NORTH-SOUTH CENTRE - ETH - North-South Centre North-South ...

Germany. We did not only contribute five oral presentations
and four posters, but we formally invited the participants
to the next “Tropentag 2010” in Zurich to be hosted by the
North-South Centre. We also used the opportunity to exchange
experiences with the German organisers in view of
our role as next host.
Last but not least we had a fruitful visit from Detlef Hanne
from the Volkswagen Foundation with whom we organised
a small workshop on engineering for development. We expect
that this exchange of experiences will continue when
we become more engaged in our new research topic “Technology
and infrastructure”.
ERA-ARD and SPLASH
ERA-ARD and SPLASH are two European Research Area
Networks (ERA-NETs) which both aim to coordinate and
harmonise research for development in Europe and – together
with Southern partners – to contribute to poverty reduction.
The European Research Area in Agricultural Research for
Development (ERA-ARD) seeks to improve synergies between
national ARD programmes in Europe through joint planning,
funding and implementation of agricultural research activities.
In 2009, it has started to fund five research projects, which
study the opportunities and risks of bioenergy production in
developing countries and in Eastern Europe.
SPLASH – the ERA-NET of the European Water Initiative – aims
at improving water research for development by coordinating
existing programmes, designing collaborative research calls and
facilitating transfer of knowledge into policy and practice. In
2009, one of the main activities of SPLASH was the preparation
of a joint research call on sustainable sanitation service chains.
The call will be launched in 2010. The Swiss contributions to
both ERA-NETs are managed by SDC by a part-time staff
member of the North-South Centre.
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Networking and communication
Networking
Rosmarie Bär,
Alliance Sud