FORWARD sustainability in OR Presidents Conference’s Declaration

The OR Presidents’ XXVI Conference took place in November 2021, under the presidency of Azores.

The high-level political event took stock of the results achieved so far by FORWARD and discussed their sustainability. A Declaration summarizing the position of the ORs Presidents towards FORWARD activities has been recently published, and it is available on the official website of the OR Conference of Presidents.

The Declaration recognizes that “the FORWARD project, in which all the ORs participate, is a first step to strengthen collaboration through their respective research centres, mainly to strengthen their ability to participate in European research programmes”.

The Conference of Presidents requests to:

• Continue the FORWARD project to improve research capabilities and innovation in the ORs to promote their potential to potential European partners.
• Aid the creation of a network that integrates regional public entities that give support for promoters of Horizon Europe projects in the ORs;
• Create “RUP missions” inspired by the Horizon Europe programme, which would allow stakeholders from the ORs and other European partners and countries third parties, coordinate their efforts in the face of the six key challenges identified in the framework of the FORWARD project: conservation and ecological restoration, energy transition, circular economy, adaptation to climate change and risk mitigation, management of the water and blue economy;

These statements are in support for the WP4 activities of the project which are now focused on the long-term set-up of a common network of ORs R&I Officers, named the “OR-izon Netwotk”. The FORWARD consortium has established and approved a concept note to regulate the network. The next step is that each OR will be working at regional level to gather the commitment from their relevant Governmental Boards.

All these actions will feed the last deliverable foreseen under WP4, which aims to outline operational frameworks and guidelines for the OR-izon network and ensure the political support from the 9 OR governments.