Short Name:CZU
Country:Czech Republic
Website:czu.cz
CZU

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU) is the largest public life sciences university in Czech Republic, with more than 100 years of history. CZU’s enrolled student population is nearly 20,000, out of which almost 25% are international students. CZU ranked 51-75th in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and 45th in the UI Green Metric World University Ranking in 2023.

The largest faculty of CZU is the Faculty of Economics and Management (FEM), which focuses on management, marketing, data analytics and systems engineering. The faculty receives more than 10,000 applications yearly, which is a testament to its attractiveness. Intensive cooperation has been ongoing for many years with large companies such as Skoda Auto, Agrofert, T-Mobile, Foxconn CZ, Siemens, retail chains, IT start-ups and government authorities, which participate in academic activities and are FEM’s partners in national and international projects. The faculty has various laboratories that it uses for educational and research purposes, including the laboratory for the study of human behaviour, and artificial intelligence & big data processing laboratory.

Partner’s role in the project

The team involved in the RURBANIVE project is based at the Department of Information Technologies and has extensive experience coordinating and implementing H2020 and HE projects focused on rural development, digitalisation and data analysis such as POLIRURAL, CODECS, GRANULAR and others. 

Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources  (FAFNR) delivers cutting-edge research and provides study programs in sustainable use of natural resources and environmentally friendly and efficient agriculture, providing high-quality, healthy food at local, national, and global scales. CZU is the node representative for the Czech Republic in the European research infrastructure METROFOOD, focused on metrology in food and nutrition. This infrastructure has been adopted within the ESFRI Roadmap 2018 in Health & Food.

In 2022, CZU FAFNR opened the Food Processing Training Center (FPTC), which features seven food processing facilities built on the total area of 7500 m2 for local artisan food products (meat, fruit and vegetable, bakery, confectionery, beer and oil). FPTC also serves as a hub that brings together the primary producer community from the rural/peri-urban areas close to the university. 

As Task 3.1 leader, CZU will set up a rural-urban co-creation lab bringing together food producers, consumers, university and school students, entrepreneurs, and policymakers to:

  • deliver the latest know-how in food processing and production, information about financing opportunities and emerging business opportunities, and information on how to innovate food products with state-of-the-art processing technologies (primary producers); 
  • increase consumer awareness about the benefits of consuming locally produced and processed agri-food products and
  • deliver information about how the shortening of the value chain can enable access to quality and healthy agri-food products.

In WP4, CZU will develop a digital platform to deliver four online courses accompanied by immersive digital campaigns and enable interactions among the stakeholders. The CZU team will also develop an innovative business model to sustain the online courses and workshops in WP5 and contribute to disseminating and exploiting project results.