Olive Council Awards Four Research Scholarships

The scholarships will cover four years and fund research focusing on standardization, olive technology and cooperation.

A new round of Ph.D. scholarships has been awarded by the International Olive Council (IOC) to four students selected within its member states. The IOC will fund their research work for the next four years.

“These scholarships aim to encourage technology transfer, and the sharing of information and research results in the field of olive cultivation, olive technology and standardization activities among member countries,” the IOC said.

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The awarding process followed a similar announcement in 2020 and it is part of the technical cooperation and training program that the IOC dedicates to scientific research.

The research funding project provides scholarships to Ph.D. students focussed on the objectives of the International Agreement on Olive Oil and Table Olive 2015.

The awarded students will be able to use the funds to research organoleptic and physicochemical characteristic detection methods, olive growing and manipulation techniques, technical cooperation among producing countries, preservation of genetic resources, environmental impact studies and climate change.

To be eligible for the scholarships, applicants must also have a related degree, including food science and technology, agronomy or olive studies, biology, economics or chemistry. They also need a master’s degree related to olive cultivation.

The selected theses were:

  • Epigenomic consequences of hydroxytyrosol consumption in cardiometabolic diseases, Andrea Del Saz Lara (Spain);
  • Bioinformatics and genomics for the olive tree adaptation to climate change: identification of markers associated with drought and chilling requirement for flowering in order to select the most suitable genotypes, Laila Aqbouch (Morocco);
  • Food Safety within Extra virgin Olive Oil Production, Akram Charfi (Tunisia);
  • Chilling requirements, genetic regulation and modeling of the flowering, Rüstü Efe Değer (Turkey).

The IOC asks recipients of its scholarships to work with institutions both within and outside their country of origin. The thesis supervisors must be recognized specialists in the olive sector.