The Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (Mcast) has embarked on a three-year, €960,125 project aimed at building research capacity, sharing knowledge through networking and formulating a research strategy for water use in the agricultural sector.
The project, entitled ‘Fostering Water-Agriculture Research and Innovation in Malta’, aims to tackle crucial issues for Maltese agriculture considering Malta’s worsening water scarcity and the crucial role agriculture can have in improving this situation. These include decreasing water demand, making use of alternative sources of water, renewable desalinisation, on-farm desalinisation and use of saline water and decreasing negative environmental externalities caused by nutrient-rich farm waters.
The project will seek to strengthen collaboration between the partners, to train personnel to conduct high-quality research, create new lines of research, publish peer-reviewed papers, extend the partnership of research institutions and provide solutions to stakeholders. In the process it will enhance the research capacity of Mcast’s Water Research and Training Centre.
The project is fully funded by the Horizon 2020 twinning programme. The other project partners are the Agriculture Directorate, Centre International de Hautes Etudes Mediterraneennes, Europe for Business Ltd, Cranfield University, ID Consulting and Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya.