ERAMED & PROMEDAccess Projects

ERAMED project ERAMED project “ Strengthening the European Research Area in the Mediterranean Countries” “ Strengthening the European Research Area in the Mediterranean Countries”  Project start date: 1 st December 2006  Duration: 20 months  Final Conference: 9/7/2008, Morocco  Funded by: DG Research of the EC under INCO/FP6

The ERAMED Consortium  Consortium:  Consortium: 11 National Contact Points (NCPs) or Stakeholders from EU and Mediterranean countries:  EKT / NHRF-Greece HCST-Jordan  IRD-France AOU-Lebanon  CIHEAM/IAMB-Italy HIAST-Syria  CDER-Algeria ASRT-Egypt  MENESFCRS-Morocco  MRSTDC-Tunisia  DGDSR,West bank-Palestine

ERA-MED: Main objectives ERA-MED builds on the achievements of the EuroMEDANet and EuroMEDANet2 projects which primarily established NCPs in the participating Mediterranean countries. ERA-MED aims to:  Promote FP7 among the Med. Countries and strengthen the participation and collaboration between the Scientific Communities of EU and Med. countries  Strengthen the collaboration / integration between the Med. NCPs and the European NCP networks.  Extend the European Research Area to the Mediterranean Partners Countries

1) Organization of national awareness events on FP7 in Med. Countries:  Beirut, Lebanon 6 th July 2007  Amman, Jordan 8 th January 2008  Ramallah, Palestine 13 th May 2008  Tunis, Tunisia 18 th June 2008  Algiers, Algeria 7 th July 2008  Cairo, Egypt 21 st July 2008  Damascus, Syria 23 rd July 2008  Morocco organized various info days & workshops on FP7 MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS (1)

2) Mapping of the large-scale national R&D programmes and research programs/ projects funded by international initiatives such as UN to have an overview of national priorities and their possible matching with participation in FPs. (Database) 3) Producing an assessment report on the social, cultural and practical conditions of scientific support in Med. Countries reflecting the current status across Med. Region. MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS (2)

4) Ensuring synergies between the project and the other similar initiatives funded by the EC (such as PROMEDAceess) e.g: Events combining activities and/or resources of the ERA-MED and PROMEDACCESS projects took place in :  Jordan, 8 th to 10 th January 2008  Morocco, 4 th to 6 th June 2008  Tunisia, 18 th to 20 th June 2008 MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS (3)

5) Strengthening the integration and collaboration with the EU networks  Creation of a catalogue of EU & international events on FP7 that were relevant to the Mediterranean countries.  Participation in thematic EU & International events ( e.g INCO NCP meeting)  Sending introductory letters to coordinators of projects to EU NCPs.  Encouraging the target groups to submit their profiles into the partners Database in CORDIS. MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS (4)

6) Promotional activities and dissemination of results  Development of the Project website:  Continuous updating of MED NCP’s websites  Developing a short guide for FP7 (A/E)  Development and publication of promotional material ( Quarterly e-newsletter (for each MED NCP and across Europe), leaflet, etc) MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS (5)

PROMEDACCESS PROJECT Aim: Aim: increase the involvement of higher education and research institutions in Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs) in opportunities open to them under FP7 as well as the higher education programmes (Tempus, Erasmus-Mundus, …) Start date of project: Jan 2007 Duration: 24 months Project Website (French/English): maghreb/actions-regionales/promedaccess- english.html maghreb/actions-regionales/promedaccess- english.html

PROMEDAccess Consortium Consortium: 1. AUF, Belgium 2. UnivMed, France 2. PUEMLR, France 3. EKT/NHRF, Greece 4. MRSTDC, Tunisia 5. ASRT, Egypt 6. HCST, Jordan 7. AOU, Lebanon 8. CDER, Algeria 9. MENESFCRS, Morocco 10. HIAST, Syria

Main Activities (1) 1) Creating summary materials presenting the programmes covered by PROMEDAccess (FP7 - Cooperation, People & higher education programmes). 2)Training administratives of higher education and research institutions working in the field of international relations who will make up the nucleous of the guidance units (Europe units) within the MPC institutions.

Main Activities (1) 3) Gathering information of interest to the European Union concerning Mediterranean networks of excellence in MPC dealing with FP7 and the INCO- MED priorities. 4) Investigation of the difficulties that limit the participation of MPC institutions in FP7.

1) Conducting training seminars May 2007: Morocco, Tunisia October 2007: Algeria January 2008: Egypt, Jordan June 2008: Morocco November 2008: Syria It is planned to conduct a workshop in Lebanon 13-14/11/2008 ACHIEVEMENTS (1)

ACHIEVEMENTS (2) Each seminar was organized around two main parts:  Formal information about FP7 and Higher Education Programs.  Practical trainings by pushing the trainees to use the computers to navigate on Cordis, to down load relevant documents, to fill various documents (part A, part B, …) and to calculate the budget of a project.

ACHIEVEMENTS (3) Preparing a questionnaire to identify centers of excellence by the higher education and research institutions of 3rd countries. it is intended to provide a full list of the centers before the end of Preparing a questionnaire to Identify factors that limit the participation of MPC institution, the types of researchers interested in European programmes.

ACHIEVEMENTS (4) The following “qualitative” obstacles are identified:  Complexity of European programs.  Difficulty to convince the authorities of the institutions (universities) to support researchers who would like to build a project.  Difficulty to find partners (European and non European).  Heaviness of the administrations of these institutions.

Conclusive seminar: (Athens, December 2008)

LESSONS LEARNT Building on the results of the previous project (EuroMEDANET-ERAMED, POMEDAccess & SRTD). Developing a database and linking it to CORDIS (Unifying the databases & providing Quality check). Training (needs of the target groups,weaknesses, practical rather than theoretical)

Thank You