5TOI_4EWAS project will focus on Targeted Open Innovation in energy, water and agriculture societal challenges through a balanced innovation-friendly ecosystem in the Southern Mediterranean Neighborhood (SMN) based on quintuple helix and NEXUS approach. The project will enhance and support regional smart specialization and development by increasing research capacity, effective mobility of young innovators/researchers and shared knowledge to improve their participation in the EU research area. It will contribute to the establishment of favorable and stable conditions for international cooperation and the set-up of a Common Knowledge and Innovation Space of specialization in the SMN for a real socio-economic impact, based on co-ownership and mutual benefits. Our partnership ensures coherence and complementarity with past and on-going regional EU-MPC cooperation initiatives and existing bilateral S&T Agreements. The project allows easily building of synergies among several ongoing initiatives thanks to the established Think Tanks Network of Science Counselors in the MPC area and the observatory of current initiatives. In this way, the project will seek continuous complementarity and coherence with the activities of the Strategic Forum for International Cooperation to enhance the cooperation and close synergies through the involvement of the widest possible range of stakeholders, from funding agencies, research organizations, industry to civil society. Therefore an enhanced and more reliable definition of the priority setting mechanisms in the region from an innovation point of view is expected. Through these activities and by the definition of a Join Action Plan, the project will effectively use the science diplomacy and facilitates the identification of remaining obstacles, conflicts for cooperation and support the R&I bilateral policy dialogue addressing sensitive challenges between EU and MPC through the dialogue and coordination platform that will be created..

The LEAP-RE programme aligns with and responds to the AU-EU high-level policies and specific objectives of the CCSE Roadmap. It seeks to create a long-term partnership of African and European stakeholders in a quadruple helix approach: government (programme owners and funding agencies), research and academia, private sector, and civil society. Impact will be sought by creating a framework, methodology, and cooperation model. The aim is to reduce fragmentation by aligning existing bilateral and multilateral frameworks. LEAP-RE establishes and jointly implements research, innovation, and capacity-building activities that respond to the Multi-Annual Roadmaps (MARs) developed in PRE-LEAP-RE. The programme opted for a large-scale, inclusive consortium of 96 partners from 34 countries and 2 international organisations, to ensure a broad thematic, geographical and stakeholder coverage, and to demonstrate the feasibility of the collaboration and build trust in view of a long-term partnership addressing the post-2025 period. LEAP-RE draws on the experience and partnership developed in PRE-LEAP-RE, which conceptualised and developed a framework for long-term, bi-regional cooperation in research, innovation, and capacity building in renewable energies. This partnership is further strengthened by previous collaboration between partners in other projects supporting the EU-Africa HLPD on STI, such as LEAP-Agri, ERAfrica, LEAP4FNSSA, RINEA, and CAAST-Net Plus. Furthermore, the proposal includes a number of R&I partners, 8 individual projects (formalised as Work Packages), which were chosen among expressions of interest received in late 2019.