Aquaculture Talent Hatchery is born
11 November 2011
A group of students from the Institute have been crowned the first winners of the Aquaculture Talent Hatchery at the recent European Aquaculture Society meeting in Rhodes. The three winners: Elena Piana, Stefano Carboni and Mayra Ixchel Grano-Maldonado (right), fought off stiff competition from Greece, Ireland and Spain during the contest organised as part of the EU-funded Vocational Aqualabs project. The final presentations were judged by Bjørn Myrseth (Morpol Board Member), Savvas Agrotis (Sargo Aquaculture Ltd Founder Owner) and Levent Kayi (SKRETTING Turkey General Manager).
The Aquaculture Talent Hatchery aims to give interested post-graduate students across Europe the chance to develop entrepreneurial skills through mentored support for new business ideas. This year’s mentors were Mr Gustavo Larrazábal A. (Grupo Tinamenor - Spain), Prof. Patrick Smith (Tethys Aquaculture Ltd - UK), Mr John Stefanis (Selonda Group - Greece) and Dr Gerry Mouzakitis (Gourmet Marine Ltd - Ireland).
The course was developed by John Bostock at the Institute of Aquaculture, Panos Christofilogiannis from Aquark in Greece, and Clive Dove from Innovamar in Spain. The organisers are seeking support for the course to run next year as the Vocational Aqualabs project will have come to end. The course was very well received by industry and the organisers are particularly grateful for both the efforts of the students and the exceptional support of the mentors and judges.
Vocational Aqualabs is a two year project concerned with developing the generic skills needed in aquaculture research. It is funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme through the Turkish National Agency and is co-ordinated by the University of Ankara.
For more information see Aquaculture Talent and Vocational Aqualabs.