About ERA-ARD
For developing countries, agriculture is crucial for economic growth, through its role in food security, and in addressing global issues such as bio-energy, climate change, etc. Agricultural research responds to the needs to feed growing populations and to drive economic growth in a sustainable manner.
ERA-ARD will address these issues through improving coordination and collaboration between national research programmes. The current, second phase of ERA-ARD is a € 1 million project funded under the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme and will run from 2010 to 2013. The project is a partnership of 17 organisations involved with funding agricultural research for development in 15 European countries.
The second phase of ERA-ARD aims to promote collaboration in European agricultural research for the world’s poor. To realise this aim, ERA-ARD II has two strategic objectives:
- Improving the EU contribution to global international agricultural research in the field of Agricultural Research for Development (ARD);
- Maximising the EU contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
The European added value of this ERA-net will be the greater contribution and visibility of Europe towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals through:
- An increase in effectiveness and efficiency of its research for development programmes;
- The development of a more coherent European ARD;
- Facilitation of access by developing countries to European ARD expertise.