-testing in the other national contexts in the AGRICOM consortium, namely Germany, Greece, and the Netherlands. Together their results will serve to support AGRICOM’s general European utility through demonstrating a variety of national implementations and applications.

“We are thrilled to welcome UNITUS as a new member of the AGRICOM Consortium,” says Prof. (KR) Christian M. Stracke, coordinator of the AGRICOM project from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and international ISO Convener for learning quality. “Their participation greatly strengthens our efforts, especially regarding the future viability of the ACM for Europe as a whole. We look forward to working with UNITUS and benefitting from their experience in the Italian agricultural sector.”

The full first version of the ACM was developed by the end of the first project year and is now undergoing extensive testing in the AGRICOM partner countries. This testing is complemented by both a continuous dialogue with CEN and ISO standardisation committees as well as an on-going and open discussion in the AGRICOM online community at http://voa3r.cc.uah.es/index.php/groups/viewgroup/25-AGRICOM, supporting the ACM’s conformance to established European and international quality standards as well as its influence in the future design of said standards. To learn about the newest updates regarding the AGRICOM project, please visit the project website at www.agriculture-competence.eu/, like the AGRICOM Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Agricom-Project/285137711540920 and follow the AGRICOM Twitter account at https://twitter.com/AGRICOM_Project.