The Coordination of Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean

The Coordination of Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean and its e-infrastructure tool Presented by WP 1 Leader Mipaaf-IT, Annamaria Marzetti & Serenella Puliga

ARIMNet NETWORK An European project coordinated by France (INRA) and Tunisia (IRESA) including as full members: • 6 EU members (Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and France) • 2 associated countries (Turkey and Israel) • 4 Mediterranean Partner Countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria) • CIHEAM and ICARDA are associated to the project to benefit by their expertise and better coordinate the activities in the Mediterranean area. A project supported and funded by the European Commission in the framework of ERANET Actions to: • reinforce the scientific cooperation between countries of the Mediterranean area, creating a research community through the coordination of national programmes in agricultural research; • address jointly the common key issues for Mediterranean agriculture such as: sustainable development, management of natural resources and mitigation of threats resulting from global change; • better fulfil the expectations of decision makers, stakeholders and Mediterranean people MIPAAF-IT

Challenges Food security and food safety Climate change Natural resources management (water and soil energy) Use of genetic resources Emerging/invasive diseases Health and nutrition Urbanisation and rural development Strategy need-driven approach based on four steps each one contributing on its own to strengthen the cooperation, and providing the basis for the design of the next stages: • Information exchange and mapping to improve mutual acquaintance and share of best practices (country & global reports) • Strategic orientation of research programmes to eliminate overlapping and open novel issues (stakeholders conference Valencia October 2010) • Joint activities to consolidate and harmonise partnership, outline common vision and agenda • Calls for proposals to expand the structuring impact of the network (2011). MIPAAF-IT

Structure and activities WP 1 Mapping and information exchange P 5 W WP 2 Analysis of gaps and overlaps in current research activities COMMON DATABASE P 5 W WP 3 Implementation of joint activities W P 5 WP 4 Calls for proposals Funding P 5 W MIPAAF-IT

COMMON DATABASE Mediterranean Internet Portal on agricultural research Information System on Mediterranean Agriculture Research (ISMAR) improve efficiency and strengthen agri-Med research potential STEPS: • Development of a web site: internet and intranet (intranet as working place for project partners to exchange documents and information) • Development of a discussion forum open to all stakeholders • Development of a dynamic database : overview of the programmes and map of the research capacity involved with Mediterranean agriculture (“assisted search" interface) • Interaction with other ICT tools dealing with Mediterranean agriculture. MIPAAF-IT

Database Features Standards (adopting and/or adapting existing standards): • Ai. DA metadata set (Development Gateway Foundation, Inc. ) • Common European Research Information Format (European Commission) • Web based Information Services for Agricultural Research for Development (Wageningen International) • ISO 639 standard for language (two letter code) • ISO 3166 standard for country (two letter code) • ISO 4217 for currency (three letter code) Classification schemes based on: • Enumerated List ( source: Euro CRIS , current research information systems) Search by keywords: AGROVOC Thesaurus AGROVOC is a multilingual, structured and controlled vocabulary designed to cover the terminology of all subject fields in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and related domains. Tools: open source My. Sql ( database), PHP, Linux MIPAAF-IT

Database architecture MIPAAF-IT

Thank you for your attention www. arimnet. net michel. dodet@paris. inra. fr Coordinator m. montedoro@politicheagricole. gov. it WP 1 Leader benrayana. aniss@iresa. agrinet. tn Information System Manager moshen. krichi@iresa. agrinet. tn Database Manager