On the 14th of March the official ERGIP (European Research Group for Insect Production) website was launched during an EAAP webinar on “insect research collaboration initiatives in Europe”.
The webinar was chaired by Teun Veldkamp (WUR, the Netherlands), former president of the EAAP commission on insects. It focused on the different initiatives to improve insect research and collaboration between researchers was highlighted, focussing on future synergistic alliances and opportunities.
In a first part, David Deruytter (Inagro, Belgium) presented the European Research Group on Insect Production (ERGIP). ERGIP was officially launched at EAAP in Porto (2022) as a response to the dire need to share knowledge and improve general communication between researchers. The official website was launched during the webinar and ERGIP membership opened for all EAAP members.
The second part was about the current EAAP working groups activities and set-up. The EAAP insect commission working groups are highly active and want to tackle the current frontiers in insect rearing and research by bringing together researchers from across the world and openly discuss (un)published results, protocols, ideas for further top-tier research. More specifically, Moritz Gold (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) talked about the group on insect nutrition. This is a key aspect in farming insects and even more important within a circular agro-industry and the use of by-products. The final presentation was given by Anton Gligorescu (Aarhus University, Denmark) on the formation of the Insect genetic working group. The latter is a very new and fast growing research field to actively improve the current – near – wild type insects to suit our different needs.
Responses