In 2011 the Visegrad University Association (VUA) was founded in Nitra/Slovakia as an international network for academia of agriculture. The success-story of VUA shows Annual General Meetings and Summer Schools - also in connection with double-diploma.

Addicionally an annual Youth Forum followed. The 7th VUA Youth Forum was organized in 2020 as a hybrid Zoom Conference by Szent Istvan University/Hungary chaired by Prof.Dr. R.Magda/Hungary and as key-note speakers Prof.Dr.B.Hallier/Germany and Prof.Dr.U.Raut/India. All three professors agreed in the point that as well on the macro-level as also on the micro-levels the world is in a dramatic disruption with effects on standards not only on the business world with new business-models but also in the education-sector. A total of 21 PhD-students from Bangladesh, Germany, Hungary, India, Slovakia and Ukraine followed their papers under the general headline : Challenges and Changes under the shadow of Covid 19".
 

In the hybrid Shymkent Conference at the 2020 International Day of Science the Korean Nobel Laureate of 2007 Prof.Dr.R.Chung proposed a new calculation for encluding the use of Carbon into the prices of products/services. That proposal was now enlarged by Prof.Dr.B.Hallier due to activities initiated by his friend, the German Federal Envirionment Minister Prof.Dr.Klaus Toepfer, in the 80ies of the last century. "Chung's as well as Toepfer's considerations are based on the idea to add the costs of Carbon(Chung) and for Redistribution of Package Materials/Recycling/Waste disposal (Toepfer) to the traditionally calculated costs for products and services. This is not only fair in respect of used resources of the environment but also ethical in terms of the present versus the future generations of our globe! We have to harmonize our economic, ecological and ethical as well as local, regional and global needs in new optimization formulars !" Hallier summarized the Conference input and presents the following new holistic environmental/ethical price calculation formular :

Recalling the situation of the 80ies he remembers three German Regulations which determined the package design ( DPP-models to measure the costs for individual products in the distribution- and redistribution processes ), standardizations of palettes/transport- and sales-units, green-dote-system for recycling etc. "Klaus Toepfer was the first politician who discovered the Power of Listing Products in Trade" Hallier remembers. "After that common experience I used the same principle for Tracing/Tracking cows/beef at the BSE-crises1994/1996 (developing the EU-Regulations in this sector) and shortly after that the European Good Agricultural Practice for fruit and vegatables (EUREP-Gap) which meanwhile is well established as GLOBALGAP as a benchmark in around 150 countries world-wide! We used publications and seminars about Best Practice of Partners as a Marketing-Tool to push the speed of transformation (Applied Sciences) between the Vision and the Realization of the projects. That was the key for the success of the systems : therefore it did not remain Theory but Applied Cases ! -- The Limits remain the Competition/ social acceptance of the price needed to get all factors in !" Hallier added.
 

As an AIESEC-student Bernd Hallier visied 50 years ago Turkey, Israel, USA, SouthAfrica and Japan - later as a professional he lectured at all continents around the globe. In 2005 Professor Hallier founded the European Retail Academy to promote vocational competence in retail; in 2011 he was awarded with the "Star of Eurasia" and the title "Honorary Ambassador of Peace" by the Eurasian Economic Youth Forum.

Working in the Silk Road Mayors' Club LINK and cooperating with China's Two-dimensional Code Industry (ZIIOT) Prof.Hallier added now a MOU with Global Cultural Adventures GCA) / Beijing to the global network. "Cultural exchanges and international interships for the youth of the world should belong to the standards for future global leaders" Hallier stated signing the MOU.
 

In 1994/96 Prof.Dr.Hallier initiated as an anti-crisis response to the British Cow Desease (BSE) in the AgriBusiness the German tracing/ tracking system Orgainvent for cows and beef which later was the basis for EU-regulations ( see pic "From Crisis to Competence" and Link "Tils Cutting House"). 25 years later the historic review and proposals for application within Developing Economies in the Reader about Animal Sourced Food published by Prof. Dr. I.M.Khan from the University of Faisalabad/Pakistan shows how long global penetration of innovation in the food chain needs !

See also the YouTube-Link TILS-Cuttinghouse

In 2020 Prof.Hallier demands as a response to COVID-19 to add to the standards of global food distribution an enlargement of the focus HACCP and also a Chapter about Social Welfare for Labour : "We are all in a Responsibility Chain in global suppply : we cannot claim targets for animal welfare while neglecting the human beings" he stated demanding an equilibrium between Economics, Ecology and Ethics.
 

In October 2017 the Thematic University Network (Food) was started at the ANUGA Exhibition in Cologne as a manifest for blended learning about standards along the distribution from farm to fork. The former ERA-trainee Dr. Alina Pukhovskaya designed the www.european-retail-academy.org/TUN as a multi-lingual option for global training.

Now Violena Nencheva from Bulgaria starts her ERA-training by pushing the Spanish TUN-Site ; her next step in applied sciences would be Middle- or South America. Language is important not only for the flow of product distribution but also for the knowledge distribution in a globalizing world as Prof.Dr.Hallier stated when welcoming Violena Nencheva.