Focus-Balkans: seminar in Brussels on 23 September 2011 (2011-07-04)
On the 23rd of September 2011, the 2nd Open Seminar of Focus-Balkans will take place in Brussels, Belgium. This Open Seminar will be a great opportunity to open discussions between the European Union and the Balkans countries about this subject, build network and strength for the future. Participants will be members of (...)  Read more the consortium as well as invitees coming from the Universities and Ministries important for the topic in 6 Balkan countries: Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia, but also representatives of the EU.
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http://www.focus-balkans.org/

FP8 will be called Horizon 2020 (2011-07-01)
Horizon 2020 is the name retained by DG Research and Innovation for the next EU funding programme for research and innovation. The programme will start on 1 January 2014 and will end in 2020. (...)  Read more Hide
http://ec.europa.eu

The content of the next FP7 call for proposals is published (2011-06-29)
As last year, DG Research and Innovation decided to provide the content of the next call for proposals before its official publication. The deadline for submission of the project will be 15 November 2011. (...)  Read more Hide
Orientation Paper 2011

Survey on research agenda in the Balkan (2011-06-09)
An online survey has been launched by WBC-inco.net to help preparing a research agenda in the Western Balkan Countries. Questionnaires have to be sent by 20 June 2011. (...)  Read more Hide
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice

IAMO publication: Agriculture in the Western Balkan Countries (2010-11-10)
"Agriculture in the Western Balkan Countries" is a publication from IAMO based on the reports prepared during AgriPolicy. The publication provides seven country reports, one synthesis and indications on the methodology used for data analysis. The report is the 57th volume of "Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector (...)  Read more in Central and Eastern Europe" published by IAMO (Leibniz-institut für AgrarentwickLung in Mittel- und Osteuropa). It has been edited by Tina Volk, Senior Researcher at the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia. Hide
Dowload the report here

Future tenders from DG Agriculture (2010-02-18)
DG Agriculture published "prior information notice" for 10 tenders on the 13 February 2010:

1) 'Ex post' evaluation of rural development programmes 2000 2006
2) Evaluation of common agricultural policy measures applied to the sheep and goat meat sector
3) Evaluation of promotion and informatio (...)  Read more n actions for agricultural products
4) Evaluation of the exceptional market support measures in the poultry and eggs sector
5) Evaluation of common agricultural policy measures applied to the dairy sector
6) Impacts of renewable energy on European farmers
7) Addressing biodiversity and habitat preservation through measures applied under the common agricultural policy
8) Use and efficiency of support measures addressing organic farming
9) mpact of technical barriers, phytosanitary legislation and marketing standards on trade in fruit and vegetables
10) Modelling the on-farm component of feed consumption in the European Union Hide
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/agriculture/tender_en.htm

Topics for the next FP7 call published on Cordis (2010-07-08)
The EC published the topics of the next FP7 call for proposals before the official publication of the work programme. The document "ORIENTATION PAPER with proposed priorities for Food, Agriculture andFisheries, and Biotechnology research 2011" presents the topics of the work programme that will be officially published on 20 July 2010. The deadline for proposal submission is on 25 January 2011. Hide
Cordis

IAMO forum 2010 (2010-02-12)
The IAMO Fo­rum 2010 will be held in Hal­le (Germany on the 16-18 June 2010. It focuses on in­sti­tu­tio­nal chan­ge and governance in agri­cul­ture and ru­ral are­as. The fo­cus is on tran­si­ti­on coun­tries in Cen­tral and Eas­tern Eu­ro­pe and Cen­tral and East Asia. To­pics include: - New mo­des of go­ver­nan­ce in agri­cul­tu­ral in­put and out­put mar­kets (en­er­gy, ca­pi­tal, la­bour, land) - Go­ver­nan­ce in na­tu­ral re­sour­ce ma­nage­ment (land, wa­ter, bio­di­ver­si­ty) - For­mu­la­ti­on and de­sign of po­li­cies (po­li­cy im­pact as­sess­ment, de­cen­tra­li­sa­ti­on, in­te­gra­ted mo­del­ling) - So­ci­al safe­ty sys­tems and the de­mo­gra­phic chal­len­ge of ru­ral are­as - New theo­re­ti­cal de­ve­lop­ments in ana­ly­sing ru­ral in­sti­tu­ti­ons Hide
iamo.de

Second issue of AgriPolicy newsletter (2010-01-05)
The second issue of the AgriPolicy newsletter has been published in December 2009. It includes information on the AgriPolicy meeting in Bulgaria, links to key reports published by DG Agriculture in 2009 (climate change, milk sector, trade), an update on accession negotiations as well as an overview of the FP7 projects relevant to agricultural policy. Hide
AgriPolicy newsletter December 2009

30 July 2009: publication of the call FP7-KBBE-2010-4 (2009-06-08)
The fifth call for proposals of the Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology theme (call FP7-KBBE-2010-4) will be published on 30 July 2009. The deadline for proposal submission is scheduled for 15 January 2010. The work-programme includes 56 topics. According to the draft wor-programme only three topics are directly relevant to agricultural economics. More information will be published in July. Hide
agripolicy.net

Three tenders from DG Agriculture with deadline in August 2009 (2009-05-28)
Three tenders for evaluations and studies have been published by DG Agriculture in May 2009: - Evaluation of direct aid in the beef and veal sector, deadline 07 August 2009. - Ex post evaluation of Leader+, deadline 14 August 2009. - Marketing standards in the fruit and vegetable sector, deadline 28 August 2009. The tenders have been launched on 12, 19 and 05 May 2009 respectively and adverstised on DG AGriculture website (see link below). Hide
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/agriculture/tender_en.htm

Three tenders from DG Agriculture with deadline in June 2009 (2009-04-28)
Several tenders for evaluations and studies have been published by DG Agriculture in April 2009: - Evaluation in the starch, sugar and cotton sectors (framework contract), deadline 08 June 2009. - Synthesis of Sapard 'ex post' evaluations, deadline 23 June 2009 - Inventory of certification schemes, deadline 2 June 2009 This publication follows the announcement of several tenders (Prior information notice) on the 11 March 2009 (see AgriPolicy Newsletter from march 2009 for more information). Hide
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/agriculture/tender_en.htm

AgriPolicy newsletter available (2009-03-23)
The new issues of the AgriPolicy newsletter has been published in March 2009. It includes short news with links to relevant pages or reports on the AgriPolicy project, on agricultural policy and on enlargement. It also advertises major events relevant to agricultural policy analysis and information on tenders, calls for proposals and call for papers. Hide
AgriPolicy newsletter

Call for paper: IAMO special issue (2009-03-12)
The editors of the "German Journal of Agricultural Economics" in cooperation with IAMO are planning to publish a special issue: “20 Years of Transition in the Agri-Food Sector - Analyses of Trade, Markets and Policy”. This special issue will address the development of the agricultural and food sectors in Central and East European countries, with particular emphasis on changes caused by transition. Besides overview articles, the editors are seeking contributions that draw economic, agricultural, and policy conclusions regarding the agri-food sector. Submission of joint publications of authors from transition and non-transition countries is encouraged. The deadline for the submission of articles is 1 May 2009. Hide
www.specialissue.iamo.de

EU AGRI MAPPING results used in the EC communication on the future of agri-food research (2009-02-26)
The European Commission adopted in December 2008 a communication "Towards a coherent strategy for a European Agricultural Research Agenda". The Communication describes the context for agricultural research and indicate key actions towards a coherent European Agricultural Research Agenda. The results of the project EU AGRI MAPPING have been used as background information. Our project is mentioned in section 2.4 (Mapping EU capacities). The conclusions of the final EU AGRI MAPPING report have been utilised in the Commission staff working document (accompanying document to the Communication) - see p2, section Key figures from the "EU-AGRI-MAPPING" project (FP6-SSP4). The overview of Agri-food research systems in European countries presented in our final report has also been used in annex 3 of the working document. The Communication is available in 22 languages at the link below. The accompanying document is available in English only and can be consulted at the link given in the previous news (25 February 2009). Hide
Communication Key actions towards a coherent European Agricultural Research Agenda

Link to the Commission staff working document (Accompanying document to the Communication from the Commission - Towards a coherent strategy for a European Agricultural Research Agenda (2009-02-25)
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Commission staff working document: Towards a coherent strategy for a European Agricultural Research Agenda

426 proposals received for the call FP7-KBBE-2009-3 (2009-02-05)
The fourth call for proposals for the agri-food sector opened on the 03 September 2008 and closed on the 15 January 2009. The call for proposals contained 74 topics, 426 proposals have been submitted for evaluation - Activity 2.1 (agriculture): 35 topics, 136 proposals received - Activity 2.2 (agri-food): 20 topics, 160 proposals received - Activity 2.3 (biotech): 21 topics, 130 proposals received Two topics did not receive any proposal: topic KBBE-2009-1-4-07(Gobalisation and trade impact on developing countries) and topic KBBE-2009-3-6-04(Nanobiotechnologies : analysis of the ethical, safety, regulatory and socioeconomic aspects). The expected success rate is 17% Hide

AgriPolicy meeting in Berlin (2009-01-08)
AgriPolicy will organise its first symposium in Berlin on the 19-21 January 2009 in Berlin. Hide

The call FP7-KBBE-2009-3 is now available (2008-09-03)
The EC published today the 3 September 2008 the fourth call for proposals for the agri-food sector (call FP7-KBBE-2009-3). Proposals will be evaluated in one stage. The work programme contains 74 topics. Hide
Cordis

14 topics not covered in call 2A and 2B (2008-09-02)
The results of the evaluation for the second and third call shows that respectively 4 and 10 topics from the work programme will not be covered. The list of topics with the number of proposals submitted for each topic is given below. It shows that at least 1 proposal has been submitted for each topic. In some case, more than 5 proposals were submitted and some of them passed the evaluation treshold. These projects will not be invited to enter negotiation as they are below the funding treshold. Proposals are in competition for one topic (the selected proposal should arrive first) but there is also a competition between the topics of the work programme: the budget does not allow to finance each topic of the work programme, - Call FP7-KBBE-2007-2A: 4 topics not covered (out of 23 topics) 1) KBBE-2007-1-3-08 Improved epidemiological tools for zoonoses : 1 proposal (stage 1) and 0 proposal (stage 2) submitted 2) KBBE-2007-2-4-06 Protecting animal and human health from prions in food, feed and the environment : 3 proposals (stage 1) and 2 proposals (stage 2) submitted 3) KBBE-2007-3-2-09 BIOREFINERY - Biotechnology for the conversion of biomass and waste into value-added products : 19 proposals (stage 1) and 7 proposals (stage 2) submitted 4) KBBE-2007-3-3-04 USEFUL WASTE - Novel biotechnology approaches for utilising wastes, including aquaculture wastes, to make high added value products: 15 proposals (stage 1) and 9 proposals (stage 2) submitted - Call P7-KBBE-2007-2B: 10 topics not covered (out of 51 topics) 1) KBBE-2008-1-4-03 Fisheries management approach based on 'maximum acceptable limits of negative impacts': 3 proposals submitted 2) KBBE-2008-1-4-06 Societal Impact of Organic Farming: 3 proposals submitted 3) KBBE-2008-1-4-09 Quality Assurance Schemes : 1 proposal submitted 4) KBBE-2008-2-2-03 Obesity prevention in the Mediterranean area : 6 proposals submitted 5) KBBE-2008-2-5-02 A lead market vision for food: 2 proposals submitted 6) KBBE-2008-3-2-02 Industrial bioprocesses for fine and speciality chemicals: 1 proposal submitted 7) KBBE-2008-3-2-04 Novel nanobiotechnology (bio to nano) processes and products: 1 proposal submitted 8) KBBE-2008-3-2-05 Life cycle analysis and socioeconomic assessment of integrated biorefineries: 2 proposals submitted 9) KBBE-2008-3-2-06: Development of high performance composites based on flax and hemp: 4 proposals submitted 10) KBBE-2008-3-3-02: Aquatic anaerobic bioremediation 2 proposals submitted Hide

Results of the call KBBE 2A and 2B: 59 projects will be financed in 2008 (2008-09-01)
The second (FP7-KBBE-2007-2A) and third call for proposals (FP7-KBBE-2007-2B) closed in February 2008. In total 59 projects will enter into negotiation and should start in 2009. The success rate varies between 11 and 14%. The selected project received a mark well above the official treshold. For example the lowest mark of the selected project was 13/15 for the activity 2.3 (call 2B). The detailed results of the evaluation are as follow: -FP7-KBBE-2007-2A This call covered large projects only. the evaluation was in 2 steps. There were 23 topics (21 large collaborative projects and 2 Network of Excellence). At stage one, the EC received 172 proposals and 85 passed the evaluation treshold. At stage two, 85 proposals have been submitted, 2 were ineligible and 19 proposals will be invited to start negotiation. The success rate is 22% at stage 2. The overall success rate (stage 1) is 11%. - FP7-KBBE-2007-2B This call covered small projects only. There were 51 topics (35 small collaborative projects and 16 CSA). The EC received 277 proposals, 15 were ineligible and 40 proposals will be invited to start negotiation. The success rate is 14%. Hide

Informal meeting of research Minister: What European research agenda for 2020. (2008-08-29)
A workshop called "Food, water and ecosystems: the new face of agriculture. What European research agenda for 2020" has been held during the informal meeting on competitiveness for Ministers of Research organised in Paris on the 17 July 2008. The conclusions indicate a number of actions for improving the ERA in the agrifood sector (see the final suggestions for more details) : - Establish an Alliance of Research organisations in complement to member state representation (SCAR) and industry representation (European Technological Platform); - Work on Joint Technology Initiatives based on the European Technology Platforms (i.e.food for life, Sustainable water); - Build up a cross disciplinary community on food and health and biotechnology in the context of European Institute of Technology. Build up networks of excellence and others networking mechanisms; - Invest in common infrastructures (genes banks, animal health devices, environmental observation systems…); - Launch an international initiative for Food security; - Use more frequently strategic tools such as foresights and collective expertises; - Enhance the cooperation between European Agricultural Research (EIARD, EURAGRI…) and the international food organisations (CGIAR and FAO). The discussion will help to prepare a vision for the European Research Area. This vision should be proposed for adoption by the Competitiveness Council of December 2008 (see agrifoodresearch news from the 25 August 2008 for more information on the ‘Ljubljana Process’). Hide
Eurosfaire

‘Ljubljana Process’ : informal meeting of research and competitiveness Minister in July 2008 (2008-08-25)
Following the launch of the ‘Ljubljana Process’ in April 2008 (see agrifoodresearch news from the 21 April 2008), an unformal meeting of EU Ministers in charge of research has been organised in Paris on the 17 July 2008. The meeting was the opportunity to work on the “vision 2020” of the European Research Area (ERA). This vision should be proposed for adoption by the Competitiveness Council of December 2008. The process of Ljubljana (launched by the Slovenian presidency, in April 2008) has the purpose of reinforcing the European Research Area, thanks to the definition of the “vision 2020”, during the French Presidency, and developing its governance, during the next two presidencies (Czech and Swedish). The meeting was structured around thematic workshops including one on Food, water and ecosystems. Farming methods to climate change and food security has been retained as a topic for selection to be decided in the “vision 2020” of the European Research Area before the end of 2008. Hide
Eurosfaire

3 September 2008: publication of the call FP7-KBBE-2009-3 (2008-07-24)
The fourth call for proposals (FP7-KBBE-2009-3) from the theme 2 "FOOD, AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES, AND BIOTECHNOLOGY" will be published on the 3 September 2008 instead of the 24 July as initially scheduled. The deadline remained unchanged (15 January 2009). The call for proposals in the theme 1 (HEALTH) will also be published on the 3 September 2008 for a deadline on the 3 December 2008. Hide
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7

Report on agri-food research in the Western Balkan Countries (2008-03-01)
After two years of activity, the European Project BALKAN AGRO FOOD NETWORK (BAFN) published its final reports on the 17th of April 2008. Since May 2006, the 13 organisations involved in the BAFN project have implemented several activities in order to improve cooperation between agri-food scientists from EU and from the Western Balkan Countries. A directory with more then 330 research groups and 480 companies from the agricultural and food sector was set up at www.bafn.eu. More than 180 research groups participated to a survey on the situation of agricultural and food research in the Western Balkan Countries. Four meetings with experts from Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia and FYROM were organised to identify the region’s future priorities in the agri-food research sector. Several consultations of stakeholders were also organised. The main objective of BAFN was to identify research topics suitable for cooperation between scientists from EU and Western Balkan Countries (WBC). Another objective was to propose support mechanisms which could benefit to the agri-food research community from the WBC. The final results were discussed with representatives from the European Commission in Paris in March 2008. The study reveals that the future of the agri-food research community in the Western Balkan Countries is jeopardised mainly because of the very low budget available for research. The research capacity is scattered into a large number of organisations (47 research organisations including 17 universities) but overall, the agri-food research community is small with an estimate of 3.500 researchers. Hence, a key message for those in charge of programming research cooperation is that “a small effort will have a big impact”. The project encourages the EU and member states to reinforce their cooperation with the Western Balkan Countries through the FP7 and through bilateral programmes. The final BAFN report highlights several mechanisms which could help agri-food research in the WBC, such as incentives for the purchase of research equipment and consumables, stimulation of researcher mobility and training or easier access to resources (scientific journals, electronic databases etc). Areas suitable for cooperation with other countries were also identified. There is a large consensus for biodiversity with projects related to the conservation of genetic resources and indigenous species. Research on chemical contaminants, food allergens and toxins in food, animal husbandry and zoonoses as well as nutrition and dietetics have also been identified as interesting topics. Hide
www.bafn.eu