ARIMNet2 ISRA index

Foreword

The Mediterranean area

The need for research and innovation

The role of EU Policy in the Med Area and vice-versa

  1. ARIMNet2
  2. What is ARIMNet2?
  3. Scope of ARIMNet2
  4. The Other Initiatives in the Med Area Research Coordination and Networking
  5. Scope of the ISRA
  1. Challenges
  2. Population, societies and natural resources
  3. Plant Production Systems
  4. Animal Production Systems
  5. Value Chain Management
  6. Preliminary conclusion (cf. “Nexus”)
  1. The ARIMNet2 Strategy for Med Area
  2. Priority thematic areas to face the challenges for the Mediterranean Area

3.1.1 Increasing the efficiency and sustainability of production systems

3.1.2 Enhancing value chains

3.1.3 Promoting a balanced territorial development

3.2.Instruments to implement strategy (to be done)

  1. Implication for the European and International Collaboration(to be done)
  2. Contribution to ERA
  3. International issues, cooperation and opportunities
  1. The ISRA Evaluation and Monitoring(Uygun + Bernard)
  • Annexes (to be revised later)

-ARIMNet2 detailed scope

-Process to define the ISRA

-ARIMNet2 Governance

-ARIMNet2 Membership

-SSAB

-Summary/list of national research’s programs

-List of initiatives related to ARIMNet2 (i.e. Eranet, JPI, TP ecc)

FOREWORD

(JPI FACCE, JPI water or JPI med diet to be mentioned) (Coordinator + WP leader) still needed

The Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in the area of research and innovation has a major role to play in delivering economic, environmental and social benefits at a widerscale. Research and innovation contribute to reinforce the economic stability and democracy, to ensure peace, welfare and prosperity in the Region and to respond to the democratic and economic aspirations that are so closed to European values. Science will not alone build democracy but it can contribute to it. Investing in and cooperating on research and innovation promotes growth and jobs, and improves people's lives across both regions.

All through these years, the cooperation between the EU and the south Mediterranean countries was mostly governed by EU instruments and initiatives, which, despite involving the institutions on both shores of the Mediterranean in substantial cooperation, was not able to establish the desired true partnership towards a common knowledge and innovation space.The Mediterranean Region cannot be considered just the southern border of the European Union. Its economic, social, demographic situation now and with its possible developments in the future have a significant impact on Europe.Population is the main factor to be considered, as a matter of fact, it is estimated that the Mediterranean Region will have a total of 600 million inhabitants by 2025, and 625 million people by 2050; this means that, compared to the 323 million inhabitants recorded in the Region in 1975, the population will have almost doubled in fifty years. The population of the five North African countries facing the Mediterranean Sea (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) combined is nearly as high as 2/5 of that of EU-28. Contrary to Europe, its demographic structure is larger in the younger age-classes, which means that it will still grow at a positive rate contrary to Europe that is nearly stable.

Within the south and east Mediterranean regions, the expected total and urban population increases will generate serious problems of access to resources and land use planning. In the Southern Mediterranean, agriculture is one of the major socio-economic driving forces contributing more than 50% of the gross income of the region, and is the basic means for ensuring adequate food both in terms of quality and quantity. Food security and safety does not depend only on structural and socio-economic factors but also on natural elements such as the availability of natural resources (mainly biodiversity, soil and water) as well as climate. Climate change in the Mediterranean is one of the most threatening phenomena for food, in an area that is already marked by aridity and salinity, and facing the risk of reduced rainfall throughout the Region.

The current situation of social and political turmoil in the Mediterranean Basin invites us to reflect upon the challenges facing economies in EU’s bordering countries and the potential leverage for sustainable development in the Region. An improvement of livelihoods is among the main demands of Mediterranean citizens, facing a multidimensional insecurity that plunges them in a highly vulnerable situation on a daily basis. The access to food and water interconnected with multi challenges– political, social, or economic –that limit food and water availability is of paramount importance in the Region.This affects socio-economic conditions, wellbeing and health of people living in the Mediterranean Area, and the societal stability of the Region, therefore impacting European Union as a whole. Agriculture has a big part to play in the economic development, and the development of agriculture should not be considered as a threat to European competitiveness, as the internal markets would absorb most of the production, would create jobs and would probably reduce poverty-driven immigration flows to Europe.The Mediterranean area suffers of a high level of vulnerability of its natural environment. It is considered one of the areas of the world most threatened by climate change, which could worsen stresses that are already high: drought, the frequency of extreme climatic events, and endemic and emerging diseases in both crops and animals. Moreover Med Area is one of the hotspots of global biodiversity, with a remarkable richness in cultivated and wild species characterizing the area. This diversity is clearly an asset for the region which could be of value through specific agricultural and food products and which could be used to face new challenges such as adaptation to climate change. It also has to be preserved as a common heritage.

The magnitude of challenges faced due to demographic changes versus the over-use of limited natural resources are increased with the cost of energy coupled with water scarcity, misuse of irrigation water, deteriorated water quality and overexploitation of genetic resources resulting in deficit in food production. Consequently, it negatively affects economic conditions and produces various types of conflicts ranging from social domestic conflicts to sector conflicts (from agriculture and aquaculture to urban areas, industry, transportation and tourism) and trans-boundary conflicts. Due to its limited availability and to its close connections with societal and economic challenges, research and innovation addressing sustainable management systems is the key to sustainable development in the Region.Therefore, when dealing with management systems for food and non-food production multiple dimensions will be impacted and therefore, should be addressed as in the case of sustainable agriculture, land-use and forestry management, environmental management of production systems, water and energy-saving techniques, health, and coastal zone dynamics. The strong inter-linkages and interdependences that exist among climatic, environmental, social, economic and institutional drivers and variables of the Mediterranean Area make monothematic and exclusive approaches inadequate to correctly address these complex problems. An integrated approach and in some cases hybrid solutions are needed in order to face the multiple, emerging and interrelated problems/challenges of the Mediterranean area.

Ultimately, addressing these core challenges through research and innovation could result in an increase of growth and creation of jobs in the Region and the intercultural dialogue is easier if it is based on non-controversial matters such as research, development and innovation (“scientific diplomacy”).Science is to provide convincing evidence to support desirable transitions. Therefore, the FP7 and H2020 dual approach to fundamental research (ERC) and applied pre-competitive research, as well as innovation oriented development is to be maintained and possibly replicated.

Within this approach, several joint cooperationand programming actions (focus on research) involving European Member States and the EC are in place (ERA-Nets: Arimnet and Arimnet2, ERANETMED) and more are being developed in addition to several bilateral programmes and projects. They should be taken as a model and as testing ground for a broader geographic area (Sub-saharan Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, …) as they do not only contribute to the economic development but also to stronger political and cultural relationships with Europe. Many bi- or multi-lateral and networking initiatives have been implemented creating a cooperative environment and reaching promising results in some areas; however participating bodies believe that these efforts remain insufficient and fragmented given the dimension of the challenges ahead in the Region and the current oversubscription observed in ERA-Net transnational calls dealing with food and water resources in the Mediterranean Area.

In 2014, several EU Member states and Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries expressed their willingness to enhance and strengthen their cooperation. The PRIMA initiative “Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area” is a proposal supported by more than 20 countries to scale up the current actions and to move towards a stronger cooperation for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean in the field of food systems and water resources.It proposes the EC to launch an article 185 initiative to build after 2017 an integrated funding programmebased on the principles of co-ownership, co-decision and co-funding.

ARIMNet, ARIMNet2 and other regional initiatives (MIRA, MEDSPRING and ERANETMED)have paved the road toward such a broader initiative. The regional initiatives are launching transnational calls for proposals that are co-funded and co-decided between all participating countries, no matter if they are EU Member States or Mediterranean Participating Countries (MPCs). They have promoted networking in R&I programmes in the Mediterranean region between different stakeholders. Therefore,they prepare the ground and practices in line with the principles that PRIMA has retained.

  1. What is ARIMNet2?

ARIMNet2 (Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean Area Network) is an initiative supported by the European Commission (ERA-NET) to enhance the coordination of Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean Area. It follows ARIMNet that was launched in 2008, as the first ERA-Net bringing together Mediterranean countries from the EU and from the Mediterranean Eastern and Southern shores. ARIMNet (2008-2012) involved 13 partners (funding agencies and research institutions) from 12 countries, of which 6 from the European Union (France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece), 2 from Associated Countries (Turkey and Israel) and 4 from Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt). ARIMNet2 (2014-2017) involves new partners for a total of 24 national funding agencies and research institutions from 15 countries. The new participating countries are Croatia, Malta, and Slovenia.

At the crossroad of thematic (as lead by FACCE) and regional (the Mediterranean!) issues, ARIMNet2 works as a network identifying scientific priorities, providing funding and reinforcing cooperation opportunities for the research to address the huge societal challenges related to the whole Mediterranean Area “implications” for the agricultural sector starting from food, rural development, water and natural resources use.

1.1 Scope of ARIMNet2

ARIMNet 2 involves Algeria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Israel, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Slovenia, Tunisia, Turkey, and Spain. It aims at deepening and enlarging the experience of ARIMNet. Indeed, examining the achievements of the “first” ARIMNet, the accumulation of cooperation experiences among Mediterranean countries represents a crucial step with strong relationships developed between partners. Better knowledge of current research programmes and a willingness to implement other joint activities have been established. On this base, the idea to build a new ARIMNet2 project was built.In ARIMNet, a call for research proposals has been successfully launched in 2011 with the participation not only of five European countries (France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus) and two associated countries (Turkey, Israel) but also of four Mediterranean Partner Countries (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt). All the countries have participated on an equal basis in co-funding and in designing the priorities and procedures for the call. Ten research projects have been launched and are currently running with a total funding of 7 million euros.

ARIMNet2,toward a deeper cooperation among research institutions, aims to:

-develop an integrated strategic research agenda (ISRA) describing key priorities for European Union and Mediterranean Countries in the field of Mediterranean Agriculture Research and Innovation;

-consolidate the cooperation mechanism started in ARIMNet through the set up of two joint calls for transnational research projects and the elaboration of guidelines for monitoring the research projects funded inside joint calls;

-demonstrate the feasibility of other joint activities in some areas relevant to the project and implement those that are jointly strategic;set up pilot actions to develop scientific exchanges among researchers in the Mediterranean area;

-enhance transnational cooperation and knowledge generation and innovation within the Mediterranean region in sharing objectives and priorities, with a view to establishing a common vision on agricultural research and innovation;

-strengthen the coordination and coherence in the research programming between regional and national institutions and develop capacity building in scientific methods, concepts and infrastructure;

-increase the excellence and relevance of agricultural research in order to contribute to addressing the huge societal challenges related to food, rural development, water and natural resources which Mediterranean countries are facing today;

-foster agricultural knowledge and innovation systems to reinforce the research impact on the rural development and economy of the Mediterranean basin. The purpose is to extend the reflection on Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) that has been developed inside the EU to the Mediterranean area; and

-establish a consolidated framework for cooperation that could lead to a stable and long-lasting cooperation between EU member states, Associated Countries and Southern Mediterranean countries.

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1.2The other Research coordinationand networking initiatives in the Mediterranean Area

Last decades links between research performers (universities, research and technological institutes) from the European Union and Mediterranean Countries have steadily increased and became abundant. This is not only due to historical relationships and proximity of the all countries around the Mediterranean but alsoto the need to address common challenges in terms of adaptation of agriculture to global change, water and natural resources scarcity or changes in food systems. Partnerships among teams or research institutions have been increasing along time through researchers’ mobility, joint supervision of PhD, and joint research projects. Agriculture, food and water is the most intensive domain of R&I cooperation between Euro-Mediterranean countries, in terms of number of research projects, bilateral cooperation in the region and scientific publications.Such scientific links between researchers have largely benefited from a rather large number of multilateral cooperation projects supported by the successive EU framework programmes, and/or from national and bilateral cooperation programmes. The CIHEAM (International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies) plays also a major role in the Mediterranean Region by developing specialized training, networked research, and contributing to the political dialogue in the fields of agriculture, food, fishery and rural territories.

Besides direct links between research performers, joint initiatives bringing together national research organizations and national funding agencies have received a high priority in European Research Policies. Whenever common challenges and problems exist, joining forces between national Research Systems have been encouragedin the EU 7th Framework Program of R&I (2007-2013). This has led to the development of over hundred of ERA-Nets (European Research Area Network) and several JPIs (Joint Programming Initiatives) supported by the European Commission to enhance the cooperation among EU Member States. Simultaneously in its International Cooperation activities the European Commission has launched initiatives to strengthen the scientific links between EU member states and its partner countries, namely through INCO-Nets (International Cooperation Networks).

In the Mediterranean Region, ARIMNet and MIRA (Mediterranean Innovation and Research Coordination Action), an INCO-Net devoted to enhance the regional Science and Technology dialogue in the Mediterranean Region, were the main instruments of this cooperation in the years 2008-2012. They have been followed, after 2012, by several initiatives, namely FORESTERRA, MEDSPRING and ERANETMED:

FORESTERRA (2012-2015) is an ERA-Net aiming to reinforce the scientific coordination and integration of Mediterranean forest research programmesthrough scientific cooperation with Mediterranean-area countries- including EU member states (Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece) and non-EU Mediterranean countries (Algeria,Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco) – and with countries from other Mediterranean Climate Areas (Australia, South Africa, Chile and California).

MEDSPRING (2012-2016) is a cooperation initiative (INCO-Net) financed by the European Commission to develop a dialogue among governmental institutions, research organisations, associations and civil society. The project aims at reinforcing the Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation on Research and Innovation in relation to the Euro-Mediterranean EU policy as defined in the Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Barcelona (2-3 April 2012)[1]. It addresses the prioritizedareas of water, food, energy, health, transport and marine environment and, in particular, the field of the three relevant societal challenges of the Mediterranean region: Resource efficiency (particularly Water), High Quality Affordable Food and Energy (particularly renewable energies).

ERANETMED (October 2013 – September 2017) in an ongoing ERA-Net supported by FP7-INCO. It addresses the main Euro-Mediterranean societal challenges (energy, water and food, health, marine environment). ERANETMED involves Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Jordan, Greece, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia, Turkey, Spain. ERANETMED has launched in 2015 a call for proposals on renewable energies and water resources and their connections for the Mediterranean region, for an amount of around 13 million€ co-funded by Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, and Turkey.