Quelles recherches et quels partenariats pour la Méditerranée ?

The Mediterranean world is an extremely historically and culturally diversified biogeographical region. This area is also especially sensitive to global change—economic globalization, demographic transition, standardization of lifestyles and behaviours, the advent of the age of information, communication, transportation and climate change. A key challenge for the future of this region is the development of a Euro-Mediterranean area that is tightly integrated both economically and politically. The research community is naturally called upon to help in addressing this major challenge. The aim of ARP-PARME (Atelier de Réflexion Prospective–Partenariats et Recherche en MEditerranée), a forward-thinking workshop on partnerships and research and partnerships in the Mediterranean region, initiated by ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche), the French research agency, and coordinated by Agropolis International, was to identify research and innovation fields requiring cooperation between Mediterranean countries to ensure sustainable development of the region and to come up with operational strategies for promoting this cooperation. ARP-PARME benefited from the participation of over 130 experts, from around 60 organizations in 10 countries, encompassing a broad range of disciplines: agronomy, energy, environment, geography, economy, political science, social science and humanities, etc. During this 18-month project, running from January 2010 to June 2011, 15 multidisciplinary workshops were conducted on specific topics. It was organized in four phases: (i) an overview of 80 prospective studies published over the last 10 years on the Mediterranean Basin; (ii) development of a joint forward-thinking framework to focus on major issues identified in the initial phase and the formation of thematic working groups to deal with these major issues; (iii) the identification of priority research foci to address the main issues under each topic covered in the study; and (iv) a cross-sectoral analysis of proposals so as to draw up a plan to foster their systematic integration, finally resulting in editing of the final report. In addition to a prospective assessment of major challenges the region will face from now to 2030, ARP-PARME came up with well-founded proposals on research priorities to be implemented immediately to tackle future challenges. These were in five general fields: people and societies, territories, natural resources (environment, water and energy), agriculture, food and health. The issues were explored from an integration and cross-sectoral perspective, while focusing specifically on people and their territories. In the field of people and societies, research priorities concerned the impact of civilisation interactions on the evolution of cultures, religions, identities and values, and on political organizations. With respect to territories, the main questions concerned vulnerabilities and complementary aspects of urban and rural areas and their governance, while concentrating especially on coastal areas. On natural resources, the main concerns were adaptive management of ecosystems affected by human activities, gaining further insight into water resources and uses, and finding ways to ensure regional energy security while minimizing the environmental footprint. Concerning agriculture and food, the food security issue is pivotal— from quantitative, nutritional and sanitary standpoints, and fulfilled by sustainable production systems. This is addressed through agricultural policies, production systems, commodity marketing and processing subsectors. In the health field, the main concerns were the sharp development—due to current lifestyles and dietary habits—of noncommunicable diseases and their prevention. Partnership mechanisms are also proposed to foster scientific cooperation between teams in Mediterranean countries, while also promoting technical or organizational innovation dynamics involving public authorities, companies, managers and civil society.