INTACTBioPack is a 36-month time-frame project involving a pan-Mediterranean consortium of 11 partners that aims to foster the adoption by the Mediterranean region, of novel, cost-competitive, biodegradable, and reusable food packaging, able to reduce food waste and loss. This relies on three main objectives: 1. Developing innovative home-compostable food-packaging materials, covering the dual functions of protective barrier and active food ingredient, as well as a reusable sensor (vegetal layer coupled with low-cost RFID) and colorimetric sensor to monitor food freshness during storage at home. 2. Exploring the potentialities of bio- and microbiome-based solutions to design consumer “self-packing” solutions to preserve and upcycle at-home leftovers or unconsumed but still edible raw fresh produce. 3. Enabling a general strategy for designing safe, sustainable, and efficient biodegradable, active packaging solutions by the deployment of generalised methodologies, mathematical tools, business plans and guidelines. Stemming from consortium’s complementarity and cross sector expertise, the philosophy of INTACTBioPack is to develop a replicable, holistic approach to design safe and working, smart and active packaging solutions, that enhance food quality & shelf-life, inform on food freshness and even transform the product (e.g., fermentation process) to decrease food waste and loss especially at home. By broadening the range of bioactive substances to microbiotes and focusing on abundant bio-based resources (e.g., cellulose, agricultural residues), upcycled with high added value constituents (e.g., probiotics, essential oils), INTACTBioPack is fully contributing to scope and impacts of Thematic Area 3, “Sustainable Mediterranean food value chain for regional and local development” of PRIMA 2023 Work Plan and, more specifically, topic 2.3.1 of section 2. The materials developed will be demonstrated on a selection of relevant food case studies for the Mediterranean region (e.g., bread, dairy, fruits and vegetable, seafoods).

The project is designed to create in Maghreb a PhD school in regular PhD programs in water & environment, improve existing prerequisite courses and develop new modern courses to train staff and PhD students, through a regional Hydroplatform establishment based on open GIS and modeling softwares, to follow-up the recent water strategies in Maghreb (2010-2030).This goal is consistent with the HE system reform adopted in Maghreb universities (MA, DZ, TN). Through this JP Maghreb and EU Universities will integrate academic community and will lead to more effective transfer of knowledge, teaching/research skills-methods from EU partners to PC. The objectives of the project are planned to be achieved by development of new courses on open source modeling using Maghreb partners experience and needs and EU partners advanced technologies. The Maghreb hydroplatform will be created in Maghreb and accessible online for Maghreb & EU partners for PhD course trainings, perform studies, water project design and share data via SDI. Relevant capacity building activities are foreseen to support newly created hydroplatform and to train Maghreb teachers: staff mobilities, new courses, teaching laboratories & library resources upgrading. Target groups of students and staff will follow the programs through mobilities; and first group of this study program will graduate from partner universities, during project implementation and after the project end to ensure sustainability. Two open dissemination seminars at the end of each year of the project implementation, creation of Internet Home Page and publication & distribution of dissemination leaflets are also envisaged. The sustainability of the project results will be ensured by incorporating the new courses into partner universities and new trainings for available water centres in the 3 MAG countries. Government support will cover costs of teaching/maintenance and further resources are ensured from offered trainings to water companies.

The ALTOS project aims to improve water management models for rainfed and irrigated agriculture, by considering the modulation of spatial structures and connectivities induced by hydro-agricultural infrastructures and practices (e.g., modulating regional land use to drive upstream / downstream water repartition). Four study sites are considered for integrated analysis in Morocco, Lebanon and Tunisia; and two study sites are considered for methodological developments in Spain and Italy. WP1 deals with monitoring and modelling tools for characterizing spatial structures. It includes the use of innovative sensors for structure observations, and of innovative methods for data processing. WP2 addresses innovative monitoring tools for characterizing processes induced by spatial structures (.e.g, water flows). It includes several protocols relying on complementary measurements. WP3 addresses innovative modelling for simulating individual (e.g., evapotranspiration) and combined (e.g., hydrological cycle) processes. It includes multi-objectives / multi-criteria calibration procedures relying on distributed / nested measurements. WP4 simulates matter fluxes and storages for possible structure modulations, to next conduct an integrated analysis with end-users on the basis of participative seminars. It also cross-analyses irrigated and rainfed agrosystems, by addressing vulnerabilities and adaptation margins. WP5 deals with (1) the sharing of data and methods within the ALTOS consortium, and (2) the results dissemination and exploitation. For this latter item, we rely on long-term collaborations with several stakeholders (farmer associations, resource managers, engineering offices). Expected outcomes are related to SDG #2 (sustainable agriculture), #6 (water supply services), and #12 (responsible consumption and production). ALTOS contributes to PRIMA outcome indicators, including (1) newly modelling routines, (2) new irrigation technologies, and (3) innovative farming system.

Drought is the main problem of agriculture worldwide and the situation is expected to get worse with climate change. Agriculture in the Mediterranean area could be particularly damaged and one of the primary menaces is agro-diversity depletion. Maize is one of the most important crops worldwide and is a model crop in plant breeding; however, it is especially vulnerable to abiotic stresses (heat and drought) encountered in a scenario of climate change. The objectives of DROMAMED are to: 1) assemble germplasm collections of maize adapted to Mediterranean dry areas, pooling and evaluating stress-resistant varieties from the national collections, 2) support innovative farming systems by promoting quality and sustainability of agricultural models based on organic and family agriculture, 3) study genetic factors involved in maize adaptation to drought and heat stress, 4) investigate the physiological and morphological mechanisms involved in maize responses to stresses, 5) establish predictive models and selection criteria for breeding programs focusing on tolerance to stress (phenotypic, marker assisted and genomic selection models will be designed to improve tolerance to individual and combined stresses), and 6) release new stress tolerant varieties and knowledge for being used by stakeholders; all these achievements will contribute to the sustainability of production and mitigation of the effects of stress in present and future climate scenarios. DROMAMED intends to 1) valorize the germplasm collections maintained in Mediterranean countries, with entries that have been selected for adaptation to a large diversity of stressful environments, 2) promote innovative crop management practices to increase quality and sustainability of organic and family agricultural systems, 3) capitalize current and new knowledge about mechanisms of tolerance to abiotic stresses, and 4) develop selection methods that will increase our ability to improve breeding approaches enhancing maize tolerance to abiotic stresses. DROMAMED will contribute to the progress of knowledge beyond the state of the art by dissecting the genetic, biochemical, morphological and physiological mechanisms underlying stress tolerance, providing useful tools and materials to capitalize the diversity of maize for cultivation under low inputs in the Mediterranean area and thus leading to rescue germplasm for future agriculture. The social impact will be encouraged in DROMAMED reling on close contacts between associations that represent the needs of producers and researchers to gather precise information on demands of stakeholders, try to fulfil as much as possible those demands, and transfer to growers technical knowledge to facilitate cultivation of the released drought tolerant populations. These associations are the Spanish Society for Organic Agriculture (SEAE), the Italian Maize Growers Association (AMI), the Italian Confederation Agricultural Producers (COPAGRI), the Breeding Cattle Associations of Antalya Province of Turkey (BCAAT), and the Organic Agriculture Association of Turkey (ETO).