The kick-off conference of the Baranya Alliance for Biotechnology Education (BABE) project was held at the Faculty of Food Technology in Osijek (PTFOS). The project is implemented within the framework of the Interreg VI-A Hungary–Croatia 2021–2027 Programme.
The project runs for two years with a total budget of €151,000, of which €121,000 is funded by the European Union. The project leader is PTFOS, with the Faculty of Pharmacy in Pécs as its partner.
“The aim of the project is to develop two short training programs: one in the field of food biotechnology, developed by the Faculty of Food Technology in Osijek, as its primary focus is food technology education—although in recent years we have increasingly opened towards food and environmental biotechnology as well. The program related to pharmaceutical biotechnology will be developed by colleagues at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Pécs. These two short training programs will apply a micro-credential-based methodology, and in addition, we will create a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), an online course that will be available on our faculty’s website and will focus on general biotechnology,” said Prof. Dr. Natalija Velić.
The programs developed by experts from the two faculties are intended for students—both those currently enrolled in higher education and recent graduates who work in sectors different from their original training. In the case of PTFOS students, this means the pharmaceutical industry, while for students of the Faculty of Pharmacy in Pécs, it refers to the food industry.
“We observed that both groups have knowledge gaps, as one group specializes primarily in food technology and the other in pharmaceutical technology, yet they often work in the opposite sector—our students in the pharmaceutical industry, and Hungarian students in the food industry. Therefore, together with our industry partners, we decided to create two short training programs. Our partners will provide feedback on what additional knowledge would be useful for our students. After that, we will mutually share the programs: we will offer food biotechnology to our Hungarian colleagues, while they will provide us with pharmaceutical biotechnology,” said Prof. Velić I. Alilović.
Source: glas-slavonije.hr/osijek
The official website of the project: ptfos.unios.hr/InterregBABE