University of Bologna and Caviro, a national leading agricultural cooperative in the wine sector, have signed a five-year framework agreement with the aim of strengthening their partnership for projects and initiatives in the Food and Beverage as well as Circular Bioeconomy sectors.
The collaboration between the University of Bologna and Caviro has already produced several results, achieved in the course of a historical partnership which has seen educational and training initiatives, degree thesis carried out by students from the University of Bologna in collaboration or during their activity at the cooperatives and the BioCirce Master – Bioeconomy in the Circular Economy. The collaboration also gave rise to national and European initiatives, such as the B-PLAS Demo experimental plant (aimed at the production of biological and biodegradable plastic deriving from sewage sludge – funded by EIT KIC Climate) and many projects financed by the public-private partnership Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking.
On a national level, the University of Bologna and Caviro are long-term active partners of Cluster Agrifood Nazionale. Moreover, they participate in the work of the Italian National Committee for Biosafety, Biotechnology and Sciences of Life, and their activities are surveyed by FAO and OECD Committee for Biotechnology, Nanotechnology and Converging Technologies.
All these collaborations perfectly reflect the current scenario of the Italian and European agro-food sector. Thanks to its distinctive, sustainability-based approach Caviro is in fact an innovative player, developing pioneering technologies for management and production and implementing a circular bioeconomy allowing the nearly total recovery of supply chain waste (pomace, sediments, pruning…).
With over 36,300 hectares of vineyards, 29 partners (27 of which are wineries),12,400 winegrowers in 7 Italian regions (Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Marche, Abruzzo, Puglia, and Sicily) and an annual production of 615,000 tons of grapes (9% of the whole Italian grape production), Caviro plays a leadership role in Italy.
