H.E. Mr Regazzoni expressed his satisfaction with this level of involvement, which is testament to the revival of Swiss viticulture, whose international success is helping to promote the country's vineyards. Made up of unique landscapes, some of these have been recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites – such as the Lavaux terraces.

In affirming his country's support of the OIV, the Swiss Ambassador also recalled that, every 25 years, Switzerland has hosted a globally unique Winegrowers' Festival in Vevey that celebrates the work in the vine and wine field. Mr Aurand pointed out that this festival also played host to the OIV Congress in 1955 and 1977, and expressed his wish for a repeat of this in 2019, at the next festival.

Created in 2009 at the initiative of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, and uniting numerous professionals from universities and research organisations, the BSN ensures that any teacher-researcher, researcher or student has relevant scientific information and the most efficient tools possible available to them. The aim of this call for projects was to increase visibility and open-access dissemination in a digital environment of document corpora of major benefit to research.

In collaboration with the OIV, this project was supported by the University of Bourgogne and the National Center for Scientific Research acting on behalf of the French research institution, the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (MSH) de Dijon, which has an Archives-Literature-Digitisation (Archives-Documentation-Numérisation, ADN) platform that is one of only a few in France to provide an data processing chain in its totality.

Attended by Mr Francis Aubert, Director of the MSH de Dijon, and Mr Yann Juban, Assistant to the Director General of the OIV, the first steering committee met in Dijon in order for the project's partners and service providers to discuss the different steps that should enable the collection to be made available online in 18 months' time, in June 2016. The technical phase of digitisation is already underway, with nearly 30% of texts processed. Discussions will be ongoing regarding tools for indexation and cataloguing, in order "to provide an interdisciplinary research tool for the use of the scientific community as well as professionals in the vine and wine sector or the general public ", as described by Professor Laurent Gautier, who took charge of the project.

This partnership supplements the new policy of digital scientific publication implemented by the OIV, which was presented by the Director General of the Organisation at the OIV General Assembly. The scientific publications presented at the Congress are now available on an OPEN ACCESS basis on the website http://oiv.edpsciences.org/ and in the Bio Web of Conferences journal. Mr Jean-Marie Aurand, indicating that this was the equivalent in volume of five years of the Bulletin, expressed his satisfaction that "these coordinated actions of the OIV can guarantee the sustainability and universality of access to international scientific and technical information in the vitivinicultural field."

Born in Cerea (VR) in 1953 and based in Fumane, Roberto Ferrarini was the holder of numerous titles. He authored over 150 national and international works, publications and communications – scientific, technical and informative in nature. He was Director of Research and Director of the departments of Development and University Research, as well as the scientist responsible for various research projects financed by the Veneto region. As a professor on the viticultural and oenological sciences course at the University of Verona, Roberto Ferrarini was also a member of the Italian Academy of Vine and Wine and a member of the Italian OIV delegation on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, notably as part of the "Oenology" Commission and the "Technology" Expert Group.

This presentation follows the OIV Director General's visit in September to present, to professionals in the sector, the technical and scientific activities of the OIV, as well as to strengthen cooperation of expertise. The Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Ramy Cohen, was delighted that, for the second time at the OIV headquarters, Israeli viticulture had the opportunity to become better known as one of the components of Mediterranean wine culture.

On this occasion, Jean-Marie Aurand met the National Director of the Agriculture and Livestock Department, Mr Angel Sartori, in the presence of the Head of the Sub-department of Vitiviniculture, Food Safety and Biotechnology, Ms Alejandra Aburto Prieto, the OIV delegate, Mr Joaquín Almarza Serrano, and the Head of the Department of Agriculture and Forestry Protection, Mr Rodrigo Astete Rocha.

During this meeting, the National Director of the Agriculture and Livestock Department recalled that Chile had been a member of the OIV for more than 60 years. He also stressed the importance that his country, as a major player in the global market, attaches to the activities of the OIV and confirmed its full support of the Organisation.

Jean-Marie Aurand expressed his desire for Chile to further strengthen its presence within the OIV by bringing together experts to participate in various work projects.

While he was over there, several meetings were also organised with companies in the Chilean vitivinicultural sector, which resulted in a number of discussions about the world wine market, its developments and prospects.