Supporting EU-African Cooperation on Research Infrastructures for Food Security and Greenhouse Gas Observations

SEACRIFOG

Supporting EU-African Cooperation on Research Infrastructures for Food Security and Greenhouse Gas Observations

African societies face growing global change risks, with rapidly changing patterns of human settlements and intensity of use of ecosystem services. At the same time, climate variability and climate change trends are intensifying stress on the ecosystems that ensure environmental security, both locally (e.g. ecosystem services), regionally (e.g. sustainable development options) and internationally (e.g. carbon sequestration). Approaches that can address this challenge in an integrated and multidisciplinary way are urgently needed in many places in Africa where there is a close relationship between societal well-being and environmental condition, relating particularly to biomass for energy and food production, and hydrological considerations such as water yields. Policymakers and land-use decision makers are increasingly dependent on knowledge on the state of the environment. Long-term observational systems and research infrastructures have been identified to be indispensable elements of knowledge generation to serve climate change adaptation, food security, and climate change mitigation. This proposal supports EU-African cooperation on research infrastructures. Its aims are to increase coherence and interoperability between infrastructures in Europe and Africa, to enhance technical competence, science awareness and lifelong learning in Africa in order to facilitate the use of research results for evidence-based policy making, and to identify knowledge gaps for future research directions. The project will 1) identify the essential parameters needed to develop science based strategies to improve food and nutrition security including early warning systems and to mitigate climate change, 2) formulate a roadmap towards fully interoperable and accessible research infrastructures in agricultural and climate research in the EU and Africa that match the needs of the users, and 3) deliver a contribution to capacity building and human capital development in Africa.

March, 2017

August, 2020

1999000

136000

EU / Horizon 2020, Research Infrastructures

Thünen-Institut (THÜNEN), Germany

Arne Körtzinger

Thünen-Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture (TI-AK), Germany
Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Italy
West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Landuse (WASCAL), Burkina Faso
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya
Integrated Carbon Observation System - European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ICOS ERIC), Finland
University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg (WITS), South Africa
Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland
Southern African Science Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL), Namibia
South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), South Africa
Leibniz-Institute for Tropospheric Research e.V. (TROPOS), Germany
University of Bergen (UiB), Norway
NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS (NORCE), Norway
Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences - CAS (CzechGlobe), Lund University - Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science (INES), Sweden
National Institute for Fisheries Development (INDP), Cap Verde

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