Please find below the explanation of the contents.

Objectives

Recent developments in EU-Med co-operations with respect to the Union for the Mediterranean stipulated by the "Paris Summit" (July 2008) reaffirmed and further developed by the "Marseille Declaration" (November 2008) shall be the overall frame for the new activities under WP 4. The MIRA dialogue platform will act as an open
forum where problems and ideas regarding the implementation of the political agenda and its difficulties will be discussed. Against this background for MPC co-operation WP 4 will further develop and valorize the results of the five thematic workshops already organized. Links and possible join actions with other INCO-Nets like the WBC, GCC and CAAST.Net will be organised.

Description of work

The first task is the Screening Conference, and the activities are:

• Organization of the Screening Conference. This conference identifies the "state of the Art" through screening and monitoring of ongoing and completed projects and other initiatives regarding S+T priority identification. Its results serve as inputs for the definition of thematic workshops topics (Deliverables 25/26).

The second task is the Dialogue Platform. This has gained a new orientation incorporating the identification of the S&T aspects of the UfM and promoting the creation new instruments of EU-MPC collaboration in the frame of mutual ownership of research initiatives. Activities:

• Managing the dialogue platform on present and future common problems and interest on research initiatives within the UFM COUNTRIES. This platform will act as an open forum where problems and ideas could be posted. In this respect the dialogue platform will stronger focus on the S&T aspects of the UfM priorities.
• Within this task overall guidelines for S&T developments and activities within the frame of the UfM will be discussed. This dialogue platform should act as reference frame with a clear link to the MoCo –and possibly organised back-to-back to the MoCo meetings.
• Moreover, the findings of the thematic workshops organized under MIRA as well as of the forthcoming workshops for the formulation of the research agendas (see below) should be used to upscale the bilateral agreements between the EU and several UFM COUNTRIES. This technical dialogue platform will interact with the policy dialogue established within the MoCo.

The third task are the Thematic Workshops (Deliverable 30). Discussion and follow-up of implementation at the international level of FP7 priorities. Sub-Task 3.1. Thematic Workshops. Activities:

• Six thematic workshops on Health, Environment, Energy, FAB, and ICT to be carried out between January and July 2009 by various hosting organisations. Each of these workshops formulates areas for common research activities and topics in form of proposals for SICAs. In total, 244 S&T experts from the EU and MPCs are involved in these workshops and 55 SICAs will be formulated. In a next step – having the endorsement of the MoCo – the SICA proposals will be communicated to the EU-Commission with the aim to integrate these proposals in the following Work Programmes in question. A follow up of the results of the MIRA recommendations will be done to ensure the continuous support of researchers and networks in the fields of the thematic workshops carried out before. Appropriate measures (e.g. dissemination of workshop results to regional and national institutions and fact finding missions in order to set up respectively further develop thematic think tanks for example in the fields of FAB, Health, ICT), will be realised in cooperation with WP 6 and WP.3 whereas existing structures (like NCP networks) will participate.
• Follow-up of the Thematic Workshops. MIRA will ensure a follow up of the results of the MIRA recomendations, including a scientific analysis of the level of coverage by the thematic Directorates of DG RTD of the topics proposed by MIRA. Appropriate measures (e.g. dissemination of workshop results to regional and national institutions and fact finding missions in order to set up respectively further develop thematic think tanks for example in the fields of FAB, Health, ICT), will be realised in cooperation with WP 6 and WP.3 whereas existing structures (like NCP networks) will participate. Coordination with the BILAT Projects to disseminate the opportunities offered by the take-up of the SICA suggested by MIRA, and gather new suggestions on National Priorities identified by the BILATs of collaboration with the EU in order to redefine, if needed, the common MPC scientific objectives of cooperation.

On concrete terms the potential activities to be developed under this sub-task are:

• ICT: co-operation with the FP project "Join-Med" which aims at linking ICT-actors throughout the Mediterranean;
  
• FAB: Idea for a joint activity with the ERA-NET ARIMNET within the SCAR meeting on December 2010 regarding possible lines in the work programme for Mediterranean Agricultural Research in cooperation with MPC and co-operation within the « stakeholder conference » of ARIMNET in October 2010;
  
• Energy: Further valorisation within the MIRA2 activity on the elaboration of MPC Research Agendas (Mediterranean Solar Plan) and
  
• Health: Workshop in view of open call for proposals in the health field within the FP strand „co-operation”.

The fourth task is the identification and dissemination for the actions covered by the Neighbourhood Agreements between the EU and the EU-MPC (In connection with WPs 3 and 6) and Framework Programs SICA and other International Cooperation Actions-Monitoring. Activities:

• A continuous survey of the impact of the ENPI policy and the MPC Projects in the RTD cooperation within the MPC should be carried out and posted in the MIRA website PORTAL of Mediterranean Cooperation.

Moreover, a monitoring of the implementation of the SICA topics and other International Cooperation actions, such as the recommended participation of international partners in some Calls of the Work Programmes will be realised taking as example the survey made by ISERD – also under MIRA- previous to the Thematic Workshops.

The results of this International Cooperation monitoring, including, if possible, the surveys done by the EC, will be disseminated via the MIRA-webpage and will support the implementation of “customised” brokerage events against the background of these findings.

The fifth task is writing the recommendations for the national and Commission authorities to improve the participation of MPC in the FP (previously Task 7 in WP. 3). This task is linked with WP2 (questionnaire) and BILAT project on top of WP3.

• Identification of hurdles for Cooperation:
  
• Preparation of a template to identify the administrative funding and managerial problems in the MPC. Benchmarking study of the research local "environment".
  
• Assessment Workshop on the "Identification of common problems and possible solutions", with the participation of the IP of the MPC will be organized together with the BILAT Projects.

Activities:

• Cooperate to find common problems and possible solutions and draft recommendations to national authorities.

Results: Under the Tasks 3 and 5 of WP 3 some questionnaire are used to find common problems and envisage common solution (period 2008-2010).