SUMMARY

More than 70% of freshwater consumed worldwide is used in food production. The global food industry is facing major challenges in terms of both access to water and water quality as a result of climate change, industrial activity, and population growth. The goal of this project is to establish a functioning and stable cooperation network called "Water Quality and Food Safety (WQ&FS)" between HEIs from 4 countries: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.

Networking is influenced by the experience of successful activities of the network "Rural Water Protection", established in 2017, and consists today of 4 Nordic and Baltic partners performing actively in the field of rural water protection. The network WQ&FS combines Food Technology and Environmental Protection fields and enables the project partner lecturers and researchers to conduct joint research, produce publications, and share experiences on the water quality impact on food safety. The network provides communication between the partners and helps disseminate good practices in the project field. Every member of the network has its own exclusive competence in the project area that creates a possibility to search for an innovative approach toward teaching and training competencies for water protection and food safety.

The WQ&FS network will provide activities such as teacher mobility, as well as an intensive course. The network could be used as the platform for research collaboration which creates opportunities for the development of common research projects in the future.