Universitas 21

Title

U21 Food Security Workshop

Dates

4 - 5 November 2009

Venue

University of Edinburgh

Participants

U21 Researchers involved in Food Security and identified partners from the global south

Deadline

25 September 2009

The aim of the U21 Food Security Workshop is to provide a platform for a meaningful and focused discussion between Food Security experts in the U21 network and those in U21’s key partner institutions in the Global South.

The Workshop will set the agenda for collaboration in teaching and research between U21 institutions and the Global South around Food Security themes for the next five years.

Most significantly, the Workshop will allow U21’s developing world partner institutions to define the collaborative mechanisms which work best for them and which address their specific needs. By involving national and international aid agencies as well as NGOs, the Workshop will facilitate a four-way discussion which will lead to greater efficiency, faster outcomes and more focused collaboration.

Participants

As part of their endorsement of the U21 Food Security proposal at the Annual Network Meeting, the U21 Presidents agreed to sponsor the participation in the Workshop of a minimum of two researchers, one of whom should ideally be an established Principal Investigator and the other an early-career researcher, from each of their institutions.

In addition, each U21 member institution has agreed to sponsor the participation of one researcher from a partner university in the developing world.

U21 members who wish to do so are of course welcome to send additional representatives to the Workshop.

Invitations to attend the workshop will also be extended to the national development agencies of the countries represented in the U21 network, NGOs and international research funding agencies.

Provisional draft programme

Wednesday 4 November
Session 1	Welcome and context
	Keynote speaker: The Global Food Security Challenge
Session 2	Key issues in Food Security from the perspective of the Global South
Lunch
Session 3	Thematic groups break-out sessions
	it is envisaged that the thematic groups will broadly correspond to the six agreed pillars of the U21 Food Security initiative: Health, Water, Agriculture, Education, Gender and Governance. This will be determined once the participant list has been evaluated.
Session 4	Reports from break-out sessions and wrap up.

Evening	Informal dinner arrangements

Thursday 5 November
Session 1	The Future of Food Security Programme funding
	Key note speaker representing a major international funding body: A new paradigm for funding research in food security?
	Round-table discussion
Session 2	Thematic groups pre-proposal brain-storming session
	In light of the outcomes of the exploration of shared interests and research synergies taken place on Day 1, and in the context on the discussion on funding held in the preceding Session, the thematic working groups will aim to agree possible pre-proposals for collaborative funding bids.
Lunch
Session 3	Pre-proposal reports
Session 4	Conclusions and action plan

Evening	Workshop dinner

Accommodation

A group rate has been secured at the Roxburghe Hotel at a rate of £105 per night, bed & breakfast.

**This rate is only available until Friday 18 September, after which the standard rate will be charged.**

Delegates should make their own bookings via the registration form which can be downloaded here.

Roxburghe Hotel
38 Charlotte Square
Edinburgh
EH2 4HQ

Tel: +44 (0)844 879 9093
Fax: +44 (0)131 527 4656
Email: reservation.roxburghe@macdonald-hotels.co.uk

www.MacdonaldHotels.co.uk/Roxburghe

Contact Dr Erik Lithander at University College Dublin for further information or in you have any queries.