AMBER: first project meeting in Ifrane, Morocco

The Accelerate Moroccan's Biogas Sector: A Higher Education-Industry Partnership (AMBER) project is dedicated to promoting a thriving biogas sector in Morocco. It is funded by the DAAD and will run until December 2025, focusing on the collaboration of all partners involved - Al Akhawayn University (AUI), École Nationale d'Agriculture (ENA) and THI, as well as industry partners from Morocco (Coopérative Al Wifac, Biodôme, Ben Aziz Agri) and Germany (Awite Bioenergie GmbH, Snowleopard Projects GmbH). In May 2023, our first project meeting took place at AUI in Ifrane.

On the first day of our project meeting, the partners of the respective universities introduced themselves to each other and presented their own research projects in the field of biogas. In further presentations and discussions, the proposed research projects of the PhD students were presented and discussed and upcoming actions for the project were further developed.

ENA showed us their university and laboratories on day two to give all other project partners a better insight into their own focus areas and existing knowledge. Afterward, we visited the farm of a cooperative to get an on-site overview of the local conditions and options for further biogas application.

The third and last day of our kick-off event was dedicated to the expansion of the biogas network and we visited a company in Rabat as well as a university in Kenitra. Both can contribute a lot of knowledge and experience in the biogas field to the AMBER project and are looking forward to being part of the biogas network and to collaborating with other companies and universities. We thank the Moroccan partners for their warm hospitality and look forward to further cooperation in the AMBER project.