The The General Directorate for Scientific Research and Technological Development, DGRSDT which stands for "Direction General de la Recherche Scientifique et du Developpement Technologique" is a public administration under the auspices of the Algerian Ministry of High Education & Scientific Research, MESRS, which stands for “Ministere de l’Enseignement Superieur et de la Recherche Scientifique". The DGRSDT is primarily in charge planning and monitoring the implementation of the national research program. It is essentially in charge of various aspects of scientific research involved in different economical areas, i.e., planning, evaluation, infrastructures, research projects funding and theirs assessments.
DGRSDT is also responsible for promoting partnerships and cooperation between Algerian research institutes and the private as well as the public sectors, and particularly bridging between local education research institutes, universities and local private and/or public industries. It contributes to national wide technological development via its position at high national council of scientific research and technology development aiming to execute all forms of recommendations issued by the government under the national policy. DGRSDT plays also a strong contribution for promoting international cooperation values where it has been involved as a strong partners in several EU programs namely lnco-NET MIRA, MedSpring and EranetMed among others.
Since its establishment in 2008, the DGRSDT has gained valuable expertise in planning and managing research programs in national wide that come along with establishing a good network to the scientific international community especially in Europe to contribute to the enhancement of international cooperation in research and innovation with several key expertise in:
- Support for awareness raising, event management skills,
- Cover wide network of scientific community
- Global player in international cooperation
- Strong in dissemination activities in that country
- High level of project monitoring, analyses, and data management
Read more: http://www.mesrs.dz/.
Jordan is a country located 80 km east of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea covering an area of about 89,000 km2. The country is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south and east, Iraq to the northern east, Syria to the north and Palestine and Israel to the west. Jordan is located under a semi-arid area with a climatic condition characterized by cold winter and hot summer. The average minimum annual temperature is recorded in January of 5ºC, while the average highest temperature is recorded on August of 35¡rC. Precipitation in Jordan varies from less than 50 mm/yr in the south-eastern desert area of the country to more than 650 mm/yr in the highlands and northern Mountains.
Renewable energy resources are naturally abundant in Jordan and they offer a perfect chance to enhance the local economy and increase the national energy security. Jordan is a food deficit country. It is among the seven most vulnerable countries to the impact of high food prices.
The agriculture sector takes place in the northern and western highlands, and the most productive areas are in Jordan Valley, and the fluctuating of the precipitation quantity has a direct impact on the agricultural productions and it is affected by the scarcity of irrigation water and the overuse of groundwater. Farming is economically important in Jordan, despite its small share of GDP, as it is a major source of food and a major source of hard currencies gained from exports.
The pressure on natural resources due to challenges related to population growth worsened in recent years. Jordan’s population was 5.1 million according to 2004 estimate, up substantially from 4.1 million in 1994 estimation, in the last decades it was shocked by the waves that followed the neighboring Arab countries Wars, 2015 ended with a population of 10 million, 2.8 million are due to the observed endless waves of refugees (Jordanzad). The sudden and a rapid increase in the country population due to the refugees flux to a country already suffering from difficult economic conditions, poor infrastructures and a limited essential resources, such as water and energy and food effects on the impact on education and health sector, security and public services beside focusing on the impact on the budget and the debt.
We find in the figure the Jordan Main energy projects (Source: Atlas of Jordan, History, Territories and Society). In Jordan food, water and energy are substantial linked. Food sector uses about 46% of groundwater and 62% of the total available surface water in Jordan. Energy and resources are strongly interrelated and interconnected in both way directly and/or indirectly with water recourses, the connection is becoming increasingly inseparably as water scarcity increases. To utilize water for different purposes, energy is required in all segments; translocating surface water, extracting groundwater, feeding desalination plants with its raw sea/brackish waters and producing freshwater, pumping and conveying, collecting wastewater and treatment and reuse.
Jordan is one of the leading countries that have the potentiality to convert the limitation of resources to a formation of new resources by implementing an integrated nexus approach projects. Actually the country started adopting this approach in water sector by planning a several projects such as Disi project and red-dead sea project were energy is generated due to head loss hydraulic power from different elevation water allocation sites. In the red-dead sea project this new generated energy is used to desalinate the sea water to be provided as a fresh water to the main cities in the country.
A project that would provide potable water to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, bringing sea water to stabilize the Dead Sea water level and generate electricity to support the energy needs of the project. The conveyance pumps seawater 230 meters uphill from the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba through the Arabah valley in Jordan, then flows down gravitationally through multiple pipelines to the Dead Sea, followed by a drop through a penstock to the level of the Dead Sea near its shore and an open Canal to the Sea itself, which lies about 420 m below sea level. The project will consist of about 225 km of seawater and brine conveyance pipelines parallel to the Arabah valley in Jordan, also consist of about 178 km of freshwater conveyance pipelines to Amman.
It includes water desalination plants and a hydropower plant. In its ultimate phase it would provide 850 million cubic meters of freshwater per year. It would require electric generating capacity from the Jordanian grid and would provide electricity through hydropower, making the project a large net energy user.
A better exploitation of the water transfer method with elevation can be used to ensure the electric generators not only provide energy for this project but also for the area, hopefully taking a more environment friendly approach than the persisting need of building a nuclear reactor, to supply these power needs. Jordan’s economy continues to slowly but steadily recover from the Arab Spring spillovers. These spillovers include Egypt’s gas disruptions, the neighboring Syrian and Iraqi conflicts and associated security incidents. Notwithstanding these shocks, real GDP growth rate is estimated to have reached 3.1 percent in 2014, up 30 basis points over 2013. From the supply side, growth was led by construction, wholesale and retail trade, and finance and insurance, with a pick-up in the mining and quarrying sector. On the demand side, growth was predominantly fueled by higher public investments, mostly due to earmarked GCC grants, and a narrower trade deficit.
The steady economic recovery has improved unemployment rates although this masks underlying structural weaknesses. The expanding economy and continued efforts at fiscal consolidation have resulted in a lower fiscal deficit. The tighter deficit (including grants) comes despite higher transfers to the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) and the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ), estimated at 7.0 percent of GDP in 2014 compared to 5.9 percent of GDP in 2013. The larger transfers stemmed from the governmentâ˘A ´Zs need to resort to more expensive energy sources following further disruption of (cheap) gas supplies from Egypt.
The economy is expected to steadily continue to gather pace as reforms continue while security and oil prices present key downside risks. Real GDP growth is forecast at 3.5 percent in 2015 due to stronger private consumption and investment, in part driven by lower oil prices and investment projects notably in energy. The debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to be reduced given the growth pick-up and continued fiscal consolidation. Downside risks include exacerbation of the Syrian and Iraqi crises and a higher oil price.
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MED-SPRING Third Inter-institutional meeting on mobility - The third inter-institutional meeting of MED-SPRING "Towards an innovative Euro-Mediterranean mobility" was held in Bari on 27th April 2016. Building on the work carried out by MED-SPRING, which lead to the drafting of an "Action Plan for innovative mobility schemes in the Euro-Mediterranean region", the meeting gathered MPCs research ministries/institutions partners of MedSpring, EC representatives in charge for mobility programmes and coordinators of major mobility initiatives in the region. 
