From the 15th to the 25th May 2022, the AGHYLE Research Unit at UniLaSalle- Rouen, France hosted the latest meeting of the REFLOW consortium. Our hosts and organiser’s of the training school, Dr Isabelle GATTIN, Head of Unit and Dr Nadia LAURENT, Associate Professor are also the supervisors of ESR7 Ángel VELASCO SANCHEZ who also helped in the organisation .
It was an intensive meeting for all the attendees and included three areas of Training for the ESRs. Two training courses took place, on Crop Growth and Soil Health, and Socio / Techno Economic Modeling. Many presentations and talks were provided by Unilasalle personnel. Some of the presentations and training by external presenters included:
- “Context of the production of P and its formulation process ” by Isabelle WILLEMS- Senior Research Associate- PRAYON
- “Assessing the whole system GHG reduction potential due to biochar treatment of
dairy sludge” by Sven SOMMERS- Professor- Aarhus - “Simple to complex indicators of soil physical health in agriculture” by Owen FENTON- Research Officer- Teagasc
- “Understanding soil health in agri-environmental landscapes: opportunities and challenges for EU policy development” by Karen DALY- Research Officer- Teagasc
- “Investigating the benefits of soil carbon on plant production by reviewing a
range of meta-analyses” by Gabriel MOINET- Associate Professor- WU - “Developing new financial models for the circular (bio)economy/Vertical integration of value/Market activation instruments” by Jeroen BUYSSE – GHENT
- “Financial modelling/Business case development / cost benefit analysis” by Tobias DALHAUS – Assistant Professor- WU
Babacar THIOYE a Lecturer at UniLaSalle Rouen in Agroecology provided some hands on training to the ESRs in the onsite laboratories on the “Observation of plant and fungi symbiosis structures : mycorrhiza, vesicule, mycelium”. An immersion in innovation took place at the Rouen innovation centre “Village By CA” where Céline RAT- Start up Manager took the attendees through the innovation environment and practical activities related to achieving a successful business and exercises in business canvas development.
Several educational field trips also took including to Etretat learning about Normandy’s heritage, biodiversity and ecology.” Place Arboretum de Paris where Marie GANTOIS – Head of the Soil and Plant Assessment Division, Department of Green Spaces and the Environment, City of Paris gave a tour of experimental activities in the managing of green spaces in Paris to provide ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration. A trip to an operational dairy farm and processing facility at Lycée Brémontier Merval;
Other activities that took place included work towards developing an “E-learning” course, CV development, dissemination, career development and preparation and participation in a “My thesis in 180 seconds” competition.
