Periodic Report Summary 2 - IJERA (Integrating Jordan into the European Research Area)
Project context and objectives:
It is being strategically assessed that the key environmental issues in Jordan are related to water resource management and water quality, waste management, nature protection, desertification and industrial pollution. Being one of the driest countries in the world, Jordan is putting high emphasis on improving water quality and resource management problems. The water scarcity is a socio-economic and environmental issue and the main reason to put Jordan's remarkable development achievements under threat, and the crippling water scarcity is expected to be aggravated further by climate change.
IJERA project is financed by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological development (FP7). The IJERA project (see http://www.ijera.jo online) is aiming at integrating Jordan into the European Research Area (ERA) with specific focus on strengthening capacities in water sector. ERA is composed of all research and development activities, programmes and policies in Europe which involve a transnational perspective to enable researchers, research institutions and businesses to increasingly circulate, compete and cooperate across borders.
Herein, the IJERA intends to strengthen European Union (EU)-Jordan research and technological development (RTD) cooperation by supporting Jordanian researchers' involvement in FP7 programme and setting up Jordan's environmental national contact point (NCP), reinforcing internationalisation and scientific cooperation capacities, enhancing scientific and technological (S&T) partnerships, and targeted regional and international dissemination activities.
The project moves forward towards these goals using a threefold approach:
(i) supporting the participation of Jordan in the FP7 in water research area through targeted strengthening, capacity building and coaching actions, increasing visibility of Jordanian research potentials and forging sustainable connections with EU organisations;
(ii) knitting together all relevant support schemes by consolidating national strategies, research priorities and available funding schemes; and
(iii) facilitating both the uptake of common identified water research areas and the monitoring of the performance and impacts of this cooperation.
The main impact of IJERA shall be increased capacities of the Emarcu / RSS centre in Jordan and the structuring and enhancement of the existing EU-Jordan support landscape in the domain of water S&T cooperation while ultimately enabling Jordanian researchers integration into networks of FP-active EU organisations, and enable researchers and research institutions to define project ideas and submit project proposals for international research funding.
In such framework, IJERA has completed the following tasks and activities towards fulfilling the goals and objectives of the project between the period of 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2012:
- The last meeting was held in Amman at RSS on June 2012.
- A prepared quality assurance following up the project's deliverables and documentations throughout the life cycle of the project.
- Disseminating the project results, events and activities documents at IJERA bilingual website.
- Updating analysis of Jordanian participation in environment water related calls.
- Updating the first version of competitive water research actors' database that provides contacts of researchers in academia and industry to be used for partner's search.
- Conducting knowledge sharing events brokerage day that took place in Amman on 2012. The events (Environment, building a consortium and People day) aim to increase the awareness of FP7. Three workshops were conducted with about 100 participants attend.
- Establishing sustainable well trained and efficient environmental NCP in Jordan. As a result of the two-days meetings, several contacts between the involved organisations and the Jordan environmental NCP have been set out and useful information has been shared among all the attendees and representatives of pertinent organisations (both private and public) and EC officers.
- Reporting on one to one sessions focused on overall activities and results. During 2012, two one-to-one sessions conducted in Amman on 2 February and on 26 June 2012, either for shaping the participating researchers in order to make them attractive and competitive for the projects consortia to come or to assist them with the know-how needed at aggregating other potential partners, around the project ideas they could coordinate in the future.
- Synergies have been established with ongoing European projects focused on international cooperation and water research issues; such as networking with EU-JordanNet, STREAM, MIRA, PERA and CB-WR-MED.
- Study visits have been conducted to aiming at capacity building in water research related issues.
- Reviewing the long term business plan of Emarcu / RSS to became an excellence and reference centre for water use and treatments not only in Jordan but also in the neighbouring countries and for the Mediterranean area. This BP was reviewed by multidisciplinary selected external auditors where a first draft report was prepared pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the BP and providing specific recommendations for improvement.
- Detailed assessment on the needs of Emarcu / RSS aiming at developing an experimental wastewater treatment pilot plant was developed in order to identify the competences that could still be necessary for the research activities.
- IJERA final conference was held on 5 December and presented the project results where water research actors, young Jordanian researchers and Jordanian small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) working in research and innovation were invited to meet EU experts and FP7 project coordinators.
Project results:
The main activities that were achieved under the project objectives in the second reporting period (1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012) were the following:
Objective 1: Emarcu's cooperation capacities reinforcement
Under this objective the following were achieved through work package (WP)2 and WP4:
- Second updated version of the analysis of the Jordanian participation in environment water related calls was established by HCST to assess the points of strength and weaknesses.
- Detailed assessment on the needs of Emarcu / RSS aiming at developing an experimental wastewater treatment pilot plant was developed in order to identify the competences that could still be necessary for the research activities.
- A sustainable well trained and efficient FP7 NCP in Jordan on environment and water issues was established by an expert group consisting of environment European NCPs in order to act as the main point of access for institutions and individuals who have an interest in collaborative research activities and are looking for information and advice on FP7.
- Developing synergies between Emarcu / RSS and other research centres was conducted with private organisations and public institutions with long term experience in the field of EU projects and funding schemes, and participation of some relevant EU officers from different EC Directorates General (DGs). Also, one-to-one meetings with some other representatives of pertinent organisations (both private and public) and EC Officers was conducted.
- Two study visits of three researcher from Jordan to European centres was conducted during the second year of the project, in order to stimulate the exchange of experience and improve the contacts necessary to develop agreements between the different centres, also to enhance the technology transfer toward industries. One visit was performed to Italy-Bologna with the support of ENEA for two Emarcu staff , their visit aimed at building our staff capacity through attending R2B exhibition where many companies and institutes displayed their products and services, visiting the pilot wastewater plant and its telecontrol system and visiting the tele-control centre of HERA that manages several services as drinking water, wastewater treatment, for urban and some small industry, power production and distribution, gas distribution telephonic services. The other visit has been conducted in Belgium during the Green Week event. This is the most important event for the European environmental policy. The theme of the twelfth edition held in Brussels was water and in particular, the relevance that it has in the life of each one and the challenges that we have to face to preserve this important natural resources and give it safe and available to everyone; for this reason the title of the exhibition was 'Every drop counts'.
Objective 2: Wastewater treatment-related research results dissemination
Under this objective the following were achieved through WP6:
- Disseminating the project results, events and activities documents at IJERA bilingual website.
- Updating the first version of competitive water research actors' database that provides contacts of researchers in academia and industry to be used for partner's search.
- Networking with FP7 and ERA-WIDE is an ongoing process throughout the project in order to share and disseminate scientific information and experience in water related issues. Synergies are being established with EU-JordanNet, PERA, CB-WR-MED, STREAM and MIRA projects.
- Networking activities of the Jordanian researchers were conducted to create links between Jordan - Europe initiatives and projects, as well as being a source of new contacts for further promotional activities. These activities include thematic days, ERA WIDE coordinators meetings and conferences.
- IJERA final conference was held on 5 December and presented the project results where water research actors, young Jordanian researchers and Jordanian SMEs working in research and innovation were invited to meet EU experts and FP7 project coordinators.
Objective 3 and 6: Internationalisation and coordination between research and business sectors and Emarchu's strengthening
Under this objective the following were achieved through WP5 (Developing Emarcu strategy):
- Developing of the long term business plan of Emarcu / RSS to became an excellence and reference centre for water use and treatments not only in Jordan but also in the neighbouring countries and for the Mediterranean area.
- External auditors have been selected according to a certain selection criteria to review the prepared business plan.
- Two working sessions were conducted. An initial preparatory session was held at Emarcu with the external auditors to provide them with a detailed description of Emarcu / RSS and its operation, IJERA project objectives and tasks as well as the business plan and the IJERA project documents. The second working session of the external auditors was organised to present and discuss their findings that pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the BP and providing specific recommendations for improvement. The modified version was prepared according to these recommendations.
Objective 4 and5: Enhancement of EU-JO S&T partnerships in wastewater treatment research and Emarcu / RSS capacity building for solving specific water issues
Under this objective the following were achieved through WP3 and WP6:
- EFB has conducted coaching sessions for Emarcu / RSS researchers aiming at linking Jordanian researchers to European researchers and research institutions.
- HCST has conducted in synergies with EU-JordanNet a knowledge sharing sessions and a brokerage day. Emarcu / RSS researchers were among the national researchers attending this important events.
Objective 7: Setting up Jordan's environmental NCP
Establishing sustainable well trained and efficient environmental NCP in Jordan. Eng. Fida'a Jibril from Emarcu / RSS became Jordan's environment NCP and her contact information has been put to IJERA website in order to act as the main point of access for institutions and individuals who have an interest in collaborative research activities and are looking for information and advice on FP7.
General overview of work progress and achievements during the period
The following activities of the project represent the period from 1 January 2012 till 31 December 2012:
- The third was held in Amman at RSS in June 2012 (WP1).
- Prepared guidelines to rule the project's deliverables and documentations through a quality assurance plan (WP1) were followed efficiently.
- Disseminating project's results and activities through the developed a bilingual website for the project to communicate with the public (WP6).
- Updated the developed first version of competitive water research actors database that provides contacts of researchers in academia and industry to be used for partner's search (WP2)
- Conducting a knowledge sharing session and brokerage day aiming at training Emarcu / RSS staff on proposal writing and taking advantage of opportunities for cooperation in the FP7 environment water and related programmes (WP3).
- Conducting one to one coaching sessions to Emarcu / RSS researchers aiming at guiding the researcher to maximise the possibilities of submitting competitive proposals (WP3).
- Detailed assessment on the needs of Emarcu / RSS aiming at developing an experimental wastewater treatment pilot plant was developed (WP4).
- Establishing sustainable well trained and efficient environmental NCP in Jordan (WP4).
- Synergies have been established with ongoing FP7 projects focused on international cooperation in research related to wastewater treatment (WP4).
- Study visits have been conducted to Europe by Emarcu researchers aiming at capacity building in water research related issues (WP4).
- Reviewing the BP by selected external auditors (WP5).
- IJERA final conference was held on 5 December and presented the project results (WP6).
- Networking activities of the Jordanian researchers were conducted (WP6).
List of websites:
- http://www.ijera.eu
- http://www.ijera.jo
It is being strategically assessed that the key environmental issues in Jordan are related to water resource management and water quality, waste management, nature protection, desertification and industrial pollution. Being one of the driest countries in the world, Jordan is putting high emphasis on improving water quality and resource management problems. The water scarcity is a socio-economic and environmental issue and the main reason to put Jordan's remarkable development achievements under threat, and the crippling water scarcity is expected to be aggravated further by climate change.
IJERA project is financed by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological development (FP7). The IJERA project (see http://www.ijera.jo online) is aiming at integrating Jordan into the European Research Area (ERA) with specific focus on strengthening capacities in water sector. ERA is composed of all research and development activities, programmes and policies in Europe which involve a transnational perspective to enable researchers, research institutions and businesses to increasingly circulate, compete and cooperate across borders.
Herein, the IJERA intends to strengthen European Union (EU)-Jordan research and technological development (RTD) cooperation by supporting Jordanian researchers' involvement in FP7 programme and setting up Jordan's environmental national contact point (NCP), reinforcing internationalisation and scientific cooperation capacities, enhancing scientific and technological (S&T) partnerships, and targeted regional and international dissemination activities.
The project moves forward towards these goals using a threefold approach:
(i) supporting the participation of Jordan in the FP7 in water research area through targeted strengthening, capacity building and coaching actions, increasing visibility of Jordanian research potentials and forging sustainable connections with EU organisations;
(ii) knitting together all relevant support schemes by consolidating national strategies, research priorities and available funding schemes; and
(iii) facilitating both the uptake of common identified water research areas and the monitoring of the performance and impacts of this cooperation.
The main impact of IJERA shall be increased capacities of the Emarcu / RSS centre in Jordan and the structuring and enhancement of the existing EU-Jordan support landscape in the domain of water S&T cooperation while ultimately enabling Jordanian researchers integration into networks of FP-active EU organisations, and enable researchers and research institutions to define project ideas and submit project proposals for international research funding.
In such framework, IJERA has completed the following tasks and activities towards fulfilling the goals and objectives of the project between the period of 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2012:
- The last meeting was held in Amman at RSS on June 2012.
- A prepared quality assurance following up the project's deliverables and documentations throughout the life cycle of the project.
- Disseminating the project results, events and activities documents at IJERA bilingual website.
- Updating analysis of Jordanian participation in environment water related calls.
- Updating the first version of competitive water research actors' database that provides contacts of researchers in academia and industry to be used for partner's search.
- Conducting knowledge sharing events brokerage day that took place in Amman on 2012. The events (Environment, building a consortium and People day) aim to increase the awareness of FP7. Three workshops were conducted with about 100 participants attend.
- Establishing sustainable well trained and efficient environmental NCP in Jordan. As a result of the two-days meetings, several contacts between the involved organisations and the Jordan environmental NCP have been set out and useful information has been shared among all the attendees and representatives of pertinent organisations (both private and public) and EC officers.
- Reporting on one to one sessions focused on overall activities and results. During 2012, two one-to-one sessions conducted in Amman on 2 February and on 26 June 2012, either for shaping the participating researchers in order to make them attractive and competitive for the projects consortia to come or to assist them with the know-how needed at aggregating other potential partners, around the project ideas they could coordinate in the future.
- Synergies have been established with ongoing European projects focused on international cooperation and water research issues; such as networking with EU-JordanNet, STREAM, MIRA, PERA and CB-WR-MED.
- Study visits have been conducted to aiming at capacity building in water research related issues.
- Reviewing the long term business plan of Emarcu / RSS to became an excellence and reference centre for water use and treatments not only in Jordan but also in the neighbouring countries and for the Mediterranean area. This BP was reviewed by multidisciplinary selected external auditors where a first draft report was prepared pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the BP and providing specific recommendations for improvement.
- Detailed assessment on the needs of Emarcu / RSS aiming at developing an experimental wastewater treatment pilot plant was developed in order to identify the competences that could still be necessary for the research activities.
- IJERA final conference was held on 5 December and presented the project results where water research actors, young Jordanian researchers and Jordanian small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) working in research and innovation were invited to meet EU experts and FP7 project coordinators.
Project results:
The main activities that were achieved under the project objectives in the second reporting period (1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012) were the following:
Objective 1: Emarcu's cooperation capacities reinforcement
Under this objective the following were achieved through work package (WP)2 and WP4:
- Second updated version of the analysis of the Jordanian participation in environment water related calls was established by HCST to assess the points of strength and weaknesses.
- Detailed assessment on the needs of Emarcu / RSS aiming at developing an experimental wastewater treatment pilot plant was developed in order to identify the competences that could still be necessary for the research activities.
- A sustainable well trained and efficient FP7 NCP in Jordan on environment and water issues was established by an expert group consisting of environment European NCPs in order to act as the main point of access for institutions and individuals who have an interest in collaborative research activities and are looking for information and advice on FP7.
- Developing synergies between Emarcu / RSS and other research centres was conducted with private organisations and public institutions with long term experience in the field of EU projects and funding schemes, and participation of some relevant EU officers from different EC Directorates General (DGs). Also, one-to-one meetings with some other representatives of pertinent organisations (both private and public) and EC Officers was conducted.
- Two study visits of three researcher from Jordan to European centres was conducted during the second year of the project, in order to stimulate the exchange of experience and improve the contacts necessary to develop agreements between the different centres, also to enhance the technology transfer toward industries. One visit was performed to Italy-Bologna with the support of ENEA for two Emarcu staff , their visit aimed at building our staff capacity through attending R2B exhibition where many companies and institutes displayed their products and services, visiting the pilot wastewater plant and its telecontrol system and visiting the tele-control centre of HERA that manages several services as drinking water, wastewater treatment, for urban and some small industry, power production and distribution, gas distribution telephonic services. The other visit has been conducted in Belgium during the Green Week event. This is the most important event for the European environmental policy. The theme of the twelfth edition held in Brussels was water and in particular, the relevance that it has in the life of each one and the challenges that we have to face to preserve this important natural resources and give it safe and available to everyone; for this reason the title of the exhibition was 'Every drop counts'.
Objective 2: Wastewater treatment-related research results dissemination
Under this objective the following were achieved through WP6:
- Disseminating the project results, events and activities documents at IJERA bilingual website.
- Updating the first version of competitive water research actors' database that provides contacts of researchers in academia and industry to be used for partner's search.
- Networking with FP7 and ERA-WIDE is an ongoing process throughout the project in order to share and disseminate scientific information and experience in water related issues. Synergies are being established with EU-JordanNet, PERA, CB-WR-MED, STREAM and MIRA projects.
- Networking activities of the Jordanian researchers were conducted to create links between Jordan - Europe initiatives and projects, as well as being a source of new contacts for further promotional activities. These activities include thematic days, ERA WIDE coordinators meetings and conferences.
- IJERA final conference was held on 5 December and presented the project results where water research actors, young Jordanian researchers and Jordanian SMEs working in research and innovation were invited to meet EU experts and FP7 project coordinators.
Objective 3 and 6: Internationalisation and coordination between research and business sectors and Emarchu's strengthening
Under this objective the following were achieved through WP5 (Developing Emarcu strategy):
- Developing of the long term business plan of Emarcu / RSS to became an excellence and reference centre for water use and treatments not only in Jordan but also in the neighbouring countries and for the Mediterranean area.
- External auditors have been selected according to a certain selection criteria to review the prepared business plan.
- Two working sessions were conducted. An initial preparatory session was held at Emarcu with the external auditors to provide them with a detailed description of Emarcu / RSS and its operation, IJERA project objectives and tasks as well as the business plan and the IJERA project documents. The second working session of the external auditors was organised to present and discuss their findings that pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the BP and providing specific recommendations for improvement. The modified version was prepared according to these recommendations.
Objective 4 and5: Enhancement of EU-JO S&T partnerships in wastewater treatment research and Emarcu / RSS capacity building for solving specific water issues
Under this objective the following were achieved through WP3 and WP6:
- EFB has conducted coaching sessions for Emarcu / RSS researchers aiming at linking Jordanian researchers to European researchers and research institutions.
- HCST has conducted in synergies with EU-JordanNet a knowledge sharing sessions and a brokerage day. Emarcu / RSS researchers were among the national researchers attending this important events.
Objective 7: Setting up Jordan's environmental NCP
Establishing sustainable well trained and efficient environmental NCP in Jordan. Eng. Fida'a Jibril from Emarcu / RSS became Jordan's environment NCP and her contact information has been put to IJERA website in order to act as the main point of access for institutions and individuals who have an interest in collaborative research activities and are looking for information and advice on FP7.
General overview of work progress and achievements during the period
The following activities of the project represent the period from 1 January 2012 till 31 December 2012:
- The third was held in Amman at RSS in June 2012 (WP1).
- Prepared guidelines to rule the project's deliverables and documentations through a quality assurance plan (WP1) were followed efficiently.
- Disseminating project's results and activities through the developed a bilingual website for the project to communicate with the public (WP6).
- Updated the developed first version of competitive water research actors database that provides contacts of researchers in academia and industry to be used for partner's search (WP2)
- Conducting a knowledge sharing session and brokerage day aiming at training Emarcu / RSS staff on proposal writing and taking advantage of opportunities for cooperation in the FP7 environment water and related programmes (WP3).
- Conducting one to one coaching sessions to Emarcu / RSS researchers aiming at guiding the researcher to maximise the possibilities of submitting competitive proposals (WP3).
- Detailed assessment on the needs of Emarcu / RSS aiming at developing an experimental wastewater treatment pilot plant was developed (WP4).
- Establishing sustainable well trained and efficient environmental NCP in Jordan (WP4).
- Synergies have been established with ongoing FP7 projects focused on international cooperation in research related to wastewater treatment (WP4).
- Study visits have been conducted to Europe by Emarcu researchers aiming at capacity building in water research related issues (WP4).
- Reviewing the BP by selected external auditors (WP5).
- IJERA final conference was held on 5 December and presented the project results (WP6).
- Networking activities of the Jordanian researchers were conducted (WP6).
List of websites:
- http://www.ijera.eu
- http://www.ijera.jo