News

In October, Dr Sjöfn Vilhelmsdóttir, the Director of GRÓ LRT, travelled to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to visit GRÓ LRT's partner institutions in both countries. The purpose of the visits was to meet with the directors of these partner institutions and interview potential candidates for GRÓ LRT Fellowships to attend the annual six-month training in Iceland. Dr Bryndís Marteinsdóttir from the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland, who is a member of the GRÓ LRT Academic Committee and a key lecturer in the training programme, accompanied Sjöfn on the visit to Uzbekistan.

GRÓ LRT's Deputy Director, Berglind Orradottir, and Dr Johann Thorsson, a Senior Scientist at the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland, and a member of the GRÓ LRT’s academic committee, embarked on a fact-finding mission to Kenya in September. The primary objective of this visit was to establish connections with government agencies and research institutes actively involved in land restoration and sustainable land management. Their aim was to explore potential avenues for collaboration between these organizations and GRÓ LRT.

Ms. Binna Kipandula and Mr. Leonard Gondwe, both from Malawi, started their master's studies at the Agricultural University of Iceland in late August, on a scholarship from GRÓ LRT. Following their successful completion of the six-month training programme in Iceland in 2022, they applied to and were granted admission to the newly-established MSc programme in Restoration Ecology at the Agricultural University of Iceland.

The GRÓ Land Restoration Training Programme celebrated the graduation of 23 fellows from GRÓ LRT’s six-month training on 29 August at the Keldnaholt campus of the Agricultural University of Iceland. This is the 16th graduating cohort of GRÓ LRT and the largest one to date.

The GRÓ LRT fellows had the honour of visiting the President of Iceland, Mr. Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, at Bessastaðir, the presidential residence, this week.

As this year’s six-month programme draws to an end, the GRÓ LRT fellows are busy with finalizing their individual projects. Today and yesterday, they have presented the results of their projects in open seminars at the Keldnaholt campus of the Agricultural University of Iceland. Over the preceding months, the fellows have pursued their projects under the expert guidance of specialists from various institutes and organizations in Iceland.