In recent years, significant progress has been made in improving European coordination of Agricultural Research for Development through ERA-ARD, an EC funded project addressing national programmes for Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) in Europe, as well as EIARD (European Initiative for Agricultural Research for Development) targeting European support to global ARD initiatives like the CGIAR and SCAR (Standing Committee on Agricultural Research) targeting research programmes addressing primarily European concerns. Future coordination interventions are expected to focus on improved alignment of research and development policies, programmes and instruments both within Europe and between Europe and the South.

 

 

This conference will bring together policy-makers, donors, programme managers, scientists, the private sector and other stakeholders from Europe and regions of the world concerned with the fields of agriculture, research and international cooperation.

 

 

This international conference will have a forward looking perspective building on achievements and existing mechanisms to identify concrete ways to improve coordination of agricultural research for development efforts in Europe, emphasising improved synergies between national and bilateral programmes, strengthened linkages between AR and ARD and stronger alignment between national and European programmes with global initiatives in order to address global challenges and to maximise the impact of European investments in AR and ARD, at national, continental and global level.

 

The outputs of the conference will include proposals for renewed linkages between European AR and ARD, further alignment between member state policies and instruments for a specific dialogue within Europe and between Europe and other regions of world.

 

 

The programme is beginning to take shape, and will include elements of the following:

 

The next announcement is expected in March. Please keep an eye on the ERA-ARD website at http://www.era-ard.org/final-conference/. Conference organisation lead by Alex Percy-Smith (alex@apsconsultingservices.dk) and Patricia Wagenmakers (p.s.wagenmakers@mineleni.nl) on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.