|
CCOVI partnership receives national award
from Conference Board of Canada
Brock University, the Wine Council of Ontario and the Ontario Grape Growers’ Marketing Board are being recognized as one of the best business-education partnerships in Canada. This Conference Board of Canada award is for Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI).
The CCOVI partners have won one of two national awards in the Conference Board of Canada’s 1999-2000 National Partners in Education Awards. Their award, sponsored by DaimlerChrysler Canada, will be presented, in Halifax, at the Business and Education Awards ceremony, on Monday, May 1.
"This is truly an honour for the University and its partners to be selected, from a field of 160 entries, for establishing a world-class program that is meeting the research and educational needs of the cool climate grape growing and wine producing regions," says Brock President David Atkinson.
President Atkinson will be in Halifax to accept the award on behalf of the University. Over 160 business-education partnerships, representing 15,000 participating organizations, entered this year’s competition, with representation coming from every province and territory.
The National Partners in Education Awards program offers an opportunity to showcase business-education initiatives that work across Canada and to recognize the people who are making them succeed.
"The awards recognize and honour partnerships as a model of excellence in business-education partnership — ensuring that Canada’s youth are learning the right skills for today’s and tomorrow’s world of work," according to the Conference Board of Canada.
CCOVI finalized its partnerships with the Wine Council of Ontario and the Ontario Grape Growers’ Marketing Board on October 25, 1996. The Wine Council of Ontario is the legal representative of business, corporations and individual wineries, while the Ontario Grape Growers’ Marketing Board is the legal representative of grape growers.
"The Wine Council of Ontario is proud to be a part of this partnership," says Linda Franklin, Executive Director, Wine Council of Ontario. "As the only program of this kind in Canada, and the only one in North America outside of California, CCOVI represents a unique opportunity to be a world leader in research and development for the wine making industry."
Brock Univeristy is located within easy reach of 16,000 acres (6,400) hectares of vineyards in the region of Niagara. Grape growers were interested in sponsoring CCOVI "because great wines all start in the vineyards," says Elizabeth Andreen, Manager of the growers’ organization and a Brock University graduate. "We are committed to advancing our wine industry from the soils upwards. This is a very exciting initiative and we are close enough to be hands on partners."
CCOVI is dedicated to meeting the research and educational needs of the cool climate grape growing and wine producing regions of the world. Its roles are to pursue the groundbreaking research and leading-edge technologies necessary to maintain and enhance the competitive position of Canada’s grape growers, vintners and related professionals, and to foster partnerships and collaboration efforts between these groups and worldwide academic community.
The Institute is located at Brock University’s Inniskillin Hall, a $6.1-million state-of-the-art facility.
For more information, please contact:
o Grant Dobson, Executive Director, Office of External Relations, Brock University, (905) 688-5550, ext. 3246
|
|
|
