December 12, 2019 - Initial activities on the Food4Health project were presented yesterday at the University of Montenegro, organized by the Institute of Marine Biology and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Montenegro.
Food4Health is an acronym for the IPA Funds Cross-Border Cooperation Project of Italy, Albania, and Montenegro, under the full title "Sustainable and Innovative Value Chain of Agro-Food and Fisheries for the Cross-border Market of SMEs."
The main objective of the Food4Health project is to establish multifunctional centers in all three countries to contribute to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of agriculture and fisheries, said Rector of the University of Montenegro prof. Dr. Danilo Nikolic.
With a total project budget of almost 5 million euros, project partners will, through a common challenge, devote themselves to fostering competitiveness and innovation to promote small and medium-sized enterprises in various sectors of agriculture and fisheries, said Nikolic.
He emphasized that the Institute of Marine Biology will, through infrastructure investments, receive a laboratory that will be the only in-vitro spawning stone on the eastern Adriatic coast, which further contributes to the competitiveness of both scientific research and the advancement of the mariculture sector in Montenegro.
Director of the Institute of Marine Biology, Dr. Mirko Djurovic, said that the new space for work would upgrade the existing capacities of the Institute and enable the recruitment of new scientific staff, and certainly increase the Institute's competitiveness at the regional level.
The project Food4Health was also presented by the Director of the Fisheries Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Slavica Pavlovic.
Partners on Food4Health project are the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Montenegro; Center for Agricultural Technology Transfer from Korce, Albania; Agricultural Technology Transfer Center from Vlora, Albania; The Mediterranean Agronomic Institute from Bari, Italy; The region of Pula and the Molise region of Italy, all under the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Albania.
The implementation of the project started on June 1 this year.
