Intensive Study Programme

Five top universities from across Europe and two companies in the agro-food business sector are joining together to build a competitive and intensive study programme to tackle agro-food problems. The ISP serves to:

• Provide students with key knowldege and skills needed to succesfully enter the European agro-food sector;
• Improve and broaden agro-food education while increasing cooperation between firms and universities;
• Disseminate experts' knowledge regarding economic aspects of the agro-food sector issues;
• Spur a dialog among different stakeholders of the agro-food sector.

The agro-food industry plays an important role in the EU economy, generating 6% of the EU GDP and employing over 48 million people. However, there are many problems that need to be addressed to improve economic growth and competitiveness in the agro-food industry.

Problems that must be addressed are:

• Too few individuals develop sector specific qualifications at the university level.
• A gap exists between the skills that are actually required by employers and universities.
• Too little communication occurs among the relevant stakeholders.