TUN is a Life Long Learning idea: TUN covers therefore vocational training as well as higher education. The input is designed by universities and providers of international standards of the food business.

Global imbalances between supply and demand within the Total Supply Chain need a constructive dialogue about the understanding of how modern supply chains work and how commercial practices could be optimized.

As already announced in the Preview for ANUGA based on the preparations for the 200 years Anniversary of the University of Bonn the two international networks EQA (Education Qualification Alliance) and ERA (European Retail Academy) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to institutionalize a Thematic University Network (TUN) to promote holistic Research about food/health/sustainability and the Penetration of knowledge and standards along the Total Supply Chain from farm to fork.

Vision and Mission of TUN were explained jointly by Prof.Dr.Petersen/EQA and University of Bonn and Prof.Dr.Hallier/ERA (Download Presentation). The MOU was signed by the Chairman of the Board of EQA (Christian Gruetters) and Prof.Hallier for ERA; in additional bi-lateral contracts the University of Debrecen/Hungary and University of Chapingo/Mexico signed already during the ANUGA presentation. Pre-contracts are already in preparation for universities from Poland, Romania and Russia. All those professors represent together the ACADEMIC BOARD which will supervise the following strategic, tactical and operational steps.
 

Travelling by train from Yekaterinburg to Astana Prof.Fedorov/USUE, Prof.Hallier/ERA and their students had created the idea of a Green University and had drafted a memorandum to establish such a platform. This Memorandum was introduced at the Astana Economic Forum.

The first to sign beside the two authors was the Peace Nobel Laureate (2007) Prof. Dr. Raewong Chung from Korea who is at the moment director for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific - and who delivered in Astana a speech about the transition to a green civilization. Other universities from East and West followed with their signatures!
 

After starting in 1994/96 tracing/tracking for beef and cows as an anti-crisis tool against the mad cow-desease/BSE the EHI Retail Institute started in 1997 to create Eurepgap/Globalgap as a proactive Food Safety Concept for fruit and vegetables. Now 20 years later Prof.Dr.B.Hallier and the Globalgap-CEO Dr.Kristian Moeller remember proudly the GlobalG.A.P. Milestones 1997-2017 being edited as a book for distribution at universities.

In 2017 GlobalG.A.P. is the internationally recognized standard for farm production and food safety/sustainability. It is integrating the Total Supply Chain as its membership split shows: 12 percent coming from retail, 42 percent being associate members and 46 percent suppliers.