ICFMH training School Date marking from laboratory to industrial applications

ICFMH  training School

"Date marking from laboratory to industrial applications"

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece) 

June 30-July 2, 2025

Description

The International Committee of Food Microbiology and Hygiene (ICFMH) in collaboration with the laboratory of Food Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Athens, Greece) and the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (Spain) are organizing a 3 days-long training school on “Date marking from laboratory to industrial applications”.  The training school will bring together teaching and industrial staff currently working on different aspects of modelling for simulation and optimisation of the quality, safety of food products with special focus on date marking. The theoretical lectures will cover all the fundamentals and basic principles of predictive modelling and introduction to EFSA Scientific opinion on date marking, and the ISO/TC 34/SC 9/WG 19 Guidelines for conducting challenge tests. The practical activities will include the use of pedagogical tools for Project-Based Learning (PBL) in which trainees (PhD students, MSc students or/and post-doc researchers) will work in groups to solve realistic multifaceted problems with the use of computer programming software. 

Output

The main learning outcomes of this training school will be the understanding of the substantial body of applied modelling, statistics, and its recent developments in relation to date marking and challenge tests. Furthermore, the principle concepts in the theory and practice of empirical and theoretical modelling for quantifying responses in food environments will be identified and applied. The students are expected to learn about existing available software packages and modelling practices. Students will learn from the transversal competences of the participating teachers to develop autonomous initiatives in problem-based studies of complex food systems and learn to criticize the broader implication of Predictive Modelling. All these activities are expected to enrich their current studies in the field and further support communication of results and innovations of research to peers. 

Application procedure and deadline

If you are interested in applying for this Training School, please fill out this form. Priority will be given to motivated PhD students, post-doc researchers, MSc students (with this priority) working on relevant research topics. There is space for only 25 researchers (20 international + 5 local).

Deadline for application:  12^th  April 2025

Successful applicants will be informed by 28^th April 2025

Training School Program

Practical information

The Training School will take place at the Athens University History Museum of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Participants will need to bring their own laptops as some (freeware) software will be used for the hands-on activities. For further information, please do not hesitate to contact: Vasilis Valdramidis (valdram@uoa.gr) and Stella Roufou (styliani.roufou@um.edu.mt) (local organising committee).

Financial support to trainees

The course is free of charge. Participants will need to cover their travel and accommodation expenses. Light lunch and coffee breaks will be offered to all participants during the days of the school. 5 scholarships will be given to participants from developing countries to cover travel (flights to be booked by ICFMH), visa (to be arranged by individuals and refunded by ICFMH) and daily allowance of max 199 Euros (to cover accommodation (that will be booked by ICFMH) and subsistence).