This project is coordinated by Montpellier SupAgro and funded by the European program Erasmus+ strategic partnership for Innovation. Six other European universities [University of Prague (Czech Republic), University of Madrid (Spain), University of Ancona (Italy), Democratius University of Thrace (Greece), University of Vienna, BOKU (Austria), University of Uppsala (Sweden)] and 22 international partners are involved.

The project Erasmus+ ESCAPAdE associates professional and academics within a network of complementary expertise and visions. It aims to favour the adequation between the academic formation and the stakeholder’s needs, in different sectors such as plant breeding, crop protection, crop production, management of the biodiversity.

A portal dedicated to academic mobility

For enhancing the academic mobility between the seven university partners, a dedicated portal presenting the different academic tracks on "Applied Plant Sciences" proposed in each university has been launched. The students are able to choose the tracks and the disciplines depending on different criteria. Information on grants via the Erasmus+ dispositive are also provided.

ESCAPAdE Website

Tracks in Plant Sciences are diverse. For Montpellier SupAgro, they especially concern:

• The Plant Sciences track, (semester 8, level Master 1, in English)
• The three specialisations in Plant productions, biodiversity for sustainable agriculture (Semester 9, level Master 2, in French)
  • Plant breeding, Mediterranean and tropical crops engineering
  • Plant protection and environment
  • Sustainable crop production
• Internships in Agropolis Research community in Plant Sciences (Semester 10) : in plant breeding, biodiversity, biological control… in several labs/Joint Research Units: CBGP, BGPI, AGAP, LEPSE, CEFE, BPMP

Two summer schools

Two summer schools will be organised in order to exchange on innovative pedagogical methods used by the eight partners. These methods will be then experimented during the two summer schools, one in 2020 at Prague (Czeck republic) and one in 2021 in Alnarp (Sweden).

A three-year’s project

The kick off meeting of the Erasmus+ ESCAPAdE occurred on 23, 24 and 25 October 2018 at Montpellier with professors and the staff of international relation services of the eight universities partners.

This three-year’s project is coordinated by Dominique This, professor at the department Biology and Ecology, and supported by the international service of Montpellier SupAgro. The challenge for Escapade project is to extend the network to other European universities and increase / encourage / support academic mobility of students for the different thematics in Plant Sciences.