The FoSaMed project brings together Moroccan HEIs promoting inclusive education through curriculum development and teacher education on Food Safety. Specific objectives include the development of a joint Master Programme, within the curricula of the Agronomic and Veterinary Institute Hassan II (IAV), the Faculty of Sciences Ibn Tofail (IBN), the National School of Agriculture of Meknés (ENA), and the Université Mohammed Premier (UMP) supported by the project coordinator, University of Évora (UEVORA), the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED).The topic of Food Safety has been explored through an extensive and focused desk research and consultations with partners (via a survey), to identify the current state of the art in Morocco. The effective needs and requirements for the curriculum of the new Master has been considered to define the proposed training actions.Food safety and its control is of major importance to Morocco. To assure the protection of consumers and facilitate commerce of local products it is necessary to increase the protection level adopting sanitary measures like EU rules. The valorisation of local products to develop trade is vital to keep/increase employment levels. Governmental efforts face a wide range of difficulties, mostly related to the lack of scientific knowledge and technical expertise.To develop institutional and individual capacities, support modernisation and internationalisation of HEIs and reduce the existing constraints, FoSaMed aims to train teachers within the framework of a new Master on Food Safety, to capacitate students to develop and upgrade their knowledge and technical skills on food safety issues, allowing them to acquire new methodological and technical abilities to face the upcoming challenges in the Food Industry sector. The project foresees training of teachers in the 4 Moroccan HEIs, which will have upgraded food safety labs for hands-on training of teachers and students.

After more than fifty years of intensive agriculture application, the environmental situation for many olive groves across the Mediterranean Region is quite dramatic in terms of land degradation, biodiversity impoverishment, functionality loss, which may have already impacted on the quality and safety of olive oil, one of the most important commodities produced in Europe. Through the implementation of a series of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary WPs, this project will perform the first rigorous diagnostic of the environmental situation of olive groves soils at a broad scale, considering the most important areas of olive production at the Mediterranean Region and its relationships to olive oil quality. Soil O-live aims (i) to analyze the impact of pollution and land degradation on soils from olive groves in terms of multi-biodiversity, ecological function at different levels of organization and scales; (ii) to investigate the relationship of soil health status with quality and safety of olive oil; (iii) to implement effective soil amendments and ecological restoration practices that promote manifest soil biodiversity and functionality enhancements in permanent Mediterranean olive orchards across its native range of distribution, that should be translated to improvements in olive oil quality and safety; (iv) to define rigorous ecological thresholds that allow to implement future clear norms and regulations in order to design a novel certification for healthy soils in European olive orchards.

Transforming agriculture in the context of climate change is a central challenge in North-Africa, the most food-import-dependent region worldwide and a climate change hotspot. Tackling these issues, Agro-Ecology (AE) appears as an answer to meet both the challenges of global sustainability and local resilience. In this context, NATAE consortium brings together high-level research institutions, international organisations and NGOs with strong experience on AE approaches and exceptional capacity to induce transformational change by informing policies and education. NATAE project aims to foster the adoption of science-based, locally-tailored and co-designed AE strategies in North Africa by creating a comprehensive and quantitative baseline on AE, providing a shared understanding, multidimensional performance measures, and analyses of AE potential for meeting consumers demand on the market. To achieve this goal, NATAE will set-up and inform a unique multi-actor community of knowledge and capacity building on AE in the Mediterranean, with ground breaking findings on the performances of AE-Practices (AEP) in North Africa. An original multi-dimensional, multi-scale evaluation framework covering dimensions currently overlooked, and a replicable methodological guidebook will be designed. An integrated modelling approach combining a biophysical, a household/regional bio-economic indicator modelling chain will be used to develop a unique Integrated Assessment of Agricultural Systems to assess the resilience of AEP-based farming systems. Participatory approaches via Living Labs will be elaborated to develop, test and capitalize alternative public policies and foster AE transitions. An integrated group of dissemination activities, will further test, advance and communicate a range of existing AE innovations from farm to fork, including innovative farm practices, value-chain innovations, and innovations in food system governance, advancing their respective readiness level.