Moving ahead towards a UfM Ministerial on Research and Innovation: Second UfM Ad-hoc Senior Official Meeting on Research and Innovation

• The new UfM Research and Innovation agenda supports three new research priorities: climate change, health and renewable energy.
• The UfM meeting of Senior Officials on 21 October endorsed the R&I platform proposal to hold an R&I Ministerial.
• The meetings followed the discussion of the first UfM Ad-hoc Senior Official Meeting convened last 20 December.

24 February 2022, Barcelona. Representatives from the UfM Copresidency and Member States met for continuing discussions towards a commong text for the upcoming UfM Ministerial Declaration on Research and Innovation.

The meeting followed a first UfM Ad-hoc SOM on R&I held on 20 December 2021, as a process launched by the UfM meeting of Senior Officials held on 21 October 2021, which endorsed the proposal of the UfM R&I platform to hold a Ministerial on Research and Innovation in June 2022, the first under the UfM framework.

The accompanying declaration will be a milestone in endorsing the new UfM R&I Roadmaps on Health, Climate Change, and Renewable Energies, adopted by the UfM Regional Platform for R&I, on 7 July 2021.

The process builds on the 2017 EuroMed Declaration “Strengthening Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation through Research and Innovation” (Valletta), and on the work of the UfM Regional Platform in Research and Innovation (R&I).