1st International Conference AGRICOM 2013 “Agriculture & Competences: Challenges in Hydroponic and Irrigational Training” Launches Call for Proposals

The final conference of the AGRICOM Project has officially launched its Call for Papers, Presentations, and Posters. The AGRICOM Consortium is organising the AGRICOM Conference: International Symposium on Advances in Irrigation and Hydroponics in order to raise the awareness of the stakeholders in the agricultural sector concerning competence modelling, with a special focus on hydroponics and irrigation. Thus the AGRICOM Conference aims to provide an opportunity for meeting and discussion between scientists and experts from all over Europe who deal with competence modelling as well as educational and training issues in the field of agriculture.

The AGRICOM Conference invites submissions of research papers, project presentations, and posters on fully‐developed results, on‐going work or innovative concepts related to the following topics:
• Competence models for the agricultural sector
• Social communities for the agricultural sector
• Learning outcomes and competences orientation
• Competence & skill development in agriculture
• The latest developments in hydroponics techniques
• The latest developments in irrigation techniques

The AGRICOM Conference is of especial relevance for (but not limited to) the following professions:
• Agronomists, horticulturalists, greenhouse and nursery managers, extension specialists, and people involved in crop management
• International institutions harmonising competence descriptions in agriculture
• National & regional authorities describing competences in policies in agriculture
• HR Managers describing training needs for employees in agriculture
• Managers in irrigation or hydroponic describing working places (job descriptions) in agriculture
• HR Managers measuring their employees (competence gap analysis) in agriculture
• VET providers describing their training solutions in agriculture
• National institutions harmonising VET (professional framework) in agriculture
• Individuals planning and personal development in agriculture
• Organisations developing their own competence model profile (including the use cases in bullet point 3 to 8 above) in agriculture
• Investors in hydroponics assessing the employees of a plant
• Service plants for irrigation and hydroponic systems

Submission Guidelines for Papers:
Submissions of research paper abstracts (maximum eight pages) must be sent by July 1st, 2013, using the official AGRICOM research paper template. All papers will be reviewed by the international scientific AGRICOM Programme Committee through double‐blind peer review. Submitters will be informed of their acceptance by the 15th of July 2013. All accepted papers can be presented at the AGRICOM conference, will be published in the official conference proceedings (with ISBN), and distributed to all conference participants as well as internationally. Specific guidelines and requirements, including the AGRICOM research paper template, can be found on the conference wiki at http://agricomconference.pbworks.com/w/page/66871919/Call%20for%20Submissions.

Submission Guidelines for Project Presentations:
Submissions of project presentation abstracts (maximum one page) must be sent by July 1st, 2013, using the official AGRICOM project presentation template. All accepted project presentations can be presented at the AGRICOM conference, will be published in the official conference proceedings (with ISBN), and distributed to all conference participants as well as internationally. The proceedings will be distributed to all conference participants as well as internationally. Specific guidelines and requirements, including the AGRICOM project presentation template, can be found on the conference wiki at http://agricomconference.pbworks.com/w/page/66871919/Call%20for%20Submissions.

Submission Guidelines for Posters:
Submissions of posters must be sent by July 1st, 2013, using the official AGRICOM poster template. All accepted posters will be displayed at the AGRICOM conference, and the abstracts will be published in the official conference proceedings (with ISBN), and distributed to all conference participants as well as internationally. The proceedings will be distributed to all conference participants as well as internationally. Specific guidelines and requirements, including the AGRICOM poster, can be found on the conference wiki at http://agricomconference.pbworks.com/w/page/66871919/Call%20for%20Submissions.

Registration:
Attendance at the AGRICOM Conference is subject to a conference fee (early-bird rate: 50€) and requires registration through the AGRICOM website, as seats are limited. The conference fee includes all provisions including a warm 3‐course lunch, coffee breaks, the conference bag, and the official conference proceedings. At least one author or project representative has to register for the publication of an accepted paper or project in the conference proceedings.

Overview of the important dates:

- Submission deadline: July 1, 2013
- Notification of acceptance: July 15, 2013
- Early-bird registration rate ends: July 15, 2013
- Camera-ready copy due: August 23rd, 2013
- Conference date: September 19-20, 2013

To learn about the newest updates regarding the AGRICOM Conference & International Symposium on Advances in Irrigation and Hydroponics and to provide feedback to the hosts, please visit the project website at www.agriculture-competence.eu, like the AGRICOM Facebook page at www.facebook.com/AGRICOMProject and follow the AGRICOM Twitter account at twitter.com/AGRICOM_Project. Direct enquiries and submissions can be sent to the AGRICOM Conference Team at the University of Duisburg‐Essen (UDE), Germany, via email to: agricom.conference (at) icb.uni-due.de. The AGRICOM Conference is sponsored by Italian Horticultural Society (SOI) (www.soihs.it).

About the European project AGRICOM:

The main goal of the project AGRICOM is the transfer and adaptation of the WACOM Water Competence Model (WCM) from the water sector to the agricultural sector.

Further main objectives of AGRICOM are:
1. Identifying and analysing targeted needs and competences that are required by the labour market for specific use cases and jobs from several fields of the agricultural sector
2. Transferring and adapting the generic WACOM competence model to the AGRICOM competence model (ACM) allowing more agricultural use cases
3. Pilot-testing the ACM to the jobs specialisations related to agricultural uses of water resources (irrigation, hydroponics, etc.)
4. Establishing the AGRICOM online community for communication, moderated discussions and exchange of project results, experiences and expertise on competence modelling for vocational education and training in the agricultural sector,
5. Establishing the AGRICOM web portal and populating it with more agricultural use cases,
6. Enhancing the transparency of the job profiles in the agricultural sector,
7. Supporting the conjunction of vocational education and training with the labour market and jobs specialisations.

The main long-term objective and addressed impact is the introduction of competence modelling to the agricultural sector in order to develop a first Agriculture Competence Model as well as to strengthen the transparency and comparability of VET opportunities through the transfer of WCM and the adaptation of ECVET and EQF.

More information about AGRICOM online:
http://www.agriculture-competence.eu

Contact: Cornelia Helmstedt
Organization: University of Duisburg-Essen
Address: Universitaetsstr. 9 (ICB)
45141 Essen, GERMANY
Telephone: +49 (0)201 183-4700
E-Mail: cornelia.helmstedt (at) icb.uni-due.de

This release was published on openPR.