Day: July 28, 2022

EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Marija Gabriel and the Mayor of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca Emil Boc, rapporteur of the European Committee of the Regions for the opinion on the European University Alliances initiative, expressed their support of transnational alliances of European universities in a co-signed opinion article on Thursday.

As Commissioner Gabriel and Mayor Bocque say there are around 5,000 higher education institutions in Europe, each of which is a centre of knowledge and innovation in its own right, whether you are looking at research universities or higher vocational education and training institutions, universities of applied sciences, institutes of technology or schools of arts.

For this reason, they note, Europe is is globally considered a knowledge and innovation powerhouse that attracts and retains talent. Our higher education institutions are gold mines for skills development and drivers for sustained growth, for entrepreneurship and quality jobs throughout Europe.

The European Union’s vision for the sector, according to the article’s authors, includes European inter-university campuses where students, staff and researchers from all parts of Europe can enjoy seamless mobility, and create new knowledge together, across countries and disciplines. A vision of a common long-term structural, sustainable and systemic cooperation on education, research and innovation throughout Europe.

This vision may sound ambitious, but in fact there are already 41 so-called European Universities, ambitious transnational alliances of higher education institutions, that have been testing what kind of structural, strategic and sustainable cooperation is really possible and most beneficial for their students, staff and communities, say the two European officials.

To support their work and push the European Universities initiative further, the Commission launched an Erasmus+ call for proposals in November 2021 with a record total budget of €272 million. The call had two aims: one was to provide support for already existing alliances so that they could continue or even enlarge their cooperation. And the second was to establish new alliances.

The overwhelming response to this call is in line with the continued enthusiasm and commitment from the higher education sector.

Through their joint article, Gabriel and Bock announce announce that 16 existing European Universities will continue to be supported by the Erasmus+ programme. They have expanded their cooperation by involving about 30 new higher education institutions from all parts of Europe, mainly in non-Capital cities, anchoring them even more in various and diverse regions.

In addition, four new European Universities alliances will start their common journey, meaning that, together with the 24 alliances already selected in 2020, there will be a total of 44 European Universities spanning across Europe.

As noted, 340 higher education institutions from all EU Member States and several Erasmus+ associated countries (Iceland, Norway, Serbia and Turkey) will be involved, and higher education institutions from Bologna Process countries beyond Erasmus+ countries such as Ukraine, the UK and Switzerland can now also join their alliances, although these collaborations will need to be financed outside of Erasmus+ funding for European universities.

The article also states that following encouragement to not limit themselves to their academic circles, European universities are working with around 1,300 NGOs, businesses, cities, local and regional authorities, with European university alliances being anchors of knowledge and civic engagement within regions and cities as proven by the numerous cities and regions directly involved as associated partners in the alliances, developing together with the higher education institutions smart solutions to their local challenges.

Gabriel and Bock say they will continue to support European universities in realising their full potential, as over time, they will connect more and more faculties, departments, staff and students, offering more innovative pedagogies rooted in transdisciplinary approaches, implementing more joint programmes, being even more inclusive and engaging more with their communities.

It is noted that the next Erasmus+ call for proposals will be launched in autumn this year, offering renewed funding for existing alliances and to create new ones. The objective is to expand to 60 European Universities, involving more than 500 higher education institutions by mid-2024.

At the same time, they are focusing on work on the establishment of institutionalised cooperation instruments, such as a possible legal status for alliances of higher education institutions, and the examination of options for joint degrees at all levels, based on European criteria, with a view to recognising the transnational study experiences that these alliances offer to their students, while work on the European Student Card is continuing in order to provide students with a unique identifier and to simplify the administrative process around their mobility.

“We all work together at EU level, Member States, regions and higher education institutions across Europe, to increase the scope and quality of European higher education. We will keep pushing the boundaries to the benefit of Europe’s 17.5 million students, 1.35 million educators and 1.17 million researchers – and at the end of the day, to the benefit of us all”, they conclude.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Rome – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will fast track an impact-oriented project in Central America and in sub-Saharan Africa for digital soil nutrient mapping thanks to a $20 million contribution from the Government of the United States of America. This type of soil mapping can improve the efficiency in the use of fertilizers and help to boost food security and nutrition.

“This contribution is timely and allows us to scale up the use of soil mapping in regions where it is most needed and where we are seeing a decline in fertilizer use due to price hikes,” stated QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General, as he welcomed the investment. “By understanding what nutrients our soils and crops need, we will reduce waste when applying fertilizers and increase their effectiveness.”

Ambassador Cindy McCain, U.S. Permanent Representative to FAO and the Rome-based UN agencies, announced the contribution during a week-long field visit to Guatemala and Honduras. The funds will help tackle what she called an unparalleled global food crisis and address both immediate and long-term needs many countries are facing due to skyrocketing food and fertilizer prices. The impacts of the climate crisis, such as frequent droughts, floods and high temperatures also put food security and nutrition at risk. Managing soils sustainably to increase resilience and adapt to these changes is essential and must be based on informed decisions and continuous monitoring of soil health.

The funding will be primarily used to conduct targeted soil nutrient mapping to systematize and improve the existing soil maps in Guatemala and Honduras, as well as in other countries in Central America and sub-Saharan Africa, where Ambassador McCain noted FAO has proven experience in building capacity and digitizing soil maps, which have fast, positive impacts on crop yields and sustainability.

FAO has already been supporting the scaling up of a pioneering project in Ethiopia, where agriculture – almost all of it practiced by smallholders – accounts for 40 percent of value-added economic activity and employs more than 80 percent of the population. That project used digital soil nutrient mapping technologies to generate timely information, particularly on how to optimize fertilizer use, and has already led to yield and availability increases of high-quality grains in the country.

Fostering the creation of national soil databases and soil information systems as public goods to be used by policymakers, the private sector and especially farmers can generate long-term benefits, as well as improve short-term flexibility to adapt to trends in fertilizer markets and climate dynamics without compromising output.

The need to support Central America

About one in six people in Guatemala and Honduras suffer from undernourishment, and around half cannot afford a healthy diet, according to FAO’s latest report on The State of Food Insecurity and Nutrition in the World.

Around a third of arable land in Central America is covered by degraded soils, broadly in line with the global average. Agriculture has traditionally been based in the subregion’s mountains, whose slopes are particularly vulnerable to landslides and water erosion. These forces, exacerbated by extreme weather patterns catalyzed by the La Niña phenomenon, whose effects are often further magnified by deforestation and other human factors, remove topsoil rich in organic matter and can trigger soil nutrient imbalances. One result is steady outward migration pressure, from rural areas to cities and from cities abroad. Poverty and vulnerability to livelihood-crushing disasters are particularly intense in Central America’s Dry Corridor, home to 10 million people, making it a prime target for resilience-building initiatives that the soil maps will support.

FAO is creating a regional soil information system (SISLAC) which serves legacy soil data from around Latin America and the Caribbean.

More on FAO’s work on soils

**This week, FAO and its Global Soil Partnership are hosting the Global Symposium on Soils for Nutrition where discussions are ongoing on the fertility of global soils and ways to enhance soil nutrient availability for crops without damaging the environment.

FAO’s Global Soil Partnership has been supporting countries in establishing national soil information systems and developing country-driven global maps, including the Global Soil Organic Carbon Map, the Global Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration Potential Map, the Global Salt Affected Soils Map and the Global Black Soil Distribution Map.

To date, the Global Soil Partnership, has reached more than 500 national experts from 52 countries in Central America and sub-Saharan Africa and supported them in producing high priority data products focusing on major soil threats, potential of soil resources to address the impacts of the climate crisis and tackle food insecurity.

FAO is also working with Members on the preparation of the Global Soil Nutrient and Nutrient Budget Maps to inform effective decisions to boost soil health and productivity. FAO is also working on the establishment of the Global Soil Information System (GLOSIS) and of the Global Soil Laboratory Network (GLOSOLAN) to improve the capacities of soil laboratories, including soil spectroscopy for rapid, cost-effective and non-destructive characterization of soil properties.

The FAO-UNESCO Soil Map of the World, which was launched in 1961 and which has been serially updated ever since, is a world reference base. Increased efforts, often using geospatial and machine-learning technologies, are leading to greater precision and nutrition-sensitive policy tools, as well as pathways to improve the return on investments from agricultural inputs such as fertilizers.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

As the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA) for HIV prevention, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called on governments in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to urgently include this drug in national HIV guidelines and accelerate its roll out to prevent HIV transmission, and called on the producer of CAB-LA – the UK pharmaceutical corporation ViiV Healthcare – to take swift actions to support countries’ access for everyone who needs it.

Administered as an injection every two months,CAB-LA is the most effective form of pre-exposure prophylaxis(PrEP) for people at high risk of HIV. However, as detailed in a new MSF reportreleased ahead of the 2022 International AIDS Conference, the lack of transparency around the pricing and plans for registration of the drug; unnecessary delays over agreeing a voluntary license; and implementation-science conditions for procurement, set by ViiV, pose as barriers to access to this medicine, particularly in LMICs.

“WHO’s recommendation for use of long-acting injectable cabotegravir offers a more effective option for people in countries like Mozambique, where there is a high prevalence of HIV, who would hugely benefit from rollout of this drug to help reduce new infections,” said Dr Zaid Seni, Medical Activity Manager, MSF Mozambique. “While the current oral preventive treatment available in low- and middle-income countries is effective, taking a daily pill can be challenging for some. CAB-LA offers a more discreet option that can facilitate better adherence for people at risk of HIV infection. We urge ViiV to make the drug available at an affordable price to support timely use of this game-changing drug to help avoid millions of new HIV infections.”

CAB-LA was approved for the prevention of HIV infection by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2021, and ViiV currently charges US$3,700 per vial in the US($22,200 per person per year). Researchfrom the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) has shown that generic manufacturers could produce this drug for around $2.60 per vial (less than $20 per person per year). Although ViiV has publicly said they would provide CAB-LA for their at-cost price in many LMICs, they have yet to announce the price.

ViiV holds patents on CAB-LA in multiple middle-income countries, including Brazil, India, Nigeria and South Africa. The patent monopolies of the pharmaceutical corporation will block access to more affordable generic formulations and allow Viiv to sell CAB-LA at high prices, keeping the medicine out of reach for many who need it. In May 2022, ViiV announced that it is finally engaged in negotiations for a voluntary license on CAB-LA with the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) for generic manufacturers to bring the drug into the market. It will be essential for MPP and ViiV to include not just low-income and lower middle-income countries but also upper-middle-income countries in the territory of the license for CAB-LA.

Also, ViiV currently makes CAB-LA available in LMICs only under implementation-science proposals that are approved by the corporation,wherein the drug is donated based on approval by ViiV to the organisations submitting protocols for studying the drug for PrEP. Granting access exclusively for research purposes may deny the most vulnerable populations, particularly in humanitarian settings, from accessing CAB-LA.

“ViiV has been dragging its feet in making cabotegravir supply available for low- and middle-income countries despite repeated calls from public health activists, treatment providers and civil society,” said Jessica Burry, HIV/HCV Pharmacist, MSF Access Campaign. “Following WHO’s recommendation for the use of CAB-LA as PrEP, ViiV must take immediate steps to publicly announce the price for this drug for all low- and middle-income countries, finalise its licensing deal with the Medicines Patent Pool, and ensure sufficient supply everywhere by allowing procurement without any conditions to treatment providers and countries, until generics are available. It’s high time that the corporation fulfil its promise of making CAB-LA widely available to those in need, as further delays will only result in new HIV infections.”

Source: Médecins Sans Frontières