SOAR was established in June 2001 through cooperation between the Royal Veterinary- and Agricultural University (KVL), now the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen (LIFE) and the Danish Research Centre for Organic Farming (DARCOF), now the International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems (ICROFS), and with support from the Danish Research Agency (now the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, FI).
SOAR is placed at the Faculty for Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, and offers PhD courses, seminars and a Network for PhD students with interest in organic agriculture and food systems.
The research school is open to all PhD students working with organic agriculture and food production, and enrolled at Danish universities. SOAR is also co-financing PhD stipends when funding is available. For further information please go to 'Enrolment'.
A major goal is to raise the scientific level of research within areas relevant to organic agriculture by training the students to deal with complex problems. With support from SOAR, scientists who are not directly involved in research in organic agriculture and food systems can be engaged in supervision of students and can use the network of researchers (about 25 senior researchers in a variety of topics is associated with SOAR), who have a great knowledge of the ideas and technology behind organic agriculture. Another goal for SOAR is to create an attractive environment for the PhD students in organic farming.
SOAR has received funding for a new 5 years' period 2006-10 from the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, and has formulated a strategy for this time period.
1. Organic crop production, quality of the environment and management of resources 2. Organic livestock production and health 3. Organic agriculture/food production and society
SOAR takes part in the NOVA University Network in Agroecology. Under this NOVA Network the Nordic School of Agroecology/Ecological Agriculture was established in 2003, named Agroasis. Agroasis offers a Masters programme in agroecology at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, UMB. Pamphlet.
Our vision is to strengthen international cooperation particularly within Europe both in terms of student exchange and courses in organic agriculture and food systems.
The statutes of SOAR are available here in English and Danish (vedtægter).