Better linkages between Agricultural Research and Development for greater impact on Global Challenges

5th June 2013. Brussels, Belgium. International Conference – Better linkages between Agricultural Research and Development for greater impact on Global Challenges.

In recent years, significant progress has been made in improving European coordination of Agricultural Research for Development through ERA-ARD, an EC funded project addressing national programmes for Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) in Europe, as well as EIARD (European Initiative for Agricultural Research for Development) targeting European support to global ARD initiatives like the CGIAR and SCAR (Standing Committee on Agricultural Research) targeting research programmes addressing primarily European concerns.

Future coordination interventions are expected to focus on improved alignment of research and development policies, programmes and instruments both within Europe and between Europe and the South. This conference brought together policy-makers, donors, programme managers, scientists, the private sector and other stakeholders from Europe and regions of the world concerned with the fields of agriculture, research and international cooperation.

Frank De Wispelaere (DGD),  Annette Wijering, chair ERA-ARD 
Steering Committee ; Rudolf Strohmeier, Deputy 
Director-General: Research Programmes DG RTD 

Conference Objectives 

• forward looking perspective building on achievements and existing mechanisms to identify concrete ways to improve coordination of agricultural research for development efforts in Europe, 
• emphasising improved synergies between national

  

  Paco Sérémé, Research Director at INERA, Burkina Faso

  Elfriede Fuhrmann, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry,
  Environment and Water Management, Austria
  

  Annette Wijering, chair ERA-ARD Steering Committee

  
  

  Pierre-André Cordey, Swiss Agency for Development and 

  
  

  Cooperation, Switzerland

  and bilateral programmes, 
• strengthened linkages between AR and ARD and stronger alignment between national and European programmes with global initiatives in order to address global challenges 
• and to maximise the impact of European investments in AR and ARD, at national, continental and global level.

  

  Nicolas Dandois, Task Force on Research & Innovation, DG Agri ; 

  Hans Jorg Lutzeyer, DG RTD ; 

  Martin Kropff, EFARD Chair, Wageningen University

The outputs of the conference will include proposals for renewed linkages between European AR and ARD, further alignment between member state policies and instruments for a specific dialogue within Europe and between Europe and other regions of world.

Programme Topics

• The role of Europe in implementing the GCARD Road Map and addressing Global Challenges 
• Looking forward with lessons learnt and results from ERA-ARD 
• European Partnership with the South, including the South’s vision of collaboration with Europe 
• Linkages between agricultural research and research for development in Europe 
• The European ARD coordination set-up: possibilities for the future

Era ard ii-paepard presentation 

Presentations and the conference report can be found on the ERA-ARD Website