SUA in Nitra as EIT Food Country Representative Slovakia
Explore key information about EIT Food, EIT, the role of the Country Representative, and the university background of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra.
Explore the official background of EIT Food, EIT and the Country Representative role
About EIT Food
EIT Food is growing Europe’s food innovation ecosystem to build a healthy, sustainable and resilient food system. We empower innovators and entrepreneurs, invest in ideas and talent, and we create
space for science, research, industry, and policymakers to accelerate systemic change across the food sector.
Supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, EIT Food has been at the forefront of food system innovation in Europe since 2016.
About EIT
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is an EU body and an integral part of Horizon Europe, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The Institute supports dynamic pan-European partnerships, EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities, among leading companies, research labs and universities. Currently ten EIT Knowledge & Innovation Communities are supported: Climate KIC (formerly EIT Climate-KIC), 28DIGITAL (formerly EIT Digital), InnoEnergy (formerly EIT InnoEnergy), EIT Health, EIT RawMaterials, EIT Food, EIT Manufacturing, EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Culture & Creativity and EIT Water. Together with its leading partners, the EIT Community offers a wide range of innovation and entrepreneurship activities across Europe: entrepreneurial education courses, business creation and acceleration services and innovation driven research projects.
About EIT Food Country Representatives
EIT Food Country Representatives are members of the EIT Community Hubs in their respective countries. They are independent organisations appointed to connect national agrifood ecosystems in Southern and Eastern Europe with EIT Food’s ecosystem, activities, and opportunities. A central part of their role is to build strong pipelines of agrifood startups for EIT Food’s entrepreneurship programmes by scouting promising ventures, engaging incubators and accelerators, and providing handson support during application processes.
They also attract learners to EIT Food’s education initiatives, including the EIT Food Master in Food Systems and the EU Skills Academies in Biotechnology and Resilient Agriculture. In addition, EIT Food Country Representatives help strengthen national innovation networks by facilitating collaboration, sharing information about relevant opportunities, and delivering activities that build innovation and entrepreneurship capacity within the agrifood sector.
This appointment is part of the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (EIT RIS), one of EIT’s key measures to broaden participation in the EIT Community and address regional disparities in innovation capacity.
Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra
Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra (SUA) is the only agricultural university in Slovak Republic and it is consistently rated in the top group for the high quality of its teaching and research in the Slovak Republic. One of the main research focuses of the university is the food sector.
Local production
The food sector in Slovakia has recently been developing very dynamically, especially from the point of view of local production and from the point of view of consumers’ behaviour.
Modernisation
The recent restructurisation of the industry involved modernisation of the production process with a result of higher productivity of labour market, better internationalisation of the production and higher quality and hygieny of food products.
Competitiveness
These facts caused the acceleration of the competitiveness of the Slovak food industry.
education – research – development
The Slovak University of Agriculture playes an important role in this process. With its national scope, the university brings the education, research and development and the transfer into practise together. The relevant internal infrastructure of the university prioritly includes the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences (FBFS) and the AgroBioTech Research Center (ABT RC) with Transfer Centre (TC) as integral parts of the university. These university parts create the three edges of the knowledge triangle: education – research – development with an added value of transfer of the research results into the practise, being represented by the Transfer Centre. At SUA there are 2 top scientific teams approved by the Accreditation Commission of the Government of the Slovak Republic: CeRA and ProPhyCrop.
education
Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences (FBFS)
research
AgroBioTech Research Center (ABT RC)
development
Transfer Centre (TC)
National Platform AgroBioFood Nitra
expert partner for R&D in the field of foodstuffs and biotechnology.
The position of the university from the point of view of external relations is quite unique in Slovakia. The university created National Platform AgroBioFood Nitra supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, recognizing it as an expert partner for R&D in the field of foodstuffs and biotechnology.
Applied Research on Sustainable and Innovative Food
Significant at national level is the involvement of SUA in the long-term strategic research “Applied Research on Sustainable and Innovative Food”, which is in line with the Food Industry Development Concept for 2014-2020. The objectives and measures are aimed at increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of the Slovak food industry in the European and world market. The project consortium also plans to make active use of the Rural Development Programme (2014-2020), which offers opportunities for expanding cooperation with practice through operational groups under the The agricultural European Innovation Partnership (EIP-AGRI). The macro-regional dimension of the project contributes to the European Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), in particular to the priority areas 7 (Knowledge Society) and 8 (Competitiveness of Enterprises). The thematic follow on the (i) completed FP7 project NoGAP by strengthening the commercialization of research results and innovative support services to strengthen existing and establish new strategic partnerships, promote networking between EU countries and so- The Eastern Partnership, as well as the ongoing (ii) ongoing Interreg Made in Danube project, which focuses on the use of the Danube Transfer Centers Network to support the development of innovative products, services and processes in the field of bio-economy through international cooperation and to strengthen the internationalization of small and medium- enterprises in the Danube region.
European and international initiatives and programmes
FNH-RI
SUA, together with the members of the Platform, is actively involved in European and international initiatives and programmes within the European Research Infrastructure for Food, Nutrition and Health (FNH-RI). The platform is already participating in the preparation of the PROSPECT FNH-RI proposal for a detailed Roadmap and participates in supporting European activities for FNH-RI, RICHFIELDS, FOODforce, SAFE consortium and others.
Food2030 agenda
FNH-RI will participate in the Food2030 agenda to facilitate support for healthy food and farming policies, contribute to national research budgets, stimulate collaboration between research and businesses, and contribute to knowledge and innovation in food and agriculture. In addition, focusing activities are in line with other international strategy papers, WHO (Food and Nutrition Action Plan for 2017-2025), the JRC (Delivering on EU Food Safety and Nutrition in 2050) and the EU (Soil strategy and soil protection policy). An important milestone will be the involvement in the Consortium of the European Knowledge and Innovation Community for the Food Ecosystem (EIT Food). SUA is a member of the excellent ERA (European Research Area) and the following international organizations: Visegrad University Association.