Agrocycle final conference: 'a circular economy for the agri-food sector'

This event and related projects have received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 690142 

REGISTER 

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Backweston, Celbridge, Co. Kildare
Friday 29^th March, 2019 

The leader of AgroCycle (Dr Tom Curran, School of Biosystems & Food Engineering) cordially invites you to attend this event at which the key technical, policy and industry-focused outputs and perspectives will be presented. This will include a particular focus on business and research opportunities across the EU and China. Stakeholders from industry, academia and government agencies will be present. We are delighted to welcome Mr Phil Hogan, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, EU as a speaker. 

Programme

14.15  Registration

14.30  Welcome and Overview of AgroCycle, Dr Tom Curran, UCD: AgroCycle leader

14.40 The importance of the ‘circular economy’ applied to the Irish agri-food sector, Mr Bill Callanan, Chief Inspector, Irish Government’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM)

14.45  Synoptic Session - AgroCycle team will present an eclectic selection of outputs 
These comprise short 5-minute presentations on:

• duckweed for waste water amelioration (IRIS, Spain);
• edible products from rice bran (DEMETER, Greece);
• bio-based materials from agri-food waste (National Research Council (CNR), Italy);
• microbial fuel cells powered by agri-food waste (Exergy, UK);
• dry anaerobic digestion of chicken manure (Harper Adams University, UK);
• using digestates and organic amendments for building and supporting soil health (Harper Adams University, UK)
• waste-derived bio-plastics for food packaging (Fraunhofer Institute, Germany);
• education of the next generation – AgroCycle Kids (Maynooth University, Ireland);
• AgroCycle Marketplace - a web based agri-food waste trading platform (UCD, Ireland);
• life cycle assessment (LCA) of agri-food waste valorisation systems (UCD, Ireland);
• Sustainable Business Models (NNFCC, UK); policy implications (UCD).

15.50 The industry perspective - a number of 10-minute presentations by industry:

• The 'Circular Economy’ applied to a food ingredients business, Enda Buckley, Carbery Group
• The ‘Circular Economy’ applied to an international food business, Dr Stephen O'Connor, PepsiCo
• The ‘Circular Economy’ applied to the chicken meat industry, Justin Carton, Manor Farm
• Opportunities for SMEs in implementing the agri-food ‘Circular Economy’, Oonagh McNerney, IRIS)

16.30  Panel discussion: Chair: Patrick Barrett, DAFM

The focus of the discussion will be “where to from here?” - planning for the implementation of an agri-food ‘circular economy’, including a perspective on the opportunities and challenges in EU-China collaboration.

17.15  Summary (Prof. Shane Ward, UCD)

17.30  Closing remarks by Mr Phil Hogan, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, EU 

AgroCycle is a €8 million Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation project, with 26 partners from across the EU, China and Hong Kong. The project is led by University College Dublin (UCD) and focuses on the application of the ‘circular economy’ across the agri-food sector, presenting new commercial opportunities alongside potential beneficial impacts on climate change.