Finished projects

Digital education in veterinary studies – DEVet

Funding sources: Erasmus+
Duration: 2021. - 2022.
Institution roles: partner
Summary:

Veterinary profession at the EU level is legally listed among the regulated professions which means that the education of European veterinarians must comply with minimal quality standards defined through the European System of Evaluation of Veterinary Training (ESEVT). Standards of veterinary education revolve around the list of so-called “Day–one Competences”, representing the body of knowledge and skills that the veterinary school must provide for all its students by the date of their graduation. Compliance to standards for each individual veterinary education establishment is certified through an elaborate accreditation procedure carried out by EAEVE re-currently, every 7 years.

After the outbreak of COVID in March 2020 Switching to the online theoretical teaching has been almost seamless. However, hands-on experience, i.e. laboratory, microscopy, necropsy, indoor and outdoor clinical teaching etc. were seriously affected during occasional “lockout” periods since there weren’t any suitable means to compensate at least for some of the topics, with the ready to use online teaching material.

Objectives of the project are:

– to upgrade the system of delivery of digital teaching material for distance and classroom learning (e-learning platform);

– to inspire/stimulate teachers to upgrade their abilities to produce higher quality digital teaching material;

– to produce a substantial volume of digital teaching material.

– to search for the existing, suitable, open access e-learning material on the Internet and integrate it into the teaching process at all partner faculties.

Joint production of high quality veterinary digital educational material, i.e. videos, micrographs collections, photo collections, animations and presentations, drawings, schemes, posters, datasets, handouts, brochures; internet sources retrieval; building of the e-learning platform.

Digital film and photograph recording and processing of laboratory and clinical procedures, microscope specimen preparation and recording, digital drawing and animation, targeted Internet search, performed by the creative teams of teachers and technicians at all partner institution; platform and database programming, download and maintenance perform by the IT services.

Impact

1) The enhancement of the institutions’ capacity for the production of HQ digital educational materials.

2) New e-learning platform at FVMUB, installed, organized and uploaded with existing and newly produced intellectual products.

3) Production, by all participants, of the high quality digital educational material in substantial quantity and diversity, offered as an open resource.

4) Diverse collection of high quality Open Source digital educational material collected from the Internet.

Longer term benefits include broadening of teacher’s didactic skills towards the digital era; improvement of partners’ distance learning capabilities; better acceptance of the teaching material by the “millennial” students generations; upgrade of knowledge of practicing (graduated) veterinarians, improvement of veterinary services.

Contact: slavica@vef.hr

CA18105 – Risk-based meat inspection and integrated meat safety assurance

Funding sources: COST Action EU
Duration: 2019. - 2023.
Institution roles: partner
Summary:

The European Food Safety Authority has recently proposed a generic framework for a modern, flexible and dynamic risk-based meat safety assurance system. Implementation of such a system is expected to be a slow and careful process that would involve its thorough development, fine-tuning and testing its practical feasibility and general impacts. There are many research groups in Europe that currently perform studies, mostly at national level, to fill the knowledge gaps related to such a new system. The main aim of the RIBMINS network is to combine and strengthen European-wide research efforts on modern meat safety control systems. The network will allow exchange of ideas, experience and results of country-level research studies. Furthermore, the aim is to create a platform for training of relevant participants in the new meat safety system and thus help its operability, as well as to inform relevant stakeholders about the requirements, benefits and consequences of the new system. The RIBMINS network will consist of five Working Groups: 1. on scope and targets of meat safety assurance, 2. on farm-level controls and risk categorisation of farms, 3. on abattoir-level controls and risk categorisation of abattoirs, 4. on meat safety assurance system impact with changes, addition and alternatives to meat inspection, and 5. on meat safety assurance system training, communication and monitoring. Overall, the network shall help the full development and implementation of the general principles of meat safety assurance system across Europe for the benefit of consumers, industry and protection of animal health and welfare.

Contact: izv. prof. dr. sc. Nevijo Zdolec, nzdolec@vef.hr
Web: https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA18105/#tabs|Name:overview

Novel tools for test evaluation and disease prevalence estimation

Funding sources: COST
Duration: 2019. - 2023.
Institution roles: partner
Summary:

Epidemiological studies assessing disease prevalence are critically important to both the identification and control of pathogens in humans and animals (including zoonosis and food borne outbreaks). However, countries typically collect data in a way that is best suited for their specific needs, and non-standardized sampling strategies and diagnostic methods produce prevalence estimates that cannot be directly compared. Hence, the need for harmonization, which has been often highlighted in reports of relevant EU institutions, like the ECDC and EFSA. Despite the availability of appropriate statistical methods – Bayesian Latent Class Models (BLCMs) – that adjust for the imperfect accuracy of the diagnostic process and produce comparable prevalence estimates, the number of research studies and scientific reports that use them is small compared to the number of instances that use of such methods would have been optimal. The objective of this proposal is to coordinate and promote the implementation of BLCMs through networking and knowledge transfer between BLCM experts and researchers working in statistics, epidemiology, diagnostics and population health. Specifically, we will (a) increase the visibility and collaboration of BLCM researchers, (b) promote stakeholder engagement, (c) provide training and networking opportunities for ECIs and ITC researchers, (d) create separate training opportunities for policy makers and stakeholders, (e) establish a free online BLCMs repository, (f) set up an International society for BLCMs and (g) organize the first international conference of this society. The strongest asset of this proposal is its strong interdisciplinary nature and broad network of proposers.

Contact: izv. prof. dr. sc. Nevijo Zdolec
Web: https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA18208

European Joint Doctorate in Molecular Animal Nutrition (MANNA, No: 765423)

Funding sources: Horizon 2020
Duration: 2018 - 2022
Institution roles: partner
Summary:

The main goals of the project are:

(1) development of an elite European school that will train young researchers in the application of OMIC technologies in domestic animal nutrition and basic scientific skills;

(2) evaluation of the effects of innovative feed additives on the production capacity of animals;

(3) awarding of double doctorates (Ph.D.) in a multidisciplinary network with the aim of developing international scientists for the global labor market.

The goals will be achieved under the supervision of two mentors from two different universities and with one non-academic partner for each of the 11 PhD students. They will work together on integrated innovative scientific projects, structured to investigate the effects of antioxidants, microRNAs, exosomes, methionine, lipids and plant anti-inflammatory substances in animal diets on development, digestion and metabolism applying transcriptomics, microbiomics, proteomics and metabolomics in vivo and in vitro models. All results will be analyzed by an analytical system
based on the IBM-Watson cognitive computer.

The funds allocated by the EU for the entire project amount to 2,793,778.56 euros, while the share of the Croatian partner is 247,761.00 euros. The project coordinator is prof. Ph.D. David Eckersall, ERA Chair, head of the VetMedZg project and at the same time an employee of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, and the institution coordinating the project is the University of Glasgow. The Croatian researcher on the MANNA project is prof. Ph.D. Vladimir Mrljak. 6 academic institutions are involved in the project (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom; Universita Degli Studi Di Milano, Italy; Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn, Germany; Universitat Autonoma De Barcelona, Spain; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb and University of Veterinarianskeho Lekarstva a Farmacie v Kosiciah, Slovakia), 9 private companies and 3 public scientific institutes from 8 European countries.

Contact: Vladmir Mrljak, vmrljak@vef.hr
Web: http://www.phd4manna.eu/

Pan-European soft skills curriculum for undergraduate veterinary education (SOFTVETS)

Funding sources: Erasmus+
Duration: october 2018 - october 2020
Institution roles: prijavitelj
Summary:

Recent research and surveys among veterinarians show an increasing need for enabling veterinarians with skills to cope with challenges imposed on them by the ever changing world and the enormous strain the profession puts on them. Skill acquisition and development are essential for the performance and modernization of the profession in order to provide new forms of flexibility and security for veterinary professionals. Therefore, the target group of this project are students of veterinary medicine that need to be better prepared for real-life challenges in their future working environment.

The goal of this project is to create a framework, and produce an ideal version of the new soft skills curriculum that would be applicable in veterinary higher education throughout Europe. As it should cover a wide range of life skills to cover all aspects of modern day challenges it will be organized in three sections: interpersonal communication, entrepreneurship and digital skills. The project team will firstly develop a set of recommendations for learning outcomes in life skills, a training concept for education of teachers involved in soft skill teaching and carry out a pilot implementation project of selected modules at implementation partners’ institutions. The intellectual outcomes will be developed in coordination with students’ association, professional association of veterinarians and an accreditation authority for veterinary education establishments within Europe to make sure it responds correctly to the needs of both students and labour market.

Contact: Lada Radin, lada_radin@vef.hr
Web: http://www.softvets.eu

U društvu mikroba (In the Company of Microbes)

Funding sources: Europski socijalni fond
Duration: 2018. - 2019.
Institution roles: partner
Summary:

Project coordinator: Croatian Microbiological Society (CMS)

The project “In the Society of Microbes” by the Croatian Microbiological Society is funded by the European Social Fund and also by State budget of Croatia in the period from 19th March 2018 to 18th January 2020. The aim is to contribute to the introduction, development, improvement and sustainability of service learning, as a part of the academical learning.

Service learning (SL) is an educational approach in which students use the knowledge and skills gathered through the study to provide solutions for a concrete problem recognised in society. SL is also recognised as a powerful way for connecting general society to academy with students as the principal mediators.

This is the first service learning project in the field of microbiology in Croatia and it will be carried out in collaboration with academic institutions (Catholic University of Croatia, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Zagreb) and NGOs (Bioteka – an association for promotion of biology and related sciences, BIUS – an association of biology students).

Project objectives will be achieved through multiple activities. In the first part of the project, both volunteers and academia employees will be educated about service learning through workshops and excursion. The workshops include:

  • education about service learning, applying new education approaches and evaluating student`s performance. This education will be held by assoc. prof. Nives Mikelić Preradović, PhD (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb), an expert on service learning.
  • education about lessons planning and supervised service learning programmes planning. This education will be held by assoc. prof. Ines Radanović (Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb), an expert on applied educational approaches.
  • education about interpretation of scientific subjects through public media. This education will be held by Emma Clayton, mag. oecol. et. prot. nat. (Frontiers for Young Minds editor), an expert on communication between scientific community and general public, and Sanja Lepur (Virtual Factory), an expert on interactive web design.

At the end of first part of the project, supervisors and volunteers will visit the museum of microbes “Micropia” in Amsterdam. The museum stands out with its unique approach in presenting microbiological exhibits to general public giving it an important social role.

In the continuation of the project, students of partner faculties will take their part. For most of them, the participation in the project “In the Society of Microbes” will be the first opportunity to apply their knowledge in solving societal problems and to contribute to society as its active members. After finishing required education (for applying gathered knowledge in local community, for development and improvement of communication skills, for applying service learning, and for preparation of interactive learning contents), students will, with mentor`s support, identify microbiological problems in society and prepare materials for Virtual Museum of Microbes. Besides that, students will also give workshops for children in elementary schools and in Bioteka, and will also give public lectures to educate general public.

Contact: Prof. dr. sc. Ljiljana Pinter
Web: http://hmd-cms.hr/u-drustvu-mikroba/en/home

Vets and Bees

Funding sources: FVE EVERI
Duration: 2018. - 2023.
Institution roles: partner
Summary:

Goal: Health of honey bee colonies is crucial in successful beekeeping and pollination. Veterinarians have a vital role in the health of honey bee colonies and their notifiable disease control and eradication. Also, honey bee colonies are reared mainly because of apian products production intended mainly for human consumption. This veterinary position is reflected in all regulated areas worldwide. It is an area of veterinary medicine to which under graduate students get little exposure during their regular studies of veterinary medicine, except for veterinary students in countries with a certain degree of biology and pathology of bees. This area is often not immediately attractive to young graduates and the continuing entry of graduate students into the beekeeping and apiculture medicine should be fostered on a European and international level.

As all veterinary students need to spend some time gaining laboratory and field work experience in the various fields of the veterinary profession. They also should get practical skills with clinical examinations of honey bee colonies and other veterinarian tasks at apiaries. In collaboration with The University of Zagreb, Department for Biology and Pathology of Fish and Bees in Croatia, EVERI (European Veterinarians in Education, Research and Industry) has launched a new EPT (External Practical Training) initiative in beekeeping – project VETS and BEES.

EVERI, the European Veterinarians in Education, Research and Industry is providing an information hub to facilitate contact between students of Veterinary Medicine, the various colleges of specialization and private enterprises on a European and international level. In this context EVERI is aiming to establish external practical trainings opportunities, which fulfill certain conditions demonstrating content, ambition and contribution of the studies to the curriculum to be at best being eligible for credits.
If you are student of Veterinary Medicine at a European veterinary teaching establishments and interested in veterinary in beekeeping, please contact EVERI – ems.everi@fve.org – for the more information (places available, training period, funding, etc…) and for the application form.

Contact: izv. prof. dr. sc. Ivana Tlak Gajger

Establishment of postgraduate master studies of veterinary medicine in English

Funding sources: European Social Fund
Duration: 2018 - 2021
Institution roles: Lead
Summary:

The project is aimed at developing curricula of 15 postgraduate master studies of veterinary medicine in English that will offer State of the Art training with emphasis on the practical and conversational part of the postgraduate specialist training of veterinarians in various fields of veterinary medicine. The project also includes activities such as VETCEE accreditation of selected modules, cooperation with foreign lecturers and experts, improvement of teachers’ language competences, development of didactic materials in English and promotion of new programs at higher education fairs. In the long term, the implementation of the project will increase the competitiveness of veterinary doctors at the labour market, and the international accreditation of selected programs (Veterinary Continuous Education in Europe (VETCEE)) will enable better visibility and recognition of Croatian experts. It should also increase the mobility of teachers and students. These studies will offer maximum flexibility for students through an individually tailored program.

Project duration: 30 months (12/10/2018 – 12/04/2021)
Total project value: 1.701.542,72 kn
The project is co-financed by the European Social fund of EU.
Project partner: Croatian Veterinary Chamber

 

 

Contact: dean.konjevic@vef.hr
Web: https://www.vef.unizg.hr/en/studying/postgraduate-master-studies/

Carnivora Dinarica

Funding sources: Interreg V-A Slovenija – Hrvatska
Duration: rujan 2018. - veljača 2021.
Institution roles: partner
Summary:

“CARNIVORA DINARICA – “Cross-border cooperation and ecosystem services in the long-term preservation of large carnivores populations in the northern Dinarides.” is the full name of the project. The project is worth €2,347,340 and will be implemented for 30 months, until the end of February 2021.

The main purpose of the Carnivora Dinarica project is to improve the protection status of large animals – Eurasian lynx, wolf and bear – in the Natura 2000 areas: Javorniki – Snežnik and Notranjski trikotnik in Slovenia and in the area of Gorski kotar and northern Lika in Croatia. The project covers a cross-border forest area, unique in Central Europe, where about 20 lynxes, 60 wolves and 700 bears are present in the same area. Preserving their long-term presence is extremely important for the protection of biological diversity and ecosystems in the cross-border area of Slovenia and Croatia. Given the good connectivity and accessibility of that area, interstate cooperation is of key importance. The project is focused on the three most important common challenges: i) improving the strategy and eliminating deficiencies in transboundary management of large carnivores; ii) reduction of the risks posed by large animals, especially increasing pressure from humans (traffic, damage to agriculture and habitat fragmentation), and iii) (mis)understanding of the role of large animals in ecosystems.

For more information contact the main project coordinato Aleksandra Majić Skrbinšek, Univerza u Ljubljani, Biotehnološki fakultet, Department for biology (+386 1 3203 336, aleksandra.majicskrbinsek@bf.uni-lj.si)

Contact: Slaven Reljić, sreljic@vef.hr
Web: https://www.dinapivka.si/hr/projekt-2/

Zoonoses online education (ZOE)

Funding sources: Erasmus+
Duration: 2016 - 2018
Institution roles: partner
Summary:

Worldwide, zoonotic diseases have a negative impact on commerce, travel and economies. In most developing countries, zoonotic diseases are among those diseases of major public health significance and contribute significantly to an already overly burdened public health system. In industrialized nations, zoonotic diseases are of particular concern for at-risk groups such as the elderly, children, childbearing women and immunocompromised individuals.

In an effort to increase the knowledge and understanding of current and probable future public health significance infectious disease transmitted from non-human animals to humans, a consortium of 4 countries (Romania, Croatia, Lithuania and Italy) proposed the ZoonosesOnlineEducation project.

The project aims to create open digital educational resources in the field of veterinary medicine based on developing innovative guidelines on zoonotic diseases study and veterinary, medical, pedagogical, linguistic and raise awareness intervention related to identify, monitor and control malaria and dirofilariasis, useful for the academic, professional and general beneficiaries.

Project brings together 5 educational sectors, all with impact in 5 different end beneficiaries groups:

Veterinary medicine:
O1 – Analysis on zoonoses state of arts;
O2 – Study on best practices on zoonoses interventions;
O3 – Guide of main infectious diseases transmitted from non-human animals to humans;
O4 – Videos capturing zoonoses bio-manipulation in simulation centers;
O6 – Open Online Course on Zoonoses;
O7 – ZoonosesOnlineEducation Kit; for students, lectures, professionals & institutions in veterinary field.

Human medicine:
O9 – Protocol on epidemiological monitoring and disease control in public health practice; for students, lectures, professionals & institutions in medicine

Pedagogy-education:
O8 – Handbook of pedagogical guidelines on health education; for students – future teachers, teachers, pupils aged 6-12, parents

Languages:
O5 – Interdisciplinary pedagogical resource (Medical communication linguistic resources); O6 – Open online course on veterinary communication; for students, lectures, professionals & institutions in languages

Raise awareness:
O10 – ZoonosesOnlineEducation IT tool – public and institutions at large

Contact: prof. dr. sc. Nenad Turk
Web: https://zoeproject.eu/

BIOengineered grafts for Cartilage Healing In Patients (BIO-CHIP)

Funding sources: EU Horizon 2020
Duration: 2015 - 2020
Institution roles: partner
Summary:

In an effort to overcome the limitations of currently available treatments, the BIO-CHIP project aims at carrying out a phase II clinical trial (Nose To Knee II) for the treatment of traumatic cartilage lesions in the knee, with two main innovations:
– the use of autologous nasal chondrocytes as a cell source superior to articular chondrocytes and
– the delivery of a tissue graft (tissue therapy) as opposed to a cellular graft (cellular therapy).
We intend to formally test the hypothesis that implanting a mature cartilage graft will improve the clinical efficacy, leading to a significant improvement in the main primary outcome, i.e., pain and functionality.

Contact: Prof dr. sc. Dražen Matičić
Web: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/681103

Improving current understanding and research for sustainable control of the poultry red mite Dermanyssus gallinae – COREMI

Funding sources: COST
Duration: 2014. - 2018.
Institution roles: partner
Summary:

The project Improving current understanding and research for sustainable control of the poultry red mite dermanyssus gallinae – COREMI aims to consolidate the existing expertise and knowledge on poultry red mite and to generate a synergic/holistic approach to improve health, welfare and productivity of the laying hens through more effective prevention and control of poultry red mites.

The project is funded via the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme.

Contact: Danijela Horvatek, horvatek@vef.hr
Web: https://www.coremi.eu/home.html

Upgrading the research performance in molecular medicine at the Faculty of the Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb (VETMEDZG)

Funding sources: FP7-ERAChairs-Pilot Call-2013
Duration: 2014. - 2019.
Institution roles: prijavitelj
Summary:

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb (FVM) is well established research institution in Croatia with more than 178 staff members who have excellent education and scientific experience. In order to conduct structural changes in veterinary medicine, scientists at FVM have accepted ERA Chair initiative, aiming at fostering structural changes, synergies between cohesion and research funding, and to raise research quality in the application of molecular technologies to international levels of excellence.

The project proposal aims to reinforce research performance of FVM through enhancing its capacities in molecular veterinary medicine, by attracting outstanding experienced researchers, transfer of knowledge and research potential, especially in the fields of proteomics and metabolomics.

The exchange of know-how and experience with esteemed outstanding experienced researchers will be accomplished through coherent set of measures: training, workshops and trans-national two-way secondments of research staff. The workshops on different aspects in molecular medicine organised in Zagreb and will mostly cover three chosen fields: comparative tumour analysis, post-genomic technology and wildlife research at the FVM departments. By the upgrading of its research performance and excellence FVM will improve performance in competitive research funding, prevent brain drain, enhance its competiveness and visibility in broader region and become internationally recognized partner.

The proposed activities should increase research performance in specific field of molecular veterinary medicine and FVM will be able to increase its involvement in international research projects with EU partners and to be better integrated into the ERA. The ERA Chair Initiative will be unique in croatian veterinary science with potential benefits for the broader research community and neighbouring countries.

Contact: Prof. dr. sc. Vladimir Mrljak, vmrljak@vef.hr
Web: http://www.vetmedzg.eu
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