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Viewing 38 out of 38 projects
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funding agency| 2009-03-10 | Article in L'Hebdo Vétérinaire following a contribution of Guy Hendrickx to a workshop on bluetongue at the Veterinary Faculty of Ghent. |
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| 2008-10-23 | Interview contribution to a two page article on emerging zoonoses in the science pages of De Standaard, the leading Flemish daily newspaper (In Dutch). |
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| 2008-09-01 | Article about the EDEN project in a 32 page special issue on emerging diseases of "Agriculture, Alimentation et Espaces Ruraux" a professional journal of the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing (In French). |
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| 2008-07-16 | Interview about the spread of bluetongue (BTV8) by wind in Europe published in the ‘Semaine Vétérinaire”, the French weekly veterinarian journal. |
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| 2008-06-20 | First Culicoides caught during first flight in Temploux! This is a major milestone for Avia-GIS. Several months of hard work with partners yield a 100% success. With this we prove that the trap can serve its purpose. From literature reviews it is clear that this is a first! This new tool opens new avenues towards understanding the biodiversity of airborne insects, and essential step to understand and predict their spread more accurately. On the medium term Avia-GIS seeks applications in veterinary and medical entomology, in agriculture, forestry... : the sky is the limit! - See also ABTD and Ventomo projects. |
| 2008-06-19 | First operational Avia-GIS/Fly4You flight in Wevelgem with the ABTD and first aerial insect sample collected! After some fine-tuning and unexpected problems with propeller wash effect increasing the drag of the trap, the trap now is operational. Flights are funded by FOD Volksgezondheid through the VENTOMO project. This project is conducted jointly with CRA-W, the Walloon Agriculture Research Centre, a nice example that collaboration in Belgium between regions can be very constructive. Flights will be conducted using the same protocol in Wevelgem (Flanders) and Temploux (Wallonia) - see also ABTD and Ventomo projects. |
| 2008-06-13 | Guy Hendrickx (Avia-GIS / Euro-AEGIS) participates at press conference at ECDC in Stockholm to comment on the results of the V-borne project. During the closing workshop with 20 project contributors and 10 independent experts short and longer term vector borne disease priorities for ECDC were proposed - See also V-borne project. |
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| 2008-05-30 | Memorandum of Agreement signed with VAR, the National Veterinary Reference Laboratory. This agreement is an important milestone for Avia-GIS, and we are looking forward to a very fruitful collaboration. Currently two collaboration projects are being discussed. |
| 2008-05-18 | Three page interview of Guy Hendrickx by Dirk Draulans for the leading Flemish weekly: published in Knack issue 28 May. The interview focuses on the development of the ABTD. The Spin-in strategy of Avia-GIS is highlighted in a box: through signed framework collaboration agreements with University departments, Reference labs and other Research Institutions the technologies and methods developed by Avia-GIS are made available for spatial epidemiological research. |
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| 2008-04-09 | Radio 4FM interview Interview of Guy Hendrickx about emerging diseases on 4FM radio (in Dutch). |
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| 2008-04-01 | Eva De Clercq joins Avia-GIS as permanent staff member Eva is a bio-engineer (MSc), PhD, specialised in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), fragmentation analysis, spatial data assimilation and land cover change modelling. |
| 2008-03-14 | Start of the TigerMaps project, a second six month project with ECDC. The project was written by Avia-GIS jointly with Francis Schaffner, our mosquito research collaborator. It aims at mapping the current distribution and spread of Aedes albopictus in Europe and is conducted jointly with Jolyon Medlock from the Institute of Animal Health (IAH, UK) and Ernst Jan Scholte, and independent mosquito consultant - See also TigerMaps project. |
| 2008-02-13 | Alex Shaw joins Avia-GIS as research associate Alex Shaw joins Avia-GIS as a new research associate. She has over 30 years' experience with analysing the economics of health programmes in both the medical and veterinary sectors, during which she has worked in over 20 African countries. |
| 2008-01-28 | Kick-off meeting of the Airborne Trapping Device Project (ABTD). This project is an initiative of Avia-GIS following successful modelling of the spread of bluetongue by wind. To improve these models knowledge is needed about aerial transport of Culicoides midges. The project is conducted jointly with the Von Karman Institute who has the largest sub-sonic wind tunnel facility in Belgium. Costs for the innovation study are shared equally by both partners and a 60% innovation subsidy has been allocated by IWT. Once the trap parameters will have been established as an outcome of this innovation study a trap prototype will be constructed and tested in partnership with Fly4You, a small company based in Wevelgem, specialised in airborne advertisement. |
| 2007-10-05 | Start of the V-borne project funded by ECDC. Again an important milestone for Avia-GIS, our first project with ECDC and the second project we will execute under the Euro-AEGIS flag jointly with ERGO. V-borne is a nine month project to assess the public health risk of (re)emergence of vector borne diseases in Europe. It was written by Avia-GIS and is conducted with a group of 24 EDEN and other partners under the administrative coordination of CIRAD. Click on V-borne project thumbnail for more info. |
| 2007-09-24 | Spread of BTV8 to UK predicted by wind models Windspreadmodels for Culicoides species transmitting bluetongue, developed by Avia-GIS during the 2006 BTV8 outbreak in Benelux, Germany and France, correctly predicted the potential dispersal and area of entry in the United Kingdom. |
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| 2007-06-01 | MODIRISK real time field survey registration system online The MODIRISK real time field survery registration system is now online. This system, developed by Avia-GIS, is an integration of database, web, and mobile/handheld technologies to provide the relevant information to MODIRISK teams at any time at any location. |
| 2007-05-02 | MODIRISK press conference Press conference at ITM announcing the official launch of the first mosquito trapping season in Belgium prepared by a press release (see document). The news was largely disseminated by Belgian television, radio and newspapers (see examples). Avia-GIS planned the spatial sampling campaign and developed a web-based follow up. Sampling points have been generated at random and geo-coded sample addresses have been generated automatically. Letters are sent to request peoples assistance whilst sampling in their premises. Progress is recorded through palm top entries and shown online at: http://modirisk.avia-gis.com. During the press conference Avia-GIS was wrongly referred to as a Spin-Off from ITM. A measure of success? |
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| 2007-04-19 | BT51 organizes workshop on BTV8 at CIDC in Lelysta Workshop organized by and at CIDC, Leliestad, Netherlands, to communicate the results of the BT51 group to the wider veterinary community in The Netherlands. As an outcome of this workshop an article, directly and correctly quoting parts of the Avia-GIS presentation was published in the journal ‘Agrarisch Dagblad’ on the 24th of April. |
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| 2007-03-27 | BT51 organizes workshop on BTV8 at SVEPM in Helsin Workshop on the BTV8 outbreak organised by the BT51 research group at the annual conference of the Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (SVEPM) in Helsinki. The BT51 group is a research group aiming at sharing and jointly analysing data from bluetongue outbreaks north of 51˚ Latitude North. It was created at the start of the BTV8 outbreak of 2006 in Benelux, Germany and France. Group members include: Armin Elbers, CIDC, Leliestad, Netherlands; Christoph Staubach, FLI, Wusterhausen, Germany; Guillaume Gerbier, CIRAD, Montpellier, France; and Guy Hendrickx, Avia-GIS. |
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| 2007-01-24 | INNOTEK Spin-off support First meeting with the SPIN-OFF team from INNOTEK providing a one year support for the creation of Spin-off company. Avia-GIS plans a spin-off jointly with Eurotronics and PAN-Livestock to market and commercialise Vet-geoTools. |
| 2007-01-01 | Start EPISTIS project (Belspo) Start of the 4 year Belspo (STEREO call) funded EPISTIS project. Avia-GIS is co-initiator of this project and is part of consortium grouping SIGTEL (coordinator) and LUBIES groups from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium; Veterinary Department, ITM, Antwerp, Belgium; the Geography Department from the Université Catholique de Louvain; Avia-GIS; the Department of Exotic Diseases, Veterinary Faculty, Onderstepoort, Pretoria, South Africa; The Istituto Zooprophilattico Sperimentale, Teramo, Italy. The aim of the project is to develop a series of integrated, i.e. various resolutions, remote sensing tools to support spatial epidemiology research based on two extensive data sets: seven year historical Bluetongue data in Italy, and food and mouth disease data at the interface of protected areas and agriculture, peace parks project, Southern Africa. |
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| 2007-01-01 | Start MODIRISK project (Belspo) Start of the 4 year Belspo (Biodiversity call) funded MODIRISK project. Avia-GIS is co-initiator of this project and is part of a consortium grouping the Institute for Tropical Medicine (coordinator), Antwerp, Belgium; the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium; the Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain la Neuve, Belgium; Avia-GIS, Zoersel, Belgium; and Wageningen University, Laboratory of Entomology, The Netherlands. The aim of the project is to map mosquito species in Benelux based on an intensive field sample and spatial models using ground and remotely sensed data sets. Invasive species will be identified and population and lab studies will be conducted. The risk of further spread will be assessed. This knowledge currently does not exist in Belgium and is essential to plan for the future. |
| 2007-01-01 | Start Vet-geoTools innovation project with support Official start of the Vet-geoTools innovation project, a commercial GIS based disease management system, the last crucial step in Avia-GIS medium term development strategy. The project follows on the innovation study previously reported. It is executed jointly with Eurotronics, Lokeren, Belgium, who provides GIS software and ICT development input (OrbitGIS). The internal database of the system is ‘Intertrace’ provided by PAN-Livestock Services. The project is jointly funded by Avia-GIS and Eurotronics and partly subsidised by IWT, Brussels, Belgium. Avia-GIS benefited from the admin/management back-up from Bjorn Kiekens, INNOTEK, Geel, Belgium and the business plan was established with assistance from Tony Bastijns SPK, Turnhout, Belgium. |
| 2006-12-12 | Start PARAGIS project (UGent) Signature of the PARAGIS contract with the Parasitology Department of Veterinary faculty, Gent, Belgium. The aim of the project is to identify spatial eco-climatic and geographical factors affecting the occurrence of worm burden in Belgium. This project is a concrete result from the ‘Spin-in’ agreement signed on 12/9/2005. Worm burden is measured through bulk milk Elisa testing for Fasciola hepatica, Ostertagia ostertagi and at a later stage Dictyocaulus viviparus. The research is conducted jointly with Johannes Charlier and Jef Vercruysse. |
| 2006-11-15 | Ghana tryps consulting series First consulting mission to Ghana to support and coordinate the GIS and spatial epidemiology activities of the ADB funded PATTEC project managed by Dr. Charles Mahama (Picture). The project is expected to last 6 years, and Avia-GIS will conduct annual support visits. This project gives us the opportunity top maintain contact with grass-route field GIS in West Africa. |
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| 2006-08-28 | Bluetongue outbreak in Belgium! Bluetongue virus serotype 8 outbreak in Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxemburg! Avia-GIS was involved in the Belgium and European expert groups from start, given its experience with BT spread wind modelling in Greece and Bulgaria (see previous entry). The videos show news items and are copyright of RTBF and RTL. |
| 2006-08-20 | Humo interview Publication of a joint interview from Prof. Herwig Leirs, UA, Antwerp, Belgium and Guy Hendrickx in the popular weekly journal Humo. The interview was recorded on the 12th of July. The two page article deals with the risk of emerging diseases in Belgium. Bluetongue disease in sheep is taken as an example of a tropical midge (insect transmitting the disease) and series of viruses (identified by ser-type) currently invading the Mediterranean … |
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| 2006-05-05 | Start BT-Calabria project (IZS) Signature of the BT-Calabria contract with The Istituto Zooprophilattico Sperimentale (IZS), Teramo, Italy. The aim is to use historical data on bluetongue outbreaks in Calabria, Italy, to extract landscape and eco-climatic feature having an impact on the occurrence of BT. This research is funded by IZS and conducted jointly with Annamaria Conte from IZS. |
| 2006-04-04 | PLATO financial Start of the PLATO ‘advanced’ program PLATO-Financial. After successfully completing the two year ‘basics’ cycle, Avia-GIS now participates to the more advanced series of sessions which focus on the financial management of growing SME’s. |
| 2006-02-28 | Start FRAGFLY project (Wellcome Trust) Start of the 3 year FRAGFLY research project funded by the Wellcome Trust Fund. This project studies the impact of tsetse habitat fragmentation on epidemiology of African trypanosomiasis in two different field settings in West Africa (Mouhoun, Burkina Faso) and Southern Africa (Zambia). It includes teams from CIRAD (coordinator), Montpellier, France; CIRDES, Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso; ITM, Antwerp, Belgium; MACO, Chipata, Zambia; and TALA, Oxford, UK. The task of Avia-GIS is to provide GIS and remote sensing input and to conduct research on spatial biotope fragmentation analysis. |
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| 2005-12-27 | Take-over shares RDP Guy Hendrickx takes over the shares of RDP Livestock Services. RDP has been bought by GRM International, an Australian multi national. Since GRM thus owned more than 25% of the shares of Avia-GIS this caused a problem with regard to the SME status of Avia-GIS. In addition and to strengthen the ongoing expansion, he doubles his capital input in Avia-GIS. |
| 2005-11-18 | Collaboration agreement signed with Epidemiology UGent Signature of a collaboration agreement with the epidemiology group led by Prof. Jeroen De Wulf, Veterinary Faculty, Gent, Belgium. The agreement is very similar to the two agreements previously described and aims at joining efforts in the spatial management of diseases. Two case studies are of particular interest: Classical African Swine Fever and Avian Influenza. This agreement also paves the way to contribute to the post-graduate course on veterinary epidemiology. |
| 2005-11-01 | Start Vet-geoTools innovation study Start of the Vet-geoTools innovation study. Vet-geoTools is an in-house initiative of Avia-GIS and is the first step towards developing a commercial software tool series. This study aims at defining the GIS and data base requirements of such a system, and identifying potential partners for the development stage. It is partly subsidised by the Flemish Institute for the Encouragement of Innovation in Science and Technology (IWT). |
| 2005-11-01 | Interim Hilde Vernieuwe Start of the maternity leave of Els Ducheyne. She is replaced for a four month period by Hilde Vernieuwe. Hilde managed to get ‘in the files’ at a record pace and significantly contributed to the ongoing work. |
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| 2005-10-28 | First Vet-geoTools meeting at FAVV First Vet-geoTools expert meeting at the Federal Food Security Agency (FAVV), Brussels, Belgium. Avia-GIS plans the development of a commercial server based software package which improves spatial disease management in near real time. During this meeting all major animal health stakeholders in Belgium were invited to share ideas about this concept. This initiative is supported by Piet Vanthemsche, General Director of FAVV, who enables access to the in-house expertise of FAVV to contribute to the development of the system. |
| 2005-10-24 | Collaboration agreement signed with DGZ Signature of a collaboration agreement with Diergezondheid Vlaanderen (DGZ), the network of animal health laboratories in Flanders. The agreement is very similar to the first agreement with UGent and is signed with Patrick Biront, General Director. The main goal is to contribute to the development of a spatial disease information system for improved disease control. |
| 2005-09-12 | Collaboration agreement signed with Parasitology UGent Signature of a collaboration agreement with the Department of Virology, Parasitology and Immunology, Veterinary Faculty, University of Gent. The agreement is signed with Prof. J. Vercruysse (picture), head of the department. This is a first agreement in the framework of Avia-GIS’s ‘Spin-in’ policy to offer state of the art services to existing research teams. The agreement is signed for five years and each year a meeting is planned to discuss joint project opportunities. Whilst UGent is interested to enhance the outcome of epidemiological analysis through include spatial tools, Avia-GIS’s interest is to improve the state of the art of these tools: a win-win! The first topic being discussed is the study of spatial eco-climatic and geographical factors having a potential an impact on worm burden in dairy farms. |
| 2005-08-01 | Bart de Groot joins Avia-GIS Bart De Groot joins Avia-GIS. Bart (Bch) is a freshly graduated ICT specialist from KHK, Geel, Belgium. He joins the company after a successful internship as part of the school-private enterprise exchange scheme from KHK, of which Avia-GIS is a member. In addition to ICT hard- and software management his main task is to provide the necessary ICT input for the development of professional GIS based disease information systems. |
| 2005-02-01 | Els Ducheyne joins Avia-GIS Els Ducheyne joins Avia-GIS. Els is a bio-engineer (MSc), PhD, specialised in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Spatial Decision Support Tools, risk analysis, low and high resolution remote sensing, artificial intelligence and Bayesian statistics. She joins the company as project manager. In addition to project management, her main task is to diversify the range of tools used by Avia-GIS in its spatial modelling projects. She carried out much of the work on wind modelling during the joint Avia-GIS / ITM DWTC project BLUETONGUE (see previous entry). She was replaced at ITM by Stéphanie Bécu. |
| 2005-01-01 | Start of GMFS Stage 2 (ESA) Start of the GMFS 3 year project stage 2 (termed up scaling and service implementation stage). The aim of this stage is to disseminate developed products routinely to selected users and to promote the integration with/in food security monitoring tools/systems from other sources. New product extensions are also planned and Avia-GIS aims at including livestock related tools: spatial livestock distribution models and rangeland monitoring tools; for food security monitoring. (At a later stage this expectation turned out to be vain. Once again a major protein is not taken into consideration as it should be in a food security program!) |
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| 2004-11-01 | Start of EDEN project (FP6) Start of the EDEN project. This large integrated project includes 48 partners from 24 countries in Europe and Africa. Avia-GIS coordinated its design and submission for CIRAD (see previous entry). Avia-GIS signs a management agreement with CIRAD and is contracted as secretary of the EDEN Steering Committee in charge of operational management of the project. |
| 2004-09-21 | Euro-AEGIS a new EEIG with ERGO Establishment of Euro-AEGIS, a European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG), jointly with the Environmental Research Group Oxford (ERGO), Oxford, UK. The aim of this collaboration, which legally is a new company, is to share expertise in the field of spatial information systems applied amongst other topics to public health and emerging diseases and to strengthen our position on the international ‘tender scene’. It prepares our joining of the EDEN consortium as the partner in charge of spatial data management and disease information systems. One of the directors of ERGO is Willy Wint (picture) with whom we have a long lasting collaboration, mainly in the field of livestock geography. |
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| 2004-05-31 | Jan and Nancy leave Avia-GIS Jan Biesemans and Nancy Van Camp leave Avia-GIS. Jan has been appointed as a researcher with VITO, Mol, Belgium. Avia-GIS is very grateful for their input in the early stages and wishes them all the best. Guy Hendrickx takes over their shares. |
| 2003-12-01 | Start RANGELAND project (DWTC) Start of the 2 year DWTC Project Rangeland (SR/02/30) part of the STEREO program and funded under the “Partnerships between Industry and Research” scheme. Avia-GIS is the industrial partner initiating and designing the project and Prof R. De Wulf from the Laboratory of Forest Management and Spatial Information Techniques, University of Gent, Belgium. The user partner is CPC from the Australian GRM group who owns huge ranches in the Northern Territories of Australia. Most of the work at UGent and on the field in Australia was conducted by Claudia De Pus. |
| 2003-11-29 | Press conference Wageningen Press article : De Gelderlander. Following an invitation by Jan Slingenbergh (FAO) to join a press conference and a workshop on emerging diseases at the Wageningen University, The Netherlands, this article was published in the science pages of the Dutch journal “De Gelderlander”. It is the first article which quotes comments given by Avia-GIS staff. We take this opportunity to salute Jan Slingenbergh (picture) who was a major inspiration source to start Avia-GIS. |
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| 2003-11-17 | First Epi-GIS module at MSTAH (ITM) Avia-GIS teaches the first Epi-GIS module at the MSc course on Tropical Animal Health (CIPSAT, later renamed MSTAH) of the Institute for Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. It is a two week course providing an introduction to GIS and its use in spatial epidemiology. It includes practical exercises. |
| 2003-10-20 | PLATO 1000 (SPK) Avia-GIS participates to the 2 year PLATO 1000 program from the ‘Strategisch Plan Kempen’ (SPK), Turnhout, Belgium. This project aims at supporting growing SME’s from a strategic and management point of view. It was first initiated by Janssen Pharmaceutica, Beerse, Belgium, to strengthen the SME capacity of the Kempen region in Belgiun where Janssen has most of its activities. Avia-GIS is part of a group of 15 SME’s who meet once a month to discuss various management topics and learn from each others experiences. |
| 2003-10-01 | Start BLUETONGUE project (DWTC) Start of the 2 year DWTC Project Bluetongue (SR/09/33) part of the STEREO program and funded under the “Partnerships between Industry and Research” scheme. Avia-GIS is the industrial partner initiating and designing the project. The research partner is R. De Deken (picture) from the Veterinary Department, Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, Belgium. |
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| 2003-04-23 | First Avia-GIS NOAA workshop at ITM Avia-GIS NOAA software workshop at the Tropical Institute, Antwerp, Belgium. This is the first course on this topic organised by Avia-GIS it is attended by scientists from different universities and institutions. |
| 2003-03-01 | Start GMFS project (ESA) Start of the 2 year GMFS project stage 1 (termed consolidation stage), Global Monitoring for Food Security funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), Frascati, Italy. The aim of this project is to develop remote sensing products to support food security monitoring programs by regional centres and national departments in Africa. This project is a milestone for Avia-GIS in two ways: (1) it is its first long term project and (2) it is the first project in which Avia-GIS is invited to participate as a consortium partner. The role of Avia-GIS is to contribute to project management and product evaluation. |
| 2002-10-30 | A start for EDEN First meeting with CIRAD in Montpellier, France, to start a collaboration on Emerging Diseases in Europe. This collaboration will eventually lead to a series of consultancies spread over a period of almost two years to establish a European consortium and to submit an FP6 Integrated Project proposal: “Emerging Diseases in a Changing European Environment”. It builds further on successful and enjoyable collaborations with Stéphane de La Rocque (picture) and the CIRDES team in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, towards understanding tsetse in its environment: an issue of scale and resolution. For Avia-GIS this is a unique opportunity to extend its networks on the European Emerging Diseases Scene. |
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| 2002-05-01 | Avia-GIS LRRS software The first version of the Avia-GIS low resolution remote sensing software package is operational for in-house use. This package is developed based on previous experience with spatial modelling and the use of low resolution remote sensing time series. Much of this experience was gained through collaborations with Prof. David Rogers (picture), Zoology, Oxford, UK, during the ‘Africa days’. |
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| 2002-02-01 | Jan Biesemans joins Avia-GIS Jan Biesemans joins Avia-GIS as Director and takes over the shares of Zowinde Koudougou. Being appointed to the IAEA in Vienna, Austria, a potential client of Avia-GIS, Zowinde leaves the company to avoid a conflict of interest. |
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| 2001-03-08 | The early days At start, the main activity of Avia-GIS is short term consulting. The main customers are the UN agencies FAO, Rome, Italy, and IAEA, Vienna, Austria, and the Avia-GIS shareholder RDP. Topics include a consulting series on tsetse and trypanosomiasis, contributions to the FAO Series 1 Livestock Geography Atlas and livestock GIS input in sectorial studies. See details in project list.
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| 2001-03-08 | Signature of articles Signature of the articles of Avia-GIS by the founding share holders: Guy Hendrickx, RDP Livestock Services, PAN Livestock Services, Nancy Van Camp, Zowinde Koudougou and Rob De Rooij. Avia-GIS is an original idea from Guy Hendrickx and he is appointed Managing Director. Nancy Van Camp is research assistant at the Gent University and is appointed Director. She provides remote sensing back-up on a part time basis. |
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