EcoServ Project Presented at the APPEAR in Practice Event
BOKU ILEN, in collaboration with the OeAD (Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalisation), co-organised “APPEAR in Practice – Strengthening Higher Education Cooperation between Armenia and Austria” on the 18th of June 2026 at the BOKU University, Vienna.
The event showcased long-term academic cooperation between BOKU University and Armenian higher education institutions within the APPEAR programme (Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development), highlighting the role of development research partnerships in advancing sustainable development, capacity building, and knowledge exchange, with particular emphasis on environmental research and ecosystem-related themes.
The event was opened by BOKU Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation, Christoph Pfeifer, who welcomed participants and contributed to an engaging panel discussion. The Ambassador of Armenia to Austria and Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna, H.E. Andranik Hovhannisyan, emphasised the importance of such collaborations for strengthening research and higher education capacities in Armenia and supporting its integration into the European Higher Education Area.
A key highlight was the presentation of the EcoServ project team, which showcased results in aquatic ecosystem conservation, research capacity building, curriculum development, and citizen science approaches that engage local communities in ecosystem monitoring and environmental knowledge co-production.
The event was supported by the Erasmus+ Mobility Programme and BOKU, facilitating the visit of the Armenian EcoServ team and enabling academic exchange and collaboration.
The cooperation between BOKU and Armenian partner institutions builds on a long-standing partnership in areas including ecosystem and natural resource management, organic agriculture, transdisciplinary research, tourism development, and sustainability-oriented education.