Project Title: “Capacity Building of Personnel in Jordanian Olive
Project consortium: Ten partners participate in this project, they are:
1. The University of Jordan (UJ), (The Grant Holder)
2.Jordan University of Science & Technology (JUST)
3.Muta University (MU)
4.Balqa Applied University/Alhuson University Collage (BAU)
5.The Jordanian Society for Sensory Evaluation of Food (JSSEF)
6.The Jordanian Society for Olive Products Exporters (JOPEA)
and other four EU Universities
7.Granada University, Spain ;
8.Verona University, Italy;
9.Aristotle University of The Salonika, Greece; and
10.Institute for Olive Tree and Subtropical plants(ELGO), GreeceIndustry”
Project activities:
The project duration is 36 months and will end by December, 2016
The project concentrates on building capacity for olive farmers, olive mill personnel, table olive personnel and olive sensory evaluation teams.
The project includes six work packages and 20 deliverables covering the activities that should be carried out during the project life.
These activities will be detailed later on in this presentation
The performed activities include the following:
1. Establishing the project administrative and technical team in April 2014
2. Establishing the project consulting committee and the steering committee and arranging the 1st meeting for the consulting committee at 6th April 2014
3.Managing the project and writing and contacting the partners and answering their enquiries
4 . Following up the master program for olive production and technology which has been established and accredited in UJ and will open next September
5. Signing the agreements between UJ and EACEA in Feb. 2014
6.Receiving the 1st installment of the project (60% of the grant) by UJ in March
2014
7. The total amount of the grant is about 800.000 EUR, the UJ share is about 400,000 EUR, where 194,000 EUR will be specified for purchasing olive machinery and establishing 3 labs. The share of the other 5 Jordanian institutes reaches to about 200.000 EUR , while the share of the EU institutes reaches to about 200,000 EUR
8.Signing the partner agreements between UJ and the other nine partners in April 2014
9. Distribution of funds after signing the bi-agreements and having a project account in EUR, accordingly, the money was changed to partners in May 2014
10. The building activity has been started by the 18th of Nov. 2014 and was completed by the middle of July 2015. The two branches of the training center, one in Irbid and the second in Karak are also completed.
11. Determining the specification for the needed olive machinery and starting contacting the olive machinery manufacturers to provide quotation for the needed equipments. Several quotations were received and studied and inquiries from the companies were answered.
12. A visit to the main olive machinery manufacturers in Italy and Spain was made by Prof Alsaed and eng. Albsoul. During the visit, quotations were discussed and solid specifications were collected.
13. Purchasing of the needed equipment: The purchasing of a small olive mill and olive pickling line was faced with some difficulties. Reservation of allowances as well as specifications and purchasing orders were sent to the central tendering committee before 8 months, finally, the purchasing process has reach to an end and a Turkish company was selected and the olive equipment to be received and installed at the training center during 2 months.
14. Preparing the specifications for the needed labs and contacting the local labs manufacturers to provide quotations for the needed labs
15. Establishing of Labs. And lecturing room: Lecturing room has been provided with the needed equipment and now is in use; efforts are being paid to provide the labs with the needed equipment.
16 .Preparing for the project disseminating meeting: The kick-off meeting of the project was held on 23 and 24.06.2014 at the University of Jordan with the attendance of all Jordanian and European partners under the auspices of 17. Attending the 1st management meeting in Verona/Italy on 25-26 Feb. 2015. The coordinator (Prof. Al-Saed) gave a presentation about the project achieved activities. Many issues related to the project were discussed i.e staff and student exchange, training courses, project website, the results of the 1st monitoring visit, the final disseminating meeting and the distribution of the different project delivelirables responsibilities
18. Finilizing the preparations for conducting the seminars and workshops:
The steering committee agreed to train trainers for farmers, olive mills, table olive and sensory teams in 2015 and 2016 with the maximum possible number of trainees as planned in the work plan of the project.
19. The project 2nd work package covered the training task. It was planned to have 6 training courses in 2015 covering the sensory evaluation of olive and olive oil, olive mills, pickling issues as well as olive farmers trainers. The trainers were assigned, had 2 meeting to distribute the training subjects; the program for each course was decided and the scientific material were collected and filed and put on a CD and distributed at the beginning of each course.
20.Staff exchange and course development as well as graduate student exchange. Most of the visits under the staff exchange activity for 2015 year have been completed and efforts are being paid to activate the students exchange
21.The 2nd management meeting of the project was held in Amman by 21/10/2015; it was opened on behaves of the rector of UJ, Prof Ghaleb Sweis. The meeting continued for 2 days and was attended by all EU and JO partners and many issues related to the project were discussed
22. Construction and creating the website of the project. It can be reached using the link "tempusolive.com“
23. The project work-plan has one disseminating and 4 management meetings where the steering committee assess how the activities of the project proceeds.
24. Additionally, the Jordanian partners used to hold a monthly meeting and assess how the project proceeds, until now 29 meetings were held
25. Monitoring visit to the project by NTO and Brussels officials and their report: The preventive field monitoring visit was carried out by Prof. Ahmad Abu-El-Haija and Ms Haneen Bittar from the National Erasmus+ Office (NEO) in Jordan and Mr Philippe Ruffio from the Agency in Brussels (EACEA) at the University of Jordan on 07/12/2014.
26. Starting the assessing quality study for local olive and olive oil and collecting samples from different regions of the country in October 2014, and carrying the physico-chemical and sensory properties for the collected samples.The study was completed and the results were analyzed statistically and a scientific paper is being written
27. Writing the mid project report and sending it to Brussels; it was evaluated and accepted with some observations
28. Distribution of the twenty deliverables of the 6th work packages:
Wp1:
D1 : prof.Ali , prof .Taha , dr.Radwan ,dr.Khalid al-Absi
D2 : prof.Fabio ,Jordanian team (JO team ) ; D3 : JO team ; D4 : Done ; D5 : prof.Ali , prof.Fabio , Ruba , Rabaa
Wp2:
D1 : JO team , JOPEA , prof.Kostas; D2 : JO team , EU partners; D3 : prof.Fabio ,JO team , prof.Kostas
D4 : prof.Khalid al-Samail , prof.kostas , JOPEA ; D5 : prof.Antonio , Ruba , prof.Ali , Rabaa ,haneen
Wp3:
D1 : prof.Khalid al-Samail , JO team ‘ D2 : prof. Ali , Rabaa , all ; D3 : prof.Ali , all
Wp4:
D1 : prof.Ali ; D2 : prof. Kostas; D3 : prof.Ali , all
Wp5:
D1 : JO team , prof. Fabio; D2 : JO team , prof. Fabio
Wp6:
Ruba , Rabaa , dr.Radwan ,JO team
29. There is a meeting for the project high administrative and financial committee every 3 months and the agenda for that meeting concentrates on how the project proceeds
30. A financial expert have been appointed for the project by April 2015 and he is taking care with the financial matter of the project.
31. The project financial personnel meeting started on 25th October in Amman for a duration of two days; the 1st day was specified for Jordanian partners while the 2nd day was for EU partners. Skype was practiced through the meeting and many financial issues were discussed.
32. Carrying out activities related to the project dissemination process)wp5/d2(, such as: attending the IV olive biotech held in Amman by the 1st of Nov. 2014, participating in the 2014 olive festival In Alhusainiyah (south of Jordan) in October 2014, participating in the 2014 olive festival In Irbid (north of Jordan) on 19th Nov. 2014, preparing some materials and objects relating to the dissemination activity such as pens, posters mugs, brochures …etc
33. Arranging an olive scientific workshop in Amman with the cooperation of Amman Industry Chamber on 20th December 2014, arranging an olive scientific workshop in Karak city with the cooperation of Jordanian Agri. Engineers Assoc. on 13th December 2014, arranging an olive scientific day in Irbid city with the cooperation of Irbid Agri. Directorate. on 22th Nov. 2014
34. Sustainability and continuebility of the project: The olive training centre in UJ and its two branches in the north and south of Jordan will continue offering training courses and seminars to olive farmers, olive mills personnel, table olive personnel as well as establishing olive and olive oil sensory teams
35. The website of the project will also continue working and providing information related to olive subjects
36. The 5 established laboratories is planned to be accredited after the end of the project (2017/2018), to be qualified to offer services in the field of olive and olive oil sensory and chemical analysis.
37. Fees taken from the training process, sensory and chemical analysis as well as from the website will constitute available resources for the project sustainability.