MCAST launches Water-Agriculture Research Project funded by H2020
On Thursday 25 February 2016 MCAST launched a new project entitled ‘Fostering Water-Agriculture Research and Innovation in Malta’ (FOWARIM). The event was held at Hotel Le Meridian in St Julians. FOWARIM aims to enhance and embolden the research capacity of MCAST’s Water Research and Training Centre. A 3-year €960,125 project, FOWARIM is 100% funded by the Horizon 2020 Twinning Program. This project is very important considering Malta’s worsening water scarcity and the crucial role agriculture can have in ameliorating this situation.The major objectives of this project are the strengthening of collaboration between partners, training of personnel to develop excellent research, create new lines of research, publish peer-reviewed papers, extend the partnership of research Institutions and provide solutions to stakeholders that stand to benefit from this project. The project aims to tackle the following themes that are crucial for the existence of Maltese agriculture namely (a) Decreasing Water Demand, (b) Making Use of Alternative Sources of Water (c) Renewable Desalinization, On-Farm Desalinization and Utilization of Saline Water and (d) Decreasing Negative Environmental Externalities Caused by Nutrient-Rich Farm Waters. This will be achieved through the undertaking of five work packages which strive to build the capacity for research, share knowledge through networking and to build a research strategy for water use in the agricultural sector. The interconnectedness between partners and the training and networking programs suggested will strengthen MCAST’s research and S&T capacity in water use in agriculture, enhance the dynamism between the different partners, contribute to an increase in peer-reviewed publications and compliment in more ways than one Malta’s Smart Specialization Strategy. The partners in this project are MCAST, the Directorate of Agriculture, the Centre International de Hautes Etudes Mediterraneennes (CIHEAM), Europe for Business LTD (EFB), Cranfield University (CU), ID Consulting (IDC) and the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC).
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Malta