Innovation Platform aimed at promoting the integration of the Knowledge Triangle (Academia, Business, and Public sector) in the Mediterranean Area.

Pilot case: Promotion of a Research Driven Cluster initiative on water, Casablanca, 1-2 December, 2011.

To participate in this FORUM, please fill in the registration form and follow the instructions inside the document.

Real partnerships between the EU and the Mediterranean Partner Countries can be build through scientific cooperation, a fact which has been supported by the recent European Union publication "A new response to a changing Neighbourhood" (COM(2011) 303).

Scientific knowledge and expertise are crucial during the current development of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). Metrology, for example,
will play a major role in the exchange and consequently introduction of uniform regulatory guidelines. Environmental themes such as climate change, resource efficiency (energy, water, food), transport and tourism, only to list a few, need to be addressed by the scientific community.

The EU tackles these global challenges by supporting multinational, regional as well as bilateral projects: for example the MIRA Project, the Mediterranean Innovation Research Action, a Coordination Action financed by the INCO Program of the Capacities Program of FP7, which aims to develop the regional S&T and Innovation dialogue in the Mediterranean Region by identifying issues of common interest and implementing actions sponsored by the Monitoring Committee of Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation in S&T (MoCo), Steering Committee of the Project, as well as incorporating complementarities of existing projects in the MED region (ERA-Wide and BILAT Projects).

The Euro-Mediterranean Innovation Space (EMIS), the Innovation focus group/component within MIRA, identified a number of obstacles responsible for the gap between research and industry, which is a common problem in the entire Mediterranean area, and a challenge to the building of a knowledge and innovation space.

MIRA is addressing this situation by running activities such as:

1. Technology Transfer seminars (with focus on the academic sector),
   
2. Promotion of a Mediterranean Metrology Centres Network and
   
3. The establishment of common activities within the innovation community of the Mediterranean Area.

Teaming up with the "Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l’Enseignement Supérieur, de la Formation des Cadres et de la Recherche Scientifique" of Morocco and the "Association R&D Maroc", MIRA will organize a FORUM in December 2011 in Casablanca.

This FORUM will take place within the "Salon Euro Méditerranéen de l’Innovation de la Recherche Développement et de la Technologie MEDINNOVA 2011", targeting innovation key players (business, academia and public sector) in the Mediterranean and European countries by offering opportunities to exchange
experiences, explore dialogues and identify cooperation opportunities.

Particular focus during this event will be, Water Management and Waste Water Management, considering societal challenges in the region. Relevant private sector key players, major academic stakeholders (e.g. water centres financed by the ERA-Wide Program), water research groups, intermediates structures and institutions such as EIB, FEMIP and the ANIMA Network, European Commission bodies such as: DG RTDI Directorate International Cooperation, and DG Enterprise and several public Institutions from the Mediterranean Countries will be attending this event.

The expected benefits of participants will be derived from the mutual acquaintance and identification of attendant coming from the three sides of the knowledge triangle, the dialogue between all the parties on topics of mutual interest, in its horizontal aspect of identification of intermediate structures and initiatives dealing with innovation, such as IPR experts, Technological Parks administrators, services provides, etc., and the by the vertical alignment on a topic, water management, that represent a common issue in the Mediterranean area. Moreover, this Forum represents an opportunity of identifying possible partners for setting consortia addressing research and innovation topics of mutual interest covered by the funding instruments of research acting in the Euro-Mediterranean frame or the Regional or bilateral frame.