A video clip bringing snippets from the Second Community of Practice workshop in Turkey organized in the framework of the MCST-TUBITAK funded UNIMED research project can be viewed through this link. The event also created the opportunity to evaluate the synergies with the PRIMA funded Mara-Mediterra project, which can be described as ‘Bridging science with practice’ as illustrated by the cover image of this news post.
To begin with, the highly interactive event invited participants to assign weighting coefficients to the four underlying indices that make up the Survivability of Droughts Index, i.e. the Perception, Vulnerability, Adaptability and Recoverability Indices. Consequently, they were invited to repeat the same exercise also for the indicators which will be used to calculate these four underlying indices. This approach is known as inviting experts’ and stakeholders’ opinion to arrive at weighting coefficients.
Next, the participants were asked to reflect on the level of methodological as well as the societal readiness, i.e. the level of maturity of the Survivability of Droughts Index. They were also asked whether they consider the concept is applicable to other sectors beyond the agricultural sector. This two-pronged approach is borrowed from the systems mapping approach which is being promoted by the EIT Climate KIC network, Europe’s leading climate innovation agency and community, and has been adapted to the scope of UNIMED. The participants wrote down their responses to these questions on self-adhesive stickers which they then placed on a white canvas that was divided in four quadrants as illustrated in the figure on the left.
The workshop took place at the premises of the International Agricultural Research and Training Center (UTAEM) in Menemen, Turkey on 4 April 2024. It was joined by some 20 participants, including the Director of the Training Center, Dr. Tuncay Topdemir, the Vice-Directors of the Training Center, Dr. Zübeyde Albayram Dogan and Sinan Aras, and the team of agriculture engineers of the Training Center, Dr. Gozen Yuceerim, Dr. Gulay Yilmaz, Dr. Funda Kıdoglu, Merve Etoz, Oguz Sen, Yunus Emre Terzi, and Ulfet Erdal. The agenda of the UNIMED workshop and promotional material on the Mara-Mediterra project distributed to the participants are illustrated on the right.
The workshop was led by UNIMED’s Principal Investigator in Turkey, Dr. Cem Polat Cetinkaya and his research team, composed of Ali Gul, Filiz Barabaros, Hulya Boyacioglu, Gulay Onusluel Gul and Mert Can Günaçtı from the Dokuz Eylul University Industrial Application and Research Center (DEU). It was joined also by UNIMED’s Principal Investigator in Malta, Eng. Dirk De Ketelaere, Senior Researcher at Integrated Resources Management Company Ltd. (IRMCo), who gave a presentation on the synergies between the PRIMA funded Mara-Mediterra project and UNIMED. Furthermore, the Maltese research teams in UNIMED were represented also by Anna Spiteri, Managing Director of IRMCo, and Ms Carmelina Frendo, Senior Lecturer at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST), who first demonstrated the system mapping approach at the Second Community of Practice event that was held in Malta earlier this year.
(from left) Dr. Cem Polat Cetinkaya (DEU) welcoming participants to the Workshop, Eng. Dirk De Ketelaere (IRMCo) introducing Mara-Mediterra’s testimonial video clips of farmers in Greece, Italy and Malta on their successful use of Nature-based Solutions
UNIMED is aimed at the methodological development of a Survivability-of-Droughts Index in the context of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus. This is a novel idea that derives from a quantification of four underlying indices: perception, vulnerability, adaptability and recoverability. Each of these indices draws on a subset of relevant, yet mutually exclusive, economic, social and environmental indicators. In addition to the scrutinization of the proposed subsets of indicators, also the testing and validating of the methodology is being achieved through stakeholder engagement activities as evidenced by the present video clip. The qualitative feedback collected during these events will create the opportunity to draw up sound policy recommendations. The close synergy with the PRIMA funded Mara-Mediterra project brings in practical guidelines addressed to farmers of how to better assess, adapt and ultimately cope with the impacts of droughts under Mediterranean climate change conditions through short video clips bringing testimonials by farmers practicing already proven agro-ecological practices to offset the impacts of climate change. It was explained to the participants that these testimonial clips can be accessed with subtitles also in Turkish, in addition to Arabic, English, French and Greek subtitles through the Mara-Mediterra project website.
The UNIMED project is financed by the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye through the MCST-TÜBİTAK Joint Call 2022 for Research & Innovation Proposals.
