BACKGROUND AND DENOMINATION

The University Institute for Viticulture and Agrifood Research (IVAGRO) is an entity devoted primarily to research excellence in viticulture in particular and agri-food in general.

The Institute is headquartered in the Andalusian Center for Wine Research (CAIV), located on the Campus of Puerto Real of the UCA. This center will provide an important part of the scientific infrastructure and facilities with which the Institute will have.

The Andalusian Center for Wine Research (CAIV) arises within the framework of the II Andalusian Research Plan, as part of a program in which it is committed to the creation of thematic centers of regional dimension, although linked to a specific University, with the objective to agglutinate and serve as a link to the different institutions that work in a thematic field in Andalusia.

The University of Cádiz got this Wine Research Center linked to it and it was built on the University Campus of Puerto Real. This decision was certainly fortunate, given the prominence of agri-food research in general and wine in particular in this University, and also the high number of institutions and companies located in the vicinity of the province of Cádiz: the Wine Regulatory Council, the Council Regulator of Brandy, the Federation of Wine Companies of Jerez, IFAPA, etc.

The suitability of this bet has been revalidated with the obtaining of the Project of Campus of International Excellence Agroalimentario (CeiA3) coordinated by the University of Cordova with the participation of the universities of Cádiz, Huelva, Almería and Jaén as well as an important number of organisms of research of the agri-food sector.

This Center achieved the initial necessary subsidy for the construction of the building, as well as an important scientific infrastructure in competitive calls (laboratory furniture, equipment for thematic laboratories, pilot plants, etc.). However, despite the fact that the CAIV has been subject to several evaluations by PAIDI itself, it has not closed its Specific Cooperation Agreement between the Department of Education and Science of the Junta de Andalucía and the University of Cádiz.

It includes a series of researchers from technical research groups (AGR122, AGR203, BIO219, TEP128, TEP105, FQM295, FQM286) and humanistic focus groups (HUM332, HUM 315, HUM240, HUM 509, HUM IVAGRO Memory of the creation of the University Institute of Wine and Agri-Food Research 4 182, HUM 530), which develop their research projects and contracts with companies in the CAIV facilities, in accordance with the objectives set in their day.

The initial objectives of the center were clearly focused on wine activities. However, in recent years new activities have been developed focused on agri-food in general, due to several factors:

a) The same research groups initially integrated in the center have diversified their lines of work towards more general aspects of agri-food.

b) The implementation of the Official Agri-Food Master’s Degree since the 2006-07 academic year has resulted in the greatest dedication to agri-food issues, in the completion of master’s and doctoral theses.

c) A close collaboration has been initiated with the Scientific and Technological Agroindustrial Park of Jerez (PCTA-Jerez).

d) The acquisition of scientific infrastructure for general uses in agro-food.

e) The birth of the Agri-Food International Campus of Excellence (CeiA3).

All these factors have caused the center to expand its objectives to accommodate new lines of work in agri-food, as well as the incorporation of new researchers belonging to groups linked to the CeiA3 scientific-technical approach (TEP181, TIC168, RNM216, CTS939, RNM210, CTS258, RNM204), as well as legal-economic-historical approach (SEJ152, HUM315, SEJ503, SEJ482, HUM398, HUM332, HUM240, HUM 509, HUM 182, HUM 530).

For all these reasons, the University of Cádiz considers it appropriate to create the University Institute for Wine and Agri-Food Research (IVAGRO), which is primarily devoted to scientific-technical research, as well as legal-economic-historical research on vitiviniculture in particular and agri-food in general. . This center should become a reference institute of CeiA3.

IVAGRO has its headquarters in the Andalusian Wine Research Center (CAIV), providing its own building and the scientific infrastructure to the new Institute (IVAGRO), as well as other units of the UCA for the development of non-experimental research. The rest of the equipment and installations come from the research groups, the scientific equipment of the approved Services of the UCA, as well as the Central Service of Science and Technology.

In principle, the IVAGRO Institute is proposed as the University Institute of Research of the UCA. However, in the future it intends to acquire the interuniversity dimension under the umbrella of the Agri-Food International Campus of Excellence, joining in a line of research in vitiviniculture and agri-food of the researchers from the rest of the universities (Almería, Córdoba, Huelva and Jaén ), CSIC and IFAPA centers, and other research centers that make up CeiA3.