ARIMNet has as its strategic objective to reinforce the scientific cooperation between countries of the Mediterranean area, including EU and non-EU member states, in order to maximise its support to sustainable development, notably, management of natural resources and mitigation of threats resulting from global change.

To reach this overall goal, ARIMNet will:

•   Enhance synergies between research programmes in view of avoiding duplication of efforts and orienting spared resources to unaddressed issues;

•   Raise cooperation between the organisations in order to carry out ambitious research projects that cannot be undertaken at an individual level;

•   Outreach the benefit of the network beyond the consortium to create spill-over effects impacting all concerned research organisations, and out of the Mediterranean area, export the concept to other relevant areas, the Black Sea area, for instance.

* Mediterranean agriculture’s specificities

The Mediterranean countries share in common three specificities, which are important for agriculture and food production: its climate, its vegetation, and its unique biodiversity.

To preserve these features, the Mediterranean agriculture has respond to the questions of rural development and urbanisation and to face the environmental challenge. For instance, a sustainable equilibrium should be found between preservation of biodiversity and use of natural resources. This balance is all the more necessary to reach due to the high sensitivity of the Mediterranean vegetation and fauna to biotic and abiotic stress, whatever due to lack of water, land degradation, natural hazards, and plant and animal diseases.

Agriculture is a major component of the economic and social activity in the Mediterranean area. While the contribution of agriculture is rather low in the Mediterranean EU member states (2% to 3% of the GDP[1]), the economic growth in other countries of the Mediterranean area relies more importantly on agricultural production which contributes from 10% to 15% of the GDP. Agricultural and agro-food products have an important share in trade: 5% to 20% of the imports and 15% to 25% of the exports. These exports remain a key factor in the Greek and Cypriot national economies and, to lesser extent, French, Spanish, Moroccan and Egyptian ones.

The part of rural population in the Mediterranean is high and represents 36% of the total population, even if there is a great variety of situations: from 57% of the total population in Egypt to low percentages in France or Spain and a declining part in Morocco, Tunisia and Portugal. In terms of people working in agriculture the average rate is around 7% in EU and around 20% in the other countries (but 43% in Turkey and 33% in Morocco). The question of rural development is clearly another key issue faced by all the Mediterranean countries.

* Scientific research in the Mediterranean area

Scientific research plays a central role in the building of solutions to meet these challenges. Its role is made even stronger in such a context of fragile and vulnerable resources. In the Mediterranean area, problems are global but agricultural research systems to address those problems are local. The weakness in coordination at the European level as well as scattered cooperation policies are minimising the impact of research programmes and jeopardising the capacity to deliver properly efficient solutions. In this context, the challenge for all the Mediterranean countries is, beyond the enhancement of their own capacity in agricultural research, to gather their national capacities through a mechanism of alignment of programmes and of renewed cooperation in order to achieve the necessary critical mass (at least in the areas that are crucial for Mediterranean agriculture and ecosystem) and to have a stronger impact of research on the development of the whole area.

In the field of research, 1992 can be considered as the starting point of the EU-Mediterranean partnership with activities set up through continuous dialogue and with a problem solving approach. The Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in agricultural research has been growing step by step from the FP4 to the FP7.

Under the FP6, the International Cooperation activities developed for Mediterranean partner countries (MPC) had, as a general objective, the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Research and Innovation Area. Considered as a component of the opening of the European Research Area towards this region, it targets a long range sustainable development around the Mediterranean Sea in the context of trans-boundary economic, environmental and socio-political problems. The approach is to concentrate on a set of strategic themes of specific relevance to the region, which have been selected through an extensive Euro-Mediterranean dialogue.

The main areas targeted were: environment, water and health issues, as well as protection of cultural heritage. One of the topics in the environmental thematic was “Improving the water consumption efficiency and effectiveness by users and uses; plant breeding for efficient crop water and nutrient use”. The EC has selected 11 proposals (three specific support actions and eight specific targeted research projects) aimed integrated management of limited water resources in Mediterranean region. Most of these projects are dealing with management practices for more sustainable rain-fed agricultural systems and breeding, for efficient crop water and nutrient use. 

The participation of Mediterranean countries in nine projects of the thematic priority 5 (Food Quality and Safety) has shown that, if encouraged, teams of these countries have the scientific potential and skills to contribute efficiently to solve issues of mutual interest related to this thematic.

All these activities, including coordination activities have improved the awareness and a fruitful shared experience around the Mediterranean to work together. It constitutes an excellent basis to foster the cooperation among Member and Associated States as well as with the MPC in the running framework programme.

The first Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Higher Education and Scientific Research held on Cairo, 18 June 2007, has resulted in a declaration which calls upon fostering the research technological development and innovation (RTDI) with Mediterranean countries. Among other statements, the Euromed ministers suggested the creation of a EuroMed Research Area whose objectives are:

• Modernizing Science and Technology, R&D policies in the Mediterranean Partner Countries;

• Supporting Institutional Capacity Building, including human and research infrastructure development;

• Enhancing the participation of the Mediterranean Partner Countries in the Framework Programmes while taking into account their particular needs, as well as areas of mutual interest and benefit between EU and Mediterranean Partner Countries;

• Promoting innovation in the Mediterranean Partner Countries and enhancing exploitation of the RTD outputs by society and industry;

• Favouring mobility of researchers;

• Enhancing participation of the Mediterranean Partner Countries in the "People" Specific Programme of FP7.

Regarding the integration of the Mediterranean countries in the European Research Area, the ministers committed to undertake the following actions:

• Promotion of links between centres of excellence in the Euromed region;

• Promotion of joint networks of Excellence in fields of mutual interest, e.g. renewable energy, biotechnology, environment, etc.;

• Promotion of regional initiatives in RTDI;

• Promotion of contact points in Mediterranean Partner Countries' Universities and research Institutes to disseminate information and promote participation in FP7;

• Promotion of national funds in Mediterranean Partner Countries for scientific research and development;

• Explore the possibility of co-finance by Mediterranean partner countries in FP7 for coordinated activities;

• Enhance the participation of Mediterranean partner countries in FP7;

ARIMNet is clearly in line with all these objectives and will contribute to implement the measures.