The SustInAfrica - Sustainable intensification of food production through resilient farming systems in West & North Africa project, in which ISEG participates, was approved by the European Commission as part of the Horizon 2020 and the Research and Innovation Action programmes, with a maximum classification of 15/15 and funding of 7 million euros.

Headed up by the Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), the project lasts for five years and is expected to start in the Spring of 2020. ISEG's participation is to be led by the researcher and visiting professor, Idalina Dias Sardinha (CSG Research Consortium, the Department of Social Sciences). This multidisciplinary team also includes our colleagues Alexandre Abreu, Amélia Branco, Nuno Crespo, Pedro Verga Matos, Sofia Bento and Rita Queiroga, and will receive funding in the sum of 734,000 euros.

The objective of SustInAfrica is to empower small farmers and agricultural SMEs in West and North Africa to practice the sustainable intensification of agriculture in these regions. The fieldwork will take place in five African countries - Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger, Egypt, and Tunisia - and will have a systemic approach towards intensifying self-sustainable and resilient primary production. In particular, the project aims to develop technological solutions to support production which will be implemented in pilot communities.

The ISEG team is to be the leader of the first work package which will carry out the basic analysis of the agricultural systems of the regions and the planned pilot schemes, as well as the design and follow-up of the monitoring. It will also participate in the development of the methods of empowerment and training of the communities which will be involved during the project.

CONTACT: Idalina Dias Sardinha, idalinasardinha@iseg.ulisboa.pt

The e-GROUNDWATER: Citizen science and ICT-based enhanced information systems for groundwater assessment, modelling and sustainable participatory management project, in which ISEG participates, was approved as part of the PRIMA partnership (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area)/Horizon 2020, with a total funding of  1.6 million euros.

Headed up by the Universitat Politècnica de València, the project involves another eight partners and will last four years, and will start in the Spring of 2020. ISEG’s participation is to be led by Marta Varanda (Department of Social Sciences) in partnership with Sofia Bento, both of whom are researchers from the CSG consortium. Fours case studies are scheduled to be carried out in Algeria, Morocco, Portugal (Algarve), and Spain. The funding for ISEG is €174,000.

The objective of e-GROUNDWATER is to support the sustainable and participatory management of groundwater in the Mediterranean region through the design and testing of technological information systems which enable the involvement and participation of citizens. The socio-economic impact of these new information systems on the interaction between stakeholders and the coordination of water use will be analysed. The ISEG team is responsible for evaluating the institutional transitions which are necessary for the change to sustainable management practices, as well as identifying the shortfalls in training for the same purpose.

ISEG will also be heading up the development of methods to ramp up the scale of sustainable groundwater management strategies which have been tested in the case studies at the country level.

CONTACT: Marta Varanda marta@iseg.ulisboa.pt

The overall objective of PLOTINA is to enable the development, implementation and assessment of self-tailored Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) with innovative and sustainable strategies for the Research Performing Organizations (RPOs) involved. This objective will be achieved by:

• Stimulating a gender-aware culture change;
• Promoting career-development of both female and male researchers to prevent the waste of talent, particularly for women;
• Ensuring diversification of views and methodologies (in this case by taking into account the gender/sex dimension and analysis) in research and teaching.

PLOTINA is a partnership of RPOs, Professional Associations and Partners with specific expertise in monitoring the progress of the project and in the dissemination. The consortium represents the diversity of European RPOs as well as the diversity of European social and cultural environments.

 Project Page: www.plotina.eu

The persistence and exacerbation of territorial disparities in the European Union, coupled with the insecurity that economic crisis and austerity have generated and even threaten this vision of cohesion. The aim of fairness with regard to access to opportunities, the availability of services of general interest and basic infrastructure, independently of location, has become increasingly difficult and expensive to achieve. One important consequence of this situation is a greater need to connect European Cohesion, both as policy framework and principle, more directly to local needs and local scale. Place-based and endogenous regional development as well as the more effective use of territorial capital and assets are some of the approaches that have been invoked to facilitate a greater local orientation of cohesion, territorial development and other UE policies.

The principal rationale of the RELOCAL project is to contribute to conceptually and empirically enhancing the knowledge base on spatial justice and territorial inequalities and it also contributes to identifying policies promoting spatial justice and socio-economic well-being at various levels of governance.

Project page: https://relocal.eu/

Project newsletters: https://relocal.eu/newsletter/

Twitter: @h2020relocal

Project duration: Oct. 2016 - Sep. 2020

Interdisciplinary research and collaboration are recognized as a precondition to solve the problems and Grand Societal Challenges confronting societies and the planet today. However, although interdisciplinarity is increasingly central to science and research agendas, and is recognised as a precondition for sustainability, its effective implementation in research projects remains an exception to the rule.

INTREPID is a  27 country network with the  overall aim to better understand how to achieve more efficient and effective interdisciplinary research in Europe, in order to enhance our capacity to meet contemporary global (urban) challenges characterised by increasing complexity and uncertainty.

Project page:  http://www.intrepid-cost.eu/

Soils are essential to our societies as they are associated with diverse economic, ecological and cultural aspects. However, they are often the target of negative actions that contribute to their irreversible degradation. In the European Southwest in particular, many areas are affected by contamination, past or present, due to metals, hydrocarbons or other organic compounds. These contaminations affect not only soil and its functions but also surface waters and groundwater, the atmosphere and human health (through breathing or ingestion).

Public authorities responsible for environmental management are currently facing significant technical challenges and with high associated costs, such as the accurate inventorying of contaminated areas, their characterization and the definition of remediation processes. 
The SOIL TAKE CARE project aims to develop diagnostic methodologies, soil remediation techniques and improve the efficiency of the political and social management of contaminated areas. 
Main objectives of the SOIL TAKE CARE project: 
- To develop experimental devices and innovative methodologies to achieve quick and low cost diagnoses regarding contamination by metals and organic compounds in mining and industrial areas. 
- To develop methodologies to monitor the contamination of air and water in mining and industrial areas from the study of soil contamination using economic devices and numerical modeling. 
- Improve the development of two types of contaminated soil remediation techniques: injection of oxidizing solutions into hydrocarbon-contaminated soils and development of phytoremediation techniques for contaminated soils with heavy metals. 
- Identify, from a socio-economic study, the strengths and weaknesses, weaknesses and driving elements of society (public administrations, population) that coexist with this contamination.

PARTNERS: CNRS, IRSTEA, Université de Limoges, CERIS, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena. INP, CTM, Universidad de Oviedo.

ASSOCIATED INSTITUTIONS: Arouca Geopark, Région de Murcia, Universidad de Murcia, SOCIUS/CSG, Universidade de Lisboa.

URL:   http://soiltakecare.eu/pt-pt/projeto/