FUTURE4PRIMA responds to a critical moment for Euro-Mediterranean cooperation on water, food, energy and ecosystems (WEFE). The current PRIMA partnership has generated a rich portfolio of R&I projects, but evaluations and policy debates show persistent problems: fragmented solutions, weak uptake by end-users, limited alignment with national programmes and uneven participation of Mediterranean Partner Countries. At the same time, the Green Deal, the SDGs and growing climate and geopolitical pressures demand more coherent, impact-oriented investments in the WEFE Nexus.
The project’s overall objective is to co-design, together with PRIMA’s Board of Trustees, national ministries, funding agencies and stakeholders, an evidence-based Impact Assessment (IA) and a future Joint Programme (PRIMA2). FUTURE4PRIMA combines mapping of policies and programmes, stakeholder and funder consultations, widening and engagement activities, innovation valorisation services, and SDG/Green Deal alignment tools to build a robust intervention logic, governance options and implementation modalities for PRIMA2.
Expected impacts include: a stronger case for launching PRIMA2 as a treaty-based partnership; better integration of national funding agencies and instruments; clearer pathways for scaling and adoption of WEFE innovations; improved inclusion of Southern and Eastern Mediterranean and Western Balkan countries; and a more visible contribution of PRIMA to EU external action, the Green Deal and the 2030 Agenda.
Social sciences and humanities play a central role, through governance analysis, policy and programme studies, stakeholder behaviour and incentive analysis, and co-creation processes that ensure that PRIMA2’s design, monitoring and evaluation framework reflects real political, socio-economic and cultural conditions across the Mediterranean.
