BIOVALOR

Benin's economy is largely dominated by agriculture (70% of the working population and 33% of GDP). Densely populated and located on a growing traffic axis between Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, Southern Benin benefits from an environment which is favourable to innovation in agricultural intensification and bioproducts valorisation. Stakeholders in the flagship sectors (rice, pineapple, cashew) promoted by the Beninese government and in orphan crops with high potential (shea, fonio, miraculous berry or sisré), associated to the Biovalor project, have already identified their needs in terms of skills and scientific obstacles to the development of their sectors. The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Aboméy Calavi (FSA-UAC) has become aware of the need to make the content of its training programmes consistent with the needs of the targeted sectors and the government's action programmes. Thus, the FSA-UAC, the Institut Agro-Montpellier Sup Agro, the CIRAD and the University of Lorraine (ENSAIA-IUT) have chosen to respond together to the ANR PEA call for projects, in order to take up the challenge of a better professional integration of students in the development of the bioeconomy and the targeted sectors. Focused on the valorisation of bioresources, bioprocesses and bioproducts, the BIOVALOR project aims to: - implement the skills approach in the L, M and D training courses of the FSA-UAC. The aim is to revisit the targeted training courses by applying the principles of the skills approach, which successively associates (i) the definition of the targeted professions in conjunction with the professional actors, (ii) the skills required, (iii) the adaptation of the educational pathways to reduce the gap between the skills required and those available, and (iv) the evaluation of the acquired skills. - promote entrepreneurial culture and the spirit of innovation. The aim is to encourage students to try their hand at entrepreneurship around a project of their choice and to strengthen the existing innovation competition supported by the Mastercard Foundation by building on the experience of the French competition Ecotrophelia. This entrepreneurial experience should above all allow the development of skills in action that can be used for professional integration, - promote bilateral mobility of students and teachers-researchers. Indeed, the acquisition of scientific and technological skills mentioned above will take place through short mobilities for teacher-researchers or longer mobilities in the context of student training. The rapprochement of the FSA's training courses and its partners will be perpetuated through academic mobility and internship co-supervision agreements, - the creation of an entrepreneurial village (VE) bringing together several laboratories and equipped with a technology transfer platform and the resources of the FSA-UAC farm. The VE is an interface that will offer technical support to students, teachers, researchers and professionals. It will contribute to (i) the practical training of students, (ii) the capacity building of professionals, (iii) but also to the maturation of innovative projects, (iv) the creation of start-ups, and (v) in fine, it will promote the development of research and development action models. The BIOVALOR project has been built on the quality approach permeates all the actions envisaged with the aim of planning and implementing the monitoring, measurement, analysis and improvement activities necessary to (i) assess the satisfaction of the needs and expectations of the beneficiaries (students, teachers, professionals), (ii) guarantee the smooth running and achievement of the objectives targeted by the project and (iii) constantly improve the efficiency of the organisational system put in place For each of the actions, the project BIOVALOR is considered as a lever that will be accompanied and followed by complementary funding to ensure their sustainability.