Alliance will benefit the Agricultural and Food national industries
“Costa Rica and especially the agricultural and food sectors are facing an uncommon challenge with the market’s opening. If the productive sector wants to take advantage of a free commerce, there is no other option than producing under the most strict quality and hygienic norms, and in order to achieve that, it is necessary to be trained in Good Manufacturing Practices and Food Innoquity. Any effort and help in this field is absolutely necessary”
Carlos Villalobos -Viceministro de Producción.
Through the Food Science and Technology National Center (CITA) and PROINNOVA, the University of Costa Rica signed a strategic alliance with Aura Interactiva, eLearning developer, in order to create a virtual training program about Food Innoquity.
“This program is about a series of on line training courses on Good Manufacturing Practices and Food Innoquity that will be available for managers from agriculture, industrial, distribution, restaurants, health and other sectors. In spite of some training efforts taken by several institutions, still today it is impossible to guarantee that most of the personnel that work for Food Factories are prepared to perform good manufacturing practices. This is why we have chosen eLearning to accelerate and close these gaps in our productive sector” said, Carmela Velazquez, CITA Director.
Velazquez added that beyond competitiveness of agricultural and alimentary sectors, this project affects public health by producing food without risks for consumers, and hence impacting the economy by reducing food loss and impacting tourism by diminishing diseases transmitted by foods.
CITA contributes with updated contents and the best international practices on Food Innoquity because they have a formal training program in this topic called PIA. Aura Interactiva provides the technology and transforms contents into eLearning to develop a real, scalable and cost effective on line training program. In the context of a new kind of relationship among academy and the private sector supported by PROINNOVA-UCR, this alliance will benefit the country with the best of both sectors: knowledge and technology” mentioned Randolf Kissling, President of Aura Interactiva.
According to Kissling, ” With the launching of this project, any producer, from anywhere in Costa Rica, no matter how far away, will have access to the best international practices in Food Innoquity. This will have a relevant impact in competitiveness and growth opportunities for these farmers and producers, especially small and medium enterprises called PYMES”.
For more information about this alliance or participation modalities, call Viviana Perez at +506 207-3457.
About CITA
The Food Science and Technology National Center (CITA) is located in the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and was created by an agreement among the UCR, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture in 1974. The Center’s mission is to elevate competitiveness of the agricultural and food industries by producing innovating technologies that add value to the national production, supporting the implementation of systems that guarantee innoquity and quality of products while serving as reference for analytic, chemical, microbiological and sensorial information. More information atwww.cita.ucr.ac.cr
About Aura Interactiva
Aura Interactiva is the leading e-Learning development company. It has deployed 1,000.000 eLearning solutions. It has offices in 12 countries, with its headquarters and R&D center in Costa Rica. Aura Interactive offers a complete solution for corporate e-Learning needs: consulting, development, implementation and outsourcing services. Its solutions include custom e-Learning development. For more information visit:www.aurainteractiva.com
About PROINNOVA
Proinnova is the University of Costa Rica department of knowledge transfer and management for innovation. It specializes in protection of intellectual property of knowledge produced by the University and its licensing to the productive sector. Its work has impelled a change in norms and politics of the University to support the development of a Costa Rican System for Innovation, patents and brands registration and its licensing to the productive sector through license contracts or strategic alliances. More informationwww.proinnova.ucr.ac.cr
