Kick-off meeting of the consortium of the project “Carinata and camelina boasting the sustainable diversification in agricultural production systems – CARINA” was held last month in Bologna, Italy. CARINA is financed under the Horizon Europe program (HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-01-04). Two oilseed crops Brassica carinata and Camelina sativa are used in the frame of this project. They can be successfully cultivated in Europe and North Africa. In order to valorize the co-product of their production, the project team intends to use their oil and the protein-rich cake to develop different bio-based products.
Project coordinator prof. dr Andrea Monti, from Alma Mater Studiorum – Universita Di Bologna, presented basic the project, consortium, as well as the project structure and the budget. Project partners (representatives from 20 institutions) introduced their institutions, team and role in the project. The meeting was also attended by the European Commission representative, Michael Wolff, who emphasized the importance of the CARINA project and its expected contribution to the bioeconomy sector, pointing to the perspective and importance of the circular economy for primary production in rural areas.
Coordinators of the work packages presented their future activities, with the exact dynamics of the tasks implementation, expected outcomes and results. Participants of each work package had meetings with their work package coordinators, where they clarified details and dynamics of the implementation of the planned project activities.
As a conclusion of the Kick-off meeting, it was emphasized that by October 2026, nine “lighthouses”, five “living labs” and nine laboratories for innovations will be established within the project.
