RE SEARCH Wageningen Potato Centre (WPC) has been bringing science and practice further important source of information is our website. After logging in, you’ll find, among other things, the (digital) newsletters that can be consulted. In addition, you’ll find the PowerPoint presentations and talks that speakers gave at the meetings, and various links to informative websites related to the potato sector. Moreover, we offer WPC partners the unique opportunity of searching for in-depth information in the Wageningen UR library.’ ‘Our aim is to transfer knowledge of scientific and practical research to the business world’, explain Marcel Tramper, Marieke Ampt and Thie-Arend Arend (left to right) time, we visited tomato greenhouses with a special system for heat extraction from the soil, which could be of interest for the storage of potatoes. Sometimes, we end a knowledge session with a workshop or a tasting event. We do this to make the programme a little bit lighter, but also to get to know each other better as partners. That’s something we strive for at every meeting anyway. To underline this, all meetings include either a lunch or a dinner. Together with the initial welcome and the coffee/tea breaks, these are important contact and network moments. The partners very much appreciate them.’ And the other tools of WPC? Marcel Tramper: ‘Another source of information exchange within WPC is our newsletter, which is now published six times a year. Our last newsletter was no. 26. The newsletter contains all kinds of information about studies in the potato sector, but also brief reports of our meetings. Partners who were present can use the reports for reference purposes and those who were unable to attend receive the information too. A Which businesses are, in fact, WPC partners? Thie-Arend Brouwer: ‘Every expertise from the business world that’s active in the potato sector and serves the primary sector comes together in WPC. Specialists in trading, breeding, processing, crop protection, fertiliser, mechanisation, research and science. We now have thirty affiliated partners. And we’re talking again to five prospective partners. We’re growing step-by-step and now have quite a motley gathering. That’s what makes it so interesting for the partners. You learn from each other to look beyond the boundaries of your own discipline. At meetings, partners often come to the realisation that they share the same interests and that they can reinforce each other. And this may also apply to competitors in the trade, as we’ve seen in the past five years. I’m certain that they’d all agree with that. To avoid competitors within WPC becoming uneasy where business-specific information is concerned, we avoid topics that could be awkward. This isn’t really difficult, because most themes we address are still in the beginning stages ‘No, we didn’t get any subsidy and we never asked for it.’ of scientific research, which means that everything is still flexible. In view of the growing number of partners and those who are already queuing up to join, we recently expanded the organisation with a new talent in the person of Marieke Ampt. Her package of tasks is fairly broad. It ranges from convening meetings to extending existing services and developing additional ones.’ What are your plans for the coming five years? Marieke Ampt: ‘One of the things we’re going to focus on is further internationalisation. We already cooperate closely with research stations and businesses in Belgium. This has already led to two informative gatherings well beyond the border which is reported to have been very enjoyable. In the last five years, the organisation has met with other foreign organisations who are looking with a great deal of interest at the unique model of exchanging knowledge that we’ve established between trade and industry and science. We’re talking with some of them. Furthermore, we’d like to offer our partners the opportunity of ‘All topics relate to something we’re passionate about and this means that all meetings always take place in an open and relaxed atmosphere.’ organising courses at practical / research locations. All in all, enough opportunities to keep developing WPC further. We’re really very much looking forward to that.’ ● Leo Hanse Potato World 2015 • number 3 7 Pagina 6
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