UH 066 450 European Master in Animal Breeding and Genetics (Joint degree)

The focus of the European Master in Animal Breeding and Genetics (EMABG) is on the development of sustainable breeding programmes for farm animals, fish and companion animals. The master programme offers high quality training in the field of animal breeding and genetics. It can be followed at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, only (Mobility track 1: National degree) or as an international joint master programme “European Master in Animal Breeding and Genetics” (Mobility track 2: Joint degree), offered at six leading European universities.

EMABG fills a real need for the industry sector and the whole society. It is designed to answer the scientific, practical and societal challenges of animal breeding and genomics. These challenges can be summarised for both developed and low-income countries as follows:

• meet the increased demand for animal and fish products, while preserving or improving the quality of the products, the welfare of animals and minimizing the environmental impact;
• preserve natural resources, with special attention to biodiversity;
• make efficient use of novel tools and technologies to reach these goals while maintaining social acceptance of animal breeding;
• develop sustainable animal breeding programmes that contribute to improved livelihood of farmers and efficient food chains;
• develop sustainable breeding programmes that contribute to improved health and welfare of companion animals, including populations in zoos and nature reserves.

EMABG graduates will be trained to formulate and provide effective and appropriate responses to these challenges. EMABG offers quality higher education in Animal Breeding and Genetics with a distinct European added value, which is attractive for students from all over the world.

Admission

EMABG is open to motivated and excellent students who have completed BSc or equivalent degrees in animal science or related fields and good knowledge in English (TOEFL/IELTS-test/ demonstrated competence) from all countries. Student admission, enrolment and degrees are handled by the consortium committee. Details on application and admission procedure can be found on www.emabg.eu.

Structure of the international EMABG programme

The consortium consists of University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, BOKU (Austria) as Coordinator, Wageningen University, WUR (the Netherlands), Georg-August-University Goettingen, UGOE (Germany), Institut des sciences et industries du vivant et de l’environment (AgroParisTech), APT (France), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU (Sweden) and The Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NMBU (Norway).

Specialisations are offered in one of four areas:

• Breeding programmes in low-income countries (WUR – BOKU)
• Biological and societal context of breeding (WUR – SLU or UGOE – SLU)
• Genomic selection and precise phenotypes (WUR – NMBU or UGOE – NMBU)
• Integrative biology (UGOE – APT)

All EMABG students conduct the major part of their training at two institutes/institutions of the consortium.

Joint curricular elements such as the Welcome course, a breeding lab, an internship placement, a summer course, and jointly-supervised thesis work provide a rich learning environment where students work closely together with industry partners on individual or group assignments (breeding lab and internship), discussions on societal issues (summer course) and specific research questions with data sets provided by industry partners (thesis).

Students will be awarded either two nationally recognized master’s degrees (=double degree) or a joint degree, together with a specific EMABG Master’s certificate.