EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH FUNDING FOR MEDITERRANEAN AND MENA COUNTRIES

The Mediterranean and the MENA (Middle East and Northern Africa) region are threatened by several climate change impacts with a different need to adapt their water management. Under these environmental circumstances and societal challenges, there is a huge demand for international cooperation in research and development on water-related issues. Special emphasis of this paper is given to the political frame of the European Commission, the relevant European policies and directives on water research as well as the different research funding schemes of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) with depictive examples of actual running water projects. Also an outlook on the water-related challenges of the new European framework programme Horizon2020 is provided. Furthermore, the article focuses on the service and support portfolio by the Bavarian Research Alliance (Bay-FOR, Unit Environment & Energy) for environmental and energy-driven European proposals. At the end, the role of science-policy interfacing is highlighted, and selected water-stakeholders in the Mediterranean and MENA are presented.