BioCircle facilitating better understanding of European Commission FP7: Side event at FARA GA

19th July. Ouagadougou. Burkina Faso. This session during the FARA General Assembly has tried to create awareness of the European Commission financing mechanism Framework Programme 7 (FP7) and what it offers for Agricultural research Scientists in Africa.

FARA is a member of the BioCircle network, a two-year project which aims to reinforce the network of National Contact Points (NCP) for FP7 under the theme “Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology (FAFB)” and extend the network to National Information Points (NIP) in major developing country partners.

BioCircle thus promotes the EU-Africa joint partnership by stimulating international cooperation between EU and African researchers. The African research community in FAFB is represented in this network by FARA. As such, FARA is enabled to provide consistent and accurate advice to researchers throughout the African continent on the FP7 FAFB theme.

This session revolved around the methods used to promote partnerships, such as national round tables, brokerages, twinning and tailor-made training programmes. They are designed to stimulate dialogue to better define specific areas of mutual interest and benefit in FAFB.

The session was facilitated by Dr. Pea Oberhagemann (National Contact Point of Life Sciences, Germany) and Francois Stepman (European co-manager of the Platform for African European Partnerships on Agricultural Research for Development - PAEPARD).

It coincided with the launch on 20th of July of the latest FP7 call. 3 themes are relevant for Africa in this call (deadline for submission of proposals 15/01/2011:

KBBE.2011.2.5-02 Reducing post-harvest losses for increased food security — SICA Up (Specific International Cooperation Actions) to 2 projects may be funded (SICA means that non EU members are mandatory)

KBBE.2011.1.3-01 New/next generation of researchers for Neglected Zoonoses at the animal-human interface – Mandatory ICPC (International cooperation partner countries ) Coordination and Support Action targeted to SMEs. Minimum number of participants: 3 from different Member States or Associated Countries and 3 from different ICPC (of which at least 2 from Africa)

KBBE.2011.1.4-08 Role of aquaculture in improving food security and eradicating poverty worldwide - Mandatory ICPC Coordination and Support Action (coordinating action) Minimum number of participants: 2 from Member States and Associated Countries and 3 from different ICPC (International cooperation partner countries )

Further references:
PAEPARD is facilitating the consortia creation of innovative partnerships to submit proposals to such calls. Hereunder are the links to the FP7 call which is available online and other useful resources:

1. CORDIS http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/partners_en.html
2. BIOCIRCLE http://www.biocircle-project.eu/dnn4/home/tabid/61/Default.aspx
3. BIO-NET http://www.ncp-bio.net (national contact points on Agricultural research in Europe)