AMU to host 4 important conferences from March 30

Details

AMU will be hosting 4 conferences from 30th March to 6th April, 2016, at Main Campus. First, a six-day conference on fine-tuning of VLIR-IUC-funded six projects will begin from March 30 to April 4, 2016. Visiting experts from Belgium universities will brainstorm with AMU officials.

On April 4, Stripe Project will come to an end, as it began in 2012 to assess the problems of encroachment around Chamo and Abaya lakes, human’s insidious impact on Nechsar National Park and forest degradation affecting aquatic life. The project was supported by VLIR-IUC in which 2 scholars have already completed PhDs and resumed their duties in AMU.

On April 4, afternoon, a new 4-year Enset Team project aided by VLIR-UOS will be launched. The project to be implemented in Arba Minch and Highland apart from supporting two PhDs is mandated to study agro-ecological conditions affecting Enset and its productivity.

From 5th to 6th April, a symposium is slated on Enset. Scholars from Japan, Belgium, Addis Ababa and Mekelle Universities, Areka and Arba Minch Agricultural Research Institutes, Ethiopian Bio-diversity Institute, etc. will present their works and discuss for the successful and productive research.

A 13-member Flemish team including VILIR-IUC Coordinator, Roel Merckx, KU Leuven, and six project leaders, Fredrik Questier and Matthieu Kervyn from Vrije Universiteit Brussel; Miet Maertens and Luc De Meester from KU Leuven; Jean Pierre Van Geertruyden from Antwerpen and Geert Janssens from Gent University along with AMU project coordinators and leaders will discuss and fine-tune all six projects according to the specified norms.

The conference will begin with introduction, explanation and identifying problem trees; participants will write narrative, formulate budget followed by a group discussion all proposals will be finalized according to the specified norms to be submitted for funding.

The visiting foreign dignitaries from VILIR-IUC will visit problem areas like laboratories, ICT structure, Nechsar National Park, Chamo and Abaya lakes, Chencha highlands to assess degraded soil and poverty situation around Arba Minch to get the first hand information to be addressed by the six projects.

 

(By Corporate Communication Directorate: Philips Joseph)