The European Union and Africa Union will initiate a research and innovation partnership, promoting research on food and nutrition security. Representatives of the European Union and the African Union agreed on the new jointly funded long-term research initiative at the EU-Africa High Level Policy Dialogue to set and review priorities in light of next year’s EU-Africa summit.

The initiative will most likely benefit to a large degree from financial support from the EU’s research and innovation funding programme Horizon 2020. Apart from the EU-Africa summit 2014, the joint partnership on food security research matters is to be seen within the framework of other similar initiatives such as the African Union Year of Agriculture and Food Security and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization International Year of Family Farming. Both aim at improving food and nutrition security in Africa by means of research and development aid for agriculture.

European Commission - Press release

African Union - Press release