• Project Name: Training a new generation of entrepreneurs in sustainable agriculture and food engineering- FoodSTEM project
• Project duration: 2019-2022
• Budget for ITC: 330,307.00 EURO
• Funded sources: Erasmus + program of European Union
• Status: In progress
• Project Manager: Dr. In Sokneang, Dean of Faculty of Food and Chemical engineering and Head of University Industry Linkage at ITC
• Project Coordinator: Dr. Hor Sivmey, Researcher and lecturer at ITC

• Summary

FoodSTEM (Training a new generation of entrepreneurs in sustainable agriculture and food engineering) is an EU co-funded project by Erasmus + Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education program designed to build partnership between Cambodian and European universities, and to create a favorable condition in the 4 Cambodian partners universities for the emergence of student entrepreneurship and micro or small enterprises. This project is coordinated by the Institute of Technology of Cambodia, a higher education institution (HEI) in Cambodia that trains students in science, technology and engineering.

• Goal

With the support of 3 European HEIs, FoodSTEM project aims at building the capacity of 4 major public universities in Cambodia in order to create a new generation of food chain entrepreneurs, with a strong emphasis on safety, quality and sustainability.

• Partners

1. 4 Cambodian Universities: Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC), Royal

University of Agriculture (RUA), Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE)

Phnom Penh, and National University of Battambang (NUBB).

2. 3 European partners: Institut Agro/Supagro Montpelleir, Toulouse INP (Purpan and ENSAT), and Université de Liège

• Project’s activities

With the aim of “FoodSTEM” project in building the higher education capacity in order to train a new generation of entrepreneurs in sustainable agriculture and food engineering, the project was organized into 8 work packages (WP):

• WP1: Project preparation
• WP2: Improve academic programs through e-learning courses development in 4 Cambodian partner university (ITC, RUA, UBB, and RULE)
• WP3: Create a new pathway of Master program “Project Management and Entrepreneurship” at RULE university
• WP4: Upgrade management skills and technical facilities for pre-incubation of students’ projects “Agri-foods Innovation Challenges” in ITC, RUA, and UBB
• WP5: Provide capacity building on food safety management by creating Food Safety Labs in ITC, RUA, and UBB
• WP6: Project management
• WP7: Project quality monitoring
• WP8: Dissemination and exploitation

• Expected output

FoodSTEM project is expected to have four main outcomes as the followings:

• 8 E-learning courses dedicated to the Agri-Food chain are developed at bachelor/engineering/master level and included in the curriculum of the Cambodian partner Universities. These courses are focused on entrepreneurship, product development, food market, factory design, sustainable processing, supply chain management, etc.
• With the e-learning courses developed during the project, a new pathway of the Master program “Project Management and Entrepreneurship in Agri-Food” will be implemented at RULE by early 2022.
• The project will organize 3 innovation challenges in the agri-food sector for students and young entrepreneurs. The winners of the challenges will earn some prices and be pre-incubated in one of the partner universities in Cambodia to develop their idea.
• A capacity building program: during the project the Agri-food and food safety labs, and 4 e-learning classrooms will be set up in Cambodian partner universities. Various training session for e-learning courses development and labs management will be organized for Cambodian lecturers, researchers, technicians, and students.