The competition acknowledges and champions the most promising research by PhD and post-doctorate students working around the world across animal, aquaculture and veterinary sciences.
In its inaugural year, the Nutreco Young Researchers Prize received 57 outstanding research proposal submissions within the three categories; precision farming, young animal nutrition, and animal health and welfare.
The jury interviewed 10 shortlisted candidates in a series of virtual interviews. Then, this week, the top three candidates presented their proposals to Nutreco’s CEO, Rob Koremans.
“Each of these projects was chosen for its innovativeness, its value to the agricultural industries, and its sustainability as a proposal. I would like to congratulate the winners. I was astounded by the quality of research shown by the applicants, and it was with great difficulty that we narrowed down the top three winners’ projects. It’s vital that companies like ours support the work being done by excellent young researchers – they are, after all, working on projects that will help us feed the future,” said Koremans.
The third prize, worth €5,000, was awarded to Guillermo Bardera from the University of the West of Scotland, whose project focuses on assessing feed attractability in Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) using Ethovision tracking software.
The top two prizes – valued at €12,000 and €8,000 respectively – were awarded to Sudhanshu Sudan from the University of Guelph in Canada and Ning Ma from China Agricultural University. Both projects related to the use of probiotics in the pig sector.
