Higher education institutions (HEI’s)

University of Tuscia

The University of Tuscia is located in Viterbo, with campuses in and around its historical centre. Viterbo is the northernmost province of Lazio, in the heart of Italy, located less than 100 km from Rome and just over 200 km from Florence. Viterbo lies at the foot of the Cimini Mountains, close to lakes Bolsena and Vico, and just a short distance from the Tyrrhenian Sea. Viterbo’s typical medieval character stands proudly alongside modern facilities and services. The University of Tuscia was founded in 1979 and quickly developed into what it is today: the hub of culture and learning in the province, offering courses suited to the requirements of local, national and international students.The synergy between our University and the local institutions has allowed four university campuses to develop. Three campuses are located in the historical city centre. They are the result of remarkable restoration projects on the Church of San Carlo, the Church of Santa Maria del Paradiso, and the Dominican Convent of Santa Maria in Gradi, housing the University administrative offices. Two more campuses are located in Rieti (RI) and Civitavecchia (RM). The educational activities are managed by six Departments offering 15 undergraduate programmes, 17 second level degree programmes and 2 single cycle degree programmes. Our degree programmes are tailored to meet the demands of the European and international job markets. Our university offers seven PhD programmes and several first and second level degree courses, as well as one school of specialization. The University of Tuscia has become an important cultural and educational partner of the Italian Armed Forces with a course that is mainly tailored to the training of students from the NCO Schools of the Italian Army and Air Force. The University plays an important role in helping students to choose their programme of study by organising a series of meetings and joint activities with secondary schools.

DIBAF Department for INNOVATION IN BIOLOGICAL, AGRI-FOOD AND FORESTRY SYSTEMS

The DIBAF Department is a multidisciplinary research and teaching unit aimed at scientific and technological innovation. The Department works on the processes of enhancement, the safeguarding and management of biological systems and forestry resources, food processing and safety, human health and chemistry for the environment and the local territory. The local territory is also taken into consideration for its knowledge values and for the importance of the management and restoration of its cultural heritage and landscape.

Responsible persons at UNITUS

Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia

Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) is an international university, dynamically developing research and educational center.

The University was founded on 5th February, 1960 by the USSR Government. On 22nd February, 1961, the RUDN University was named after Patrice Lumumba — one of the symbols of the African peoples’ fight for independence. On February 5, 1992, by the decision of the Government of Russia, the University was renamed to Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia.

For its 59-year history, the RUDN University has gained worldwide fame and won a well-deserved reputation as a classical university, which for many years occupies the highest places among the best Russian universities and is rapidly rising in international rankings.

RUDN University is the leader among the Russian higher education institutions in the percentage of international students in international rankings. It proves the Mission of the RUDN University that sounds “Uniting people of different cultures by knowledge RUDN University creates leaders to make the World better”.

Today RUDN University unites more than 31,500 students from 157 countries. The highly qualified experts in various professional fields are prepared on 6 Faculties, 10 Institutions and 1 Academy. There are 472 higher education programs, 155 of them are joint educational programs with TOP QS-500 world universities, and more than 2,100 continuing education programs. From 2016 RUDN University are opened 165 laboratories and 37 scientific and educational centers in interdisciplinary fields of study.

The international strategy of the RUDN University includes the creation of regional clusters, open Olympiads and Subject-Oriented Classes Abroad. A Regional Cluster is scientific and educational and sociocultural practices realized by RUDN University jointly with its international partners: governments, ministries, universities, employers, alumni.

RUDN University offers any specialization e.g. technical, scientific, medical, economic, humanitarian one. In RUDN University an ambitious student has an opportunity to become a theoretically and practically advanced specialist.

Agrarian-Technological Institute of RUDN University

The Agrarian and Technological Institute (ATI) was established in 2015 after reorganizing the Agrarian Faculty founded as the Agricultural Department of the RUDN University in 1961.

ATI RUDN University is the “Institute of Life”, since its graduates are engaged in production, processing and certification of crop and livestock products, and these is the basis for life. The Institute provides training in 25 educational programs, including 5 programs in English. Specialists for the agro-industrial complex; agroholdings; processing and expert productions related to the quality of food products; various managerial, expert, production structures; international agribusiness are trained here. ATI RUDN University has 5 joint master’s programs in partnership with leading world universities.

Department of Landscape Design and Sustainable Ecosystems

The Department conducts training in the field of Landscape Architecture (Bachelor’s, Master’s degree programs) in Russian and English. Future landscape architects are practicing in the best parks in Russia: the Sochi National Park, the Nikitsky Botanical Garden (Yalta), the parks of St. Petersburg and its environs; they are sharpening their skills at the Ulyanovsk State Farm (Moscow). The department has landscape architecture and design workshop of its own.

Students can study in a joint Master’s  degree program under a double degree program together with the University of Tuscia (Italy), take internships abroad: in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the US and other countries.

The scientific areas include: environmental and socio-economic factors for the development of sustainable urban agriculture (urban farming); urban heat island effect, modeling and analysis of the sustainability of the urban environment for various climate scenarios; greenhouse gas flows, their measurement and evaluation; specialized geographic information systems and automated complexes for decision making support in the field of urban planning and improvement of public services; technologies for quality control of green spaces based on high-frequency monitoring methods; technologies for the creation, control and certification of environmentally sustainable soil for landscaping of urban ecosystems.

Voronezh State University

Voronezh State University (VSU) is one of the largest and oldest scientific and educational centers of Russia. It was founded in 1918. The structure of VSU academic departments includes 18 faculties, 5 research institutes, 14 joint laboratories with the Russian Academy of Sciences. About 21,000 students, including 1,000 foreign students, study at VSU. International students are taught and guided by the Institute of International Education. At present VSU is actively modernizing its academic models in line with the principles of the Bologna process. The university extensively uses teaching quality management and student academic progress monitoring. Innovative teaching technologies are widely applied at VSU. Long-term educational and scientific international cooperation is based upon direct agreements with 140 universities and research institutes of the world. It has participated in several projects of European programs including 11 TEMPUS projects since 1994, Erasmus Mundus project and 20 Erasmus+ projects.

One of the priority directions of VSU works on is strengthening ties between higher education and economic environment. VSU is actively working for strengthening cooperation with companies, specializing in forestry, agroecology, environmental management and engineering of food security:

·        employees of these enterprises are undergoing refresher courses in the field of environmental security on the VSU base.

·        bachelors, masters and post-graduate students of VSU attend educational and practical trainings at these enterprises, thereby combining study and work.

·        heads of environmental agencies and employees of enterprises, conservancy area and botanical gardens are involved in the educational process in the field of ecology.

VSU has for educational purposes already widely used the electronic distance learning platform, which also allows in the framework of this project to work closely with representatives of the companies online.

All of the above will allow VSU to be an active performer of all work packages and to take an active and direct participation in the project implementation.

Responsible persons at VSU

Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy

Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy (RSAU) is the leading agricultural university in Russia, and the official RF and NIS methodological centre in the field of agricultural education (for 54RF and 95 NIS agricultural universities). RSAU was established in 1865 and now has more than 4,000 employees and around 20,000 students. Its’Ecology Department was created in 1990,and now includes 28 professors and teachers, alongside 13 PhD-, 39 Master- and 182 Bachelor students working in the field of ecology and agroecology. The department has the RF leading scientific school in agroecological monitoring. In 2011, a laboratory of agroecological monitoring, ecosystem modeling and prediction was developed (by RF Government grant), with a particular focus on land management and environmental impact assessment. Current research activity covers the representative native, agro- and urban-ecosystems from taiga to steppe zones, with different human impacts and land management. It also addresses the DSS on farming agroecological optimizing. The methodological basis has been developed in the frame of 11 grants by the RF Ministries of Agriculture, Education and Science and by the Russian Foundation of Basic Researches. During the last 20 years RSAU participated in more than 10 Tempus projects, including TEMPUS-JEP 10323-1997 “Upgrading Ecological Education in MTAA”, TACIS 9702 “Strengthening Agricultural Reforms through Education”, TEMPUS-JEP 24160-2004 project “Integration of Quality Assurance System in Russia into Bologna Process – IQAR”, TEMPUS-JEP 26168-2005 “Developing EcoEngineering IT-based MS Program – DEEP”, TEMPUS-SHMES 530397-2012“Strengthening the Lifelong Learning in Environmental Sciences in Russia – STREAM”. Since 2010 RSAU-MTAA organizes annual Moscow international summer environmental school (MOSES). In May 2015 the VII Congress of European Society for Soil Conservation has been organized on the RSAU-MTAA basis. In December 2016 – the World Soil Day in Russia.

RSAU aims to create new information-methodical, lab and field monitoring capacities for graduate, internship and LLL students from partner countries/universities with special attention on practical skills in environmental monitoring, modeling and impact assessment in conditions of residential, recreational, industrial, infrastructural and agricultural functional zones in Moscow megalopolises. It is one of the key elements of development in the frame of the TAURUS network of universities, public and private companies, environmental bodies and professional societies to strengthen international collaboration in green technologies for urban and suburban sustainable development with especial attention on urban forests and green infrastructure design, management and environmental control, based on RSAU campus capabilities, it’s laboratory of agroecological monitoring, ecosystem modeling and prediction experimental sites and monitoring stations, actively developing manuals for practical trainings.

Responsible persons at RSAU

Nanjing Forestry University

Nanjing Forestry University (NFU), located in the east of Nanjing, at the foot of Purple Mountain and east of Xuanwu Lake, is a comprehensive university administered directly by Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education. Its origin can be traced back to 1902, when it was founded as Sanjiang Normal College. Then, it evolved as: Forest Departments of Jinling University (founded in 1888) and Central University (in 1902). During the nationwide restructuring of institutions of higher learning in 1952, the university was called Nanjing Forestry College combined with different forest departments from Wuhan University, Nanchang University and Hubei Agricultural College. NFU was also named Nanjing Technological College of Forest Products in 1972. Again in 1983 NFU resumed its name as Nanjing Forestry College. 1985 witnessed the founding of Nanjing Forestry University.

At present, NFU has 60 Departments in 22 Colleges of Forest Resources and Environment, Wood Science and Technology，Chemical Engineering, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Economics and Management, Humanities and Social Sciences, Information Science and Technology, Landscape Architecture, Science, Foreign Languages, Art Design, Furniture and Industrial Design, Light Industry Science and Engineering, Automobile and Transportation Engineering, Graduate School, Applied Technology, Continuing Education, International Education,  Division of Political Education, one Physical Education Department and Nanfang College.

NFU has been authorized to confer master and doctoral degrees in addition to conferring bachelor degrees. NFU offers 59 undergraduate programs, 90 master degree programs, 23 professional master degree programs, 36 doctorate programs. The discipline of Forestry, as a first-class discipline which can confer the doctoral degree, is also authorized to confer a professional master degree in Agricultural Extension. The discipline of Forestry Engineering, as a first-class discipline which can confer the doctoral degree, is also authorized to confer a master degree in engineering. NFU currently possesses 5 Current Centers for Postdoctoral Researchers with 3 first-class disciplines. There are 6 national key disciplines of Ecology, Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Wood Science and Technology, Chemical Processing Engineering of Forest Products, Forest Protection and Forest Engineering together with another 11 ministerial and provincial key disciplines.

The total number of students is more than 30000, among whom are 4000 master, doctoral and foreign students. In nearly 60 years, NFU has fostered 90,000 graduates and postgraduates as well as foreign students, most of whom have now become the backbones of the forestry development of China.

NFU takes an active role in developing academic exchanges and has established intercollegiate ties for academic exchange and cooperation with 50 universities and research institutions from 20 countries and areas worldwide. More and more foreign students are coming to our university to study as language learners, undergraduate, master students and doctoral students. Right now, some special international cooperation programs have been launched with Mississippi States University, Alabama A&M University, North Carolina State University, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, etc.

Today, depending on rich regional economic advantages and excellent human and natural resources, NFU is further deepening its own educational reform and quickening its development while exploring the effective ways to provide the services for economic construction and social development, endeavoring to build itself into an outstanding university both at home and abroad integrating science, engineering, agriculture, liberal arts, management, economics, philosophy and law, with a special emphasis on ecological environment construction and management, development and utilization of biological resources.

Responsible persons at NFU

Yuanchun Yu

PhD, Professor，Director of contaminated soil emediation and Environmental Protection Research Institute

Email:ycyu@njfu.edu.cn;122418810@qq.com. Phone:+86 13951010679

Honghua Ruan

PhD, Professor, Dean of Biological and Environmental College

Zhu Jiangang

PhD, Dean of International Education College

Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University

Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU) grew out of the Agriculture Department of Concord College, founded in 1936, and the Provincial Agricultural Institute which was founded in 1940. FAFU is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, State Forestry Administration, and Fujian Provincial Government.

FAFU currently ranks second among the country’s provincial agricultural and forestry universities. FAFU now has over 2300 faculty and staff members. With over 320 hectares of land, FAFU now boasts 4 beautiful campuses in northern, central, and southern Fujian. It also owns some 79 hectares of general practice teaching bases and 3060 hectares of teaching forestry farms. With its comfortable environment and picturesque scenery, FAFU has been known as one of the “most beautiful universities in China”.

FAFU owns 75 provincial and national innovative platforms. The university also ranks first in Fujian in receiving national research funding and second in receiving provincial or ministerial grants. With this support, FAFU has been leading the country in researches in sugarcane, bee, fiber crops, bio-pesticide, and cedar wood. FAFU is the birthplace of international JUNCAO technology. Altogether some 672 research findings have received provincial or national scientific and technological awards, 28 of which are entitled to China’s top three research awards. With its national research center for rural development, FAFU assists 73 counties in Fujian and over 370 counties of 32 provinces/cities across China in their development. Its JUNCAO technology has been promoted in over 80 countries, and 85 percent of China’s sugarcane cultivation uses varieties developed by FAFU.

In recent years FAFU has stepped up its efforts in becoming an internationally recognized institution of higher education. It is entitled to the Chinese Government Scholarship Program and has established the world’s second Confucius Institute featuring agriculture in Durban, South Africa. The university has built friendships with over 50 research institutes in more than 20 countries and regions. FAFU, so far, has set up 160 national experimental or training programs to improve students innovative abilities.

FAFU, located in Fujian province, is the only agro-forestry comprehensive university in southern China and plays an irreplaceable role in the development of regional economic society.

Fujian has been in the forefront of China in the ecological civilization and urban sustainable development. FAFU made significant contribution on providing intellectual and technology support. The considerable practice in the ecological civilization and urban sustainable development makes FAFU have a solid foundation for the implementation of TAURUS.

FAFU widely cooperated with oversea universities in the field of Environmental Science, Urban Ecology and Urban Forestry etc, which has greatly improved the FAFUs ability on the international cooperation and program implementation.

FAFU can play an important role during the implementation of the project through providing practical base and teaching cases, training related personnel and integrating the existing international intellectual resources.

Responsible persons at FAFU

Wageningen University and Research

Wageningen University (WU) was founded in 1918 as the Landbouwhogeschool, becoming the Wageningen Agricultural University (WAU) in 1986. In recent decades, it has evolved into one of the world’s leading universities in the fields of life sciences and environmental sciences. In the late 1990s, WAU was renamed as Wageningen University and became a part of Wageningen University and Research (WUR). Wageningen UR consists of Wageningen University and several research institutes. WU has around 10,000 BSc. and MSc. students and more than 1,900 PhD students. In 2016 students ranked Wageningen as the best university in the Reference Guide for Higher Education in the Netherlands for the twelfth year in a row. The top quality of research at Wageningen University is crowned with the university’s position within the top 6 of the important citation indexes of its domain. This combination of knowledge and experience enables WUR to contribute actively to solving scientific, social and commercial problems in the fields of life sciences, environmental sciences and natural resources.

The Department of Environmental Sciences is one of the five Departments of Wageningen University. The Department of Environmental Sciences covers and co-ordinates the activities of 17 chairs and their accompanying research groups which form the foundation of the scientific education and research activities at university level. The chairs of the Department of Environmental Sciences and their research groups focus on a broad range of environmental issues such as atmosphere, environment, geo-information systems, landscape and land use planning, nature and forestry, soil and water. The chair groups of Environmental Sciences contribute, by their very nature, in curricula in the field of the environmental sciences, where the focus is on the physical space (land, water, atmosphere, nature and landscape) and on the relationships between man and his surroundings, and in the field of the Masters programs Biology, Plants and Animals (biology).

Responsible persons at WUR

University of Goettingen

IN PUBLICA COMMODA – FOR THE GOOD OF ALL reads the inscription on the Foundation Medal of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (UNIGOE). Established in the age of the Enlightenment (1737) and committed to its critical spirit, the “Georgia Augusta” was one of Europe’s first universities to abandon the supremacy of theology and achieve equality for all faculties. Emphasis on basic research and orientation towards source criticism and experimentation proved to be decisive preconditions for the development of the modern humanities and natural sciences, a development strongly influenced by the Georgia Augusta.

The history of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen has to this day been characterised by scholarly pragmatism and a sense of reality as well as keen awareness for science’s societal responsibility. This tradition embraces the contributions of the “Göttinger Sieben” (1837) and those of Max Born, Otto Hahn, Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, who initiated the “Göttinger Erklärung” (1957) calling for the abandonment of nuclear weapons of every description. It is in this tradition that the Georgia Augusta today defines itself and its mission. Remembering the darkest chapter of its history during the period of National Socialism, the University is committed to utilising its strengths in shaping a humane, tolerant and peaceful world. (Reference: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/43883.html [19.07.2019])

The Department of Crop Science and the division of Biogeochemistry of Agroecosystems

The Department of Crop Sciences was established in 2006. The aim was to co-ordinate and to develop research and teaching in the field of crop sciences including agro-ecology, agricultural engineering, land use and biotechnology. (Reference: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/40478.html [19.07.2019])

The target of the division of Biogeochemistry of Agroecosystems is the quantification of element fluxes at the interface soil-plant-microorganism and the identification of their controlling factors. We focus on multidirectional carbon, nutrient and water fluxes from the ecosystem scale down to the metabolic fluxes in individual groups of the microbial community. The scale-briding approach of our division can be summarized as FLUXOMICS. (Reference: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/563921.html [19.07.2019])

Responsible persons at UNIGOE

TAURUS at the university of Goettingen is steered by the Dept. Biogeochemistry of Agroecosystems (http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/563921.html) with its responsible personel: Prof. Dr. Michaela Dippold, Dr. Callum Banfield, Andreas Breidenbach and Dr. Moritz Köster

Activities

New Short Intensive Course “Remediation of polluted sites “ at UNITUS

New Short Intensive Course “Urban forests and air quality” at UNITUS

all Activities