PRIMA Section 1 - 2024

Since 2018 PRIMA Secretariat launch an annual call for transnational collaborative Euro-Mediterranean projects in the thematic areas of PRIMA research and Innovation agenda funded by H2020 rules and funds and funded by PRIMA Secretariat on:

• Water Management
• Farming Systems
• Agri-food value Chain
• Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (since 2021)

Section 1 call 2024 has three topics each on the Research and Innovation Agenda pillars with a focus on the sectoral interdependencies among them Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus:

• Thematic area 1 – Water management in the nexus. Topic 1.1.1 – 2024 (IA) Sustainability of Mediterranean irrigated agriculture through the implementation of WEFE Nexus approach.
• Thematic area 2 – Farming systems in the nexus. Topic 1.2.1 – 2024 (IA) Transformative Adaptation of Mediterranean dry farming systems using water harvesting techniques to address extreme drought in arid and semi-arid environments.
• Thematic area 3 – Agri-food value chain in the nexus. Topic 1.3.1 – 2024 (IA) Developing cost-effective and sustainable technologies adapted to Mediterranean Food Systems to decrease food loss and waste.

According to Horizon 2020 Rules: each consortium must be built with four legal entities of three different countries considered as Participating States.

          - At least one legal entity must be established in EU Member State or a third country Associated to H2020

            And

        - At least two must be established in third country/countries bordering the Mediterranean sea (MPC) (as defined in the AWP bordering the Mediterranean Sea: Algeria, Jordan, Israel, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, Egypt e Turkey).

Other either from EU MS or Associated country or MPC.

All four legal entities from the three different countries must be independent of each other.

Please refer to section 5.1.1 of the PRIMA Annual Work Plan 2024 (AWP 2024) for the List of countries eligible for funding.

1- Consult the call documents.

2- Access the call page and partner search website

Please read the Annual Work Plan 2024 on 5.1.7.

Evaluation process:

A two-step evaluation process will be organised.

1. First Step:

• Eligibility check of pre-proposals will be performed by the Call Secretariat, according to the “eligibility criteria” present in the call documents;
• Evaluation of the eligible pre-proposals will be performed by an independent evaluation peer-review according to call documents.

2. Second Step:

• Eligibility check of full proposals will be performed by the PRIMA Call Secretariat;
• Evaluation of the eligible full proposals will be performed by an independent peer-review according to the following criteria:

1. Excellence
2. Impact
3. Quality and efficiency of the implementation

• Thematic area 1 – Water management in the nexus. Topic 1.1.1 – 2024 (IA) Sustainability of Mediterranean irrigated agriculture through the implementation of the WEFE Nexus approach. According to Horizon 2020 Rules. 70% (except for non-profit legal entities, where a rate of 100% applies). TRL 6-8. The total indicative amount allocated to this call EUR 9.2 million. PRIMA considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 4.6 million and with a duration of 36 months would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submitting and selecting proposals requesting other amounts or duration.
• Thematic area 2 – Farming systems in the nexus. Topic 1.2.1 – 2024 (IA) Transformative adaptation of Mediterranean dry farming systems using water harvesting technique to address extreme drought in arid and semi-arid environments. According to Horizon 2020 Rules. 70% (except for non-profit legal entities, where a rate of 100% applies). TRL 6-8. The total indicative amount allocated to this call EUR 4.8 million. PRIMA considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 4.1 million and with a duration of 36 months would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submitting and selecting proposals requesting other amounts or duration.
• Thematic area 3 – Agri-food value chain in the nexus. Topic 1.3.1 – 2024 (IA) Developing cost-effective and sustainable technologies adapted to Mediterranean Food Systems to decrease food loss and waste. According to Horizon 2020 Rules. 70% (except for non-profit legal entities, where a rate of 100% applies). TRL 5-8.  PRIMA considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EURO 4,55 million and 36 months would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submitting and the selection of proposals requesting other amounts or duration. 

All the Section 1 Call documents are available here

Specific thematic area documents available:

Water management in the nexus

Farming systems in the nexus

Agri-food value in the nexus

PRIMA Secretariat:

• Thematic area 1 – Water management in the nexus. Marco Orlando (marco.orlando@prima-med.org)

• Thematic area 2 – Farming systems in the nexus. Fabrice Dentressangle (fabrice.dentressangle@prima-med.org)

• Thematic area 3 – Agri-food value Chain. Mohamed Wageih (mohamed.wageih@prima-med.org)

At FCT Maria Maia (maria.maia@fct.pt)