PRIMA
PARTNERSHIP FOR RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AREA
FOOD SYSTEMS AND WATER RESOURCES FOR SUSTAINABLE MEDITERRANEAN SOCIETIES
On 22 December 2014, nine Member States of the European Union (EU) submitted a proposal for the participation of the EU in a joint research and innovation programme named PRIMA.
PRIMA fosters joint research and innovation activities among Mediterranean countries, aiming at developing innovative and sustainable solutions in agriculture, food production and water provision, encouraging application by communities, enterprises and citizens.
For the first time a so long term and wide programme include European Member States (Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Czech Republic, Spain) and countries of the Mediterranean basin, which are not European member states (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia e Turkey). A total of two hundred million euros have been committed for this initiative over a 10 year period starting in 2018. This amount is intended to grow thanks to the UE contribution. Other countries interested to PRIMA Initiative include Croatia, Germany, Israel, Romania and Slovenia.
Participant Countries whish for Prima being initiated according to Art. 185 TFEU that includes the creation of a Dedicated Implementation Structure for launching research calls for proposals funded by economic resources from both – UE and non-UE – participant Countries and the European Commission. Such solution could ensure the scientific management and financial integration of national research policies on PRIMA issues. This is essential to face environmental, social and technological challenges effectively. European Commission started an Impact Assessment procedure for PRIMA to test how it affects agriculture and food production. At the dedicated web page further information is available.
On Monday 1 February the Online Public Consultation started. The consultation will run until Saturday 24 April (12 weeks). A link to the survey is published on the “Your Voice in Europe” website aiming at receiving the stakeholders opinions about PRIMA.
Every stakeholder is invited to reply to the consultation but also to forward the link to other stakeholders who might be interested. It would be important to help the Commission disseminating this information as widely as possible to ensure replies to the open consultation from relevant universities, research organisation, public authorities, local communities, large business and SMEs, NGOs, individual citizens, etc . For this reason, I would be really grateful if you could participate to the consultation and also if you could contribute to its wide dissemination.
I really thank for your kind attention, consider the PRIMA secretariat at your complete disposal and in case of further information and follow-up please contact prima@unisi.it.
Angelo Riccaboni
PRIMA Programme Coordinator
Useful links:
PRIMA: The programme
PRIMA EC: EC information
Public Consultation: The public consultation