Coordination action in support of the implementation by participating States of a Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change

Specific challenge:Following the implementation of the actions foreseen by the Commission’s Communication on Joint Programming to tackle Europe’s major societal challenges, the Competitiveness Council has welcomed the progress made by EU Member States in Joint Programming Initiatives launched so far and especially in the Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change Joint Programming Initiative (FACCE JPI) tackling the combined challenges of food security against the continuous threats from climate change, global population increase, and food and non-food demand. Several Council Conclusions on Joint Programming^[1] invite the Commission to support JPIs via Coordination and Support Actions.

Scope: Proposals should build on the results expected by the coordination action in support to the FACCE JPI in the implementation of the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) and Implementation Plan using effective and efficient methods of collaboration such as those proposed by the 'Voluntary guidelines on Framework Conditions, adopted by the High Level Group on Joint Programming. To carry out activities foreseen in the Implementation Plan, current efforts should be assessed to provide information on Member State implication and to favour the alignment of these activities to the JPI's SRA. Moreover, proposals should support in harmonization, integration, and alignment of national research programming, to enable evidence-based policy making and effective cross-policy actions, investigate novel forms of implementation of SRA such as synchronised calls. Finally, they should further strengthen the international dimension of the JPI to be addressed by ensuring coherence with other relevant international initiatives. In line with the objectives of the EU strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation, proposals are encouraged to consider cooperation with related programmes from third countries[2].

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected impact: In coordination with the SCAR Committee and relevant Bioeconomy ERA-NETs, proposals are expected to:

         promote the uptake of the FACCE SRA in national programmes and activities in order to reduce overlaps

         ensure coordination with Horizon 2020 objectives, with a scale and scope of action that should go well beyond what either the EU or Member States can achieve on their own.

Type of action: Coordination and support actions

[1] Council Conclusions of 12 October 2010, of 26 November 2010 and of 8 December 2011

[2] This is without prejudice to the general rules on the funding of legal entities from third-countries, as set in part A of the annex to the work programme.