Building Research and Innovation Collaborations within the frame of the African-European Partnership and the FNSSA Road Map

Cairo, 28 October - On the occasion of the 10th Africa Food Day Commemoration, held in Egypt under the chairmanship of the African Union by Egypt in 2019, the North Africa event, organized by LEAP4FNSSA with the support of ARC/ Agricultural Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, launched a public private alliance of partners between Europe and North Africa.

The purpose is to develop joint food and nutrition security research and innovation projects within the Africa-EU Partnership, to enable the emergence of synergies and the optimization of funding and investments, while establishing the linkages between all relevant public and private players in the region.

Specific objectives

• Inform on the objective to launch an AU-EU Funders Alliance dedicated to FNSSA R&I, and initiate a tentative calendar and potential participants’ approval.
• Foster actors from practice: knowledge, communication and innovation hubs, identify young entrepreneurs interested to develop business plans inspired by recommendations from the EU-AU FNSSA alliances, and link small businesses with research funding opportunities to fuel innovation, with the purpose to identify relevant innovation actors and approaches to work with research.
• Elaborate mechanisms to link research and practice and develop a methodology and an effective approach to matching the needs of farmers and private sector to the research community.
• Initiate a process to recruit “Pioneer” partners towards the establishment of a North African chapter of the Africa‐EU‐Partnership and of a Europe-Africa R & I Consortium to improve the level of collaboration between Europe and Africa on FNSSA.

Brief outline of LEAP4FNNSA

The prospect for the enhancement of an AU-EU Funders Alliance and a North Africa Chapter on research and innovation for Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture – FNSSA. Discussion on needed resources, which could support or already contribute to building AU-EU Funders Alliance and enhancing a North Africa Chapter.

• Dr. Tarek El-Arabi, Director of Egypt-EU cooperation, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Egypt
• Dr. Bernard Mallet, Agriculture Projects Coordinator, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, France

Panels’ discussion

Panelists took-stock of outcomes and discussions of the above session

and analysed and identified possible ways and mechanisms, to enhance AU-EU Funders Alliance and a North Africa Chapter on research and innovation on FNSSA.

Panel 1 – Thematic priorities and topics

• Dr. Shireen Assem, Deputy Chairman for Research, ARC, Egypt
• Dr. Imane Thami Alami, Head of Scientific Division, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Morocco
• Haj/Hussein Abdel Rahman, President Farmers' syndicate, Egypt
• Dr. Habiba Wassef, Trustee, African Nutrition Society, Egypt
• Dr. Mohamed Elies Hamza, President, Institution de la Recherche et de l'Enseignement Superieur Agricoles (IRESA), Tunisia

Panel 2 – Policies, innovation and enterprising

• Dr. Mohamed El Shinawi, Advisor to the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Egypt and Co-Chair of PRIMA Foundation.
• Dr. Daniele Rossi, European Secretary General of Confagricoltura (Italy)
• Eng. Amr Abu Freikha, Chairman, Tanta Motors, Egypt
• Emad Elazhary, Strategy & Business Development Director, Vodafone Egypt
• Dr. Jacques Wery, Deputy Director General Research, ICARDA (CGIAR)

Innovation agencies and entrepreneurs:

• Dr. Amr Farouk, Assistant ASRT President, Academy of Scientific Research & Technology, Egypt
• Eng. Hanan El-Hadary, Executive Director, Technology and Innovation Industrial Council, Ministry of Trade & Industry, Egypt 
• Dr. Harrison Charo Karisa, Country Director, Egypt and Nigeria, World Fish/CGIAR
• Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, President High Atlas Foundation, Morocco
• Eng. Shehab El-Nawawy, Chairman, Giza Systems Foundation

Idea-carriers:

• Mouhsine Lakhdissi, CTO and partner - AGRIDATA consulting Morocco
• Eng. Hussein Mansour, CEO Aller Aqua, Egypt
• Lynda Allouche, Independent Researcher & Innovator, Algeria
• Abdelrahman Fahmy, Start-up, Chairman, YTG, Egypt
• Aida Selmi, Start-up Co-Founder, BIO-WONDER, Tunisia
• Yehia Selmi, co-founder, Bio-wonder, Tunisia

Conclusions

Facilitators: Henning Knipschild, Germany, J. Dorra Fiani, Egypt
Conclusions aimed at building a comprehensive framework of recommendations on ways, mechanisms, priorities and innovations towards the establishment of the AU-EU Alliance and North African Chapter on R&I in FNSSA.

Video interview

Funding dilemmas for innovation in agriculture

Interview with Elies Hamza, Directeur Institution de la recherche et de l'enseignement supérieur Agricoles (IRESA) - Tunisia. He answers following questions:

• What is the importance of innovation in agriculture?
• Have research institutes the capacities to draft innovation business plans?
• What are the funding opportunities to fund innovation in agriculture?
• Are European funding opportunities appropriate for innovation?
• Can Leap4FNSSA help with research topics priority setting at sub-regional level?
• How can we overcome administrative hurdles which are different for every North African country? - Is PRIMA funding attractive for young researchers and innovators?