Recent ERA-ARD Events
« Final meetings of the ERA ARD I Bioenergy Special Event »
Wednesday 16th December 2009 BRUSSELS
Program
Registration
by mail to Charlotte Knudsen on Charlotte.Knudsen@agrsci.dk informing your name, institution, e-mail address and telephone number(s).
Background
A series of meetings have been planned in connection with the closing of ERA ARD I by 31st December 2009.
- 16th December: ERA-ARD/SAG Special Event on "Bioenergy"
- 17th December: Conference entitled "Dialogue between Europe and its Southern partners on agricultural research and climate change"
- 18th December: 8th ERA-ARD I Steering Committee meeting
ERA ARD has supported a Call for Transnational Research Activity "Bioenergy - an opportunity or threat to the rural poor" and as a result 5 projects are being implemented.
The ERA ARD Southern Advisory Group (SAG) is implementing a small consultancy task - Regional Evidence Generation and Policy and Institutional Mapping on Food and Biofuel for the Africa, Asia and Latin American regions which aims to better understand the current initiatives on food and bioenergy and their consequent effects on food availability and livelihood opportunities to smallholder farmers in developing regions. Generating evidences on the impact of converting food crop areas into bioenergy (if any) and mapping policies and institutional initiative in support of pro-poor bioenergy programs of developing economies are the two major components of the study. Study results shall be used as policy inputs to regional planning and shall be translated into popular documents for enhanced knowledge sharing. The five-month scoping study is funded out of the United Kingdom's contribution to ERA ARD, through its Department For International Development (DFID) and is being conducted by the regional fora (AARINENA, APAARI, FARA & FORAGRO) in their respective regions since June 2009. It is a test case on how best to enhance SAG's potential as a driving force in ensuring that European Agricultural Research for Development works better for the South.
Rationale for the Bioenergy Special Event
In true networking spirit a Bioenergy Special Event aims at bringing together participants from the 5 projects resulting from the 1st Coordinated Call for a Transnational Research Activity under the ERA ARD Net, participants on the SAG task and others who are interested in Bioenergy. In addition, experiences gained from the ERA-ARD Monitoring and Evaluation group will be presented.
The main aim of the meeting is thus to encourage an exchange of ideas and results emerging from the various ERA ARD Bioenergy activities and facilitate networking for the future and for the projects to benefit from the experiences of the ERA ARD Monitoring and Evaluation team.
| Date: | Wednesday 16th December 2009 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 10.00 - 17.00 |
| Venue: | Brussels |
| Meeting place: | “Margritte” Room in the Egmont building FPS Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Karmelietenstraat 15, B1000 BRUSSELS Belgium |
| Lunch: | To be provided by the ERA ARD project |
| Expected number of participants: (depending on funding) | |
|---|---|
| SAG | 8 |
| Lead researcher for 4 regions of SAG Study | 4 |
| Bioenergy Projects | 10 |
| ERA ARD Consortium members | 28 |
| Others | 10 |
| Total | 60 |
Program for the Special Event
| Session 1 Introduction and Welcome | |
|---|---|
| 10.00 | Introduction to the special event By Alex Percy-Smith |
| 10:15 | Welcome speech By Coordinator for ERA ARD I Christian Hoste |
| Session 2 Presentation of the SAG work | |
| 10.30 |
Introduction and Study Integration By SAG Chairperson Nerlie Manalili Brief presentation of SAG study - Asia By Rodrigo B. Badayos, University of the Philippines at Los Banos Brief presentation of SAG study - Latin America By Markus Ascher, PROCITROPICOS Brief presentation of SAG study - Africa By Rocio A. Diaz-Chavez, Centre for Environmental Policy, ICEPT, Imperial College London Brief presentation of SAG study - Near East By M. Samir El-Habbab, University of Jordan |
| 11.30 | How can these results best be exploited? Discussion chaired by Sudip K. Rakshit Asian Institute of Technology |
| Session 3 Presentation of the 5 Bioenergy Projects | |
| 12:00 | Presentation of the 5 Bioenergy Projects: "Reduction of impact of biofuel production to food stock BIODIESELFEED" By Valdas Paulauskas, Head of Department of Chemistry, Lithuanian University of Agriculture |
| 12:15 | "Bioenergy in Ukraine - possibilities of rural development and opportunities for local communities BIoPLUs" By Research Coordinator Marek Hryniewicz, Institute for Building Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture, Poland |
| 12:30 | Buffet Lunch and informal networking |
| 13:30 | "Impacts of tropical land use conversion to jatropha and oil palm on rural
livelihoods and ecosystem services in India and Mexico" By Research partner Bart Muys, KU Leuven, Belgium |
| 13:45 |
"Bioenergy in Africa - Opportunities and Risks of Jatropha and Related Crops BIA" By Research Coordinator Albrecht Ehrensperger, University of Bern, Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), Switzerland |
| 14:00 |
"Prospects for sustainable biofuel production in developing countries: A Case study of Kenya,
East Africa PROBIOFUEL" By Research Coordinator Bernhard Freyer, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life, Sciences (BOKU), Austria |
| 14:15 |
General discussion of networking between projects Discussion chaired by??? |
| 15:00 | Short Break |
| Session 4 Linking with other projects and benefitting from ERA ARD I | |
| 15:15 | How can the INCO project COMPETE collaborate with ERA ARD Bioenergy projects? By Rainer Janssen and Dominik Rutz, WIP Renewable Energies, Germany |
| 15:45 |
How can the ERA ARD projects benefit from work of the ERA ARD Monitoring and Evaluation Team? By Markus Giger, University of Berne, Switzerland |
| 16:45 | Close of the event by???? |
Alex Percy-Smith
18.11.2009
alex.percysmith@agrsci.dk
Registration
by mail to Charlotte Knudsen on Charlotte.Knudsen@agrsci.dk informing your name, institution, e-mail address and telephone number(s).
Event of partners
SCAR Plenary Meeting
The meeting is planned on 15-16 December 2009 in Brussels.
Global Donor Platform-EIARD
Joint meeting Thursday, 26. November 2009 in Eschborn
