The Mediterranean Diet will occupy a prominent place in the Algarve's Intelligent Specialization Strategy (RIS3) in the next Community Support Framework and, consequently, in the priority line for obtaining European Union Funds.
This is guaranteed by Aquiles Marreiros, Director of Regional Development Services of the Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) of the Algarve, in an interview he gave to Sul Informação, on the sidelines of the presentation of the Mediterranean Diet Fair, event that starts today and runs until Sunday, in the historic center of Tavira.
“We are currently revisiting our Smart Specialization Strategy, which currently brings together six domains: Tourism, Sea, Health, Agrifood, Renewable Energies, ICT and Cultural and Creative Industries,” said Aquiles Marreiros.
“In the next framework, our proposal is that we do not have a domain-based approach, but rather a societal challenge. And the Mediterranean Diet will be one of them, along with climate change, the circular economy and others, which we are working on right now,” he added.
As the same responsible explained, “RIS3 frames the region's choices to finance knowledge, productive innovation, specialization and internationalization. In other words, in the end, it encompasses the Incentive System for companies and for the university».
"With this choice, what we are saying is that we want the priority of the funds to be allocated under the Incentive System to be, not added to the current smart specialization sectors, but to the societal challenges that we are going to consider", added the director of services of the Algarve CCDR.
This will not prevent continued investment in the six areas that are currently the main focus of the region.
«We are going to assess what was the demand in the current support framework, CRESC Algarve 2020. Tourism has had a clear demand. The Sea, which was one of the main domains, has a lower demand, but it makes perfect sense to keep it, at the level of knowledge, because that's where it emerged», exemplified Aquiles Marreiros.
CCDR is, moreover, one of the entities that, from the very beginning, joined the Mediterranean Diet Fair, of which it is co-organizer. It is also European Union Funds, managed by this entity, that have helped to organize this festival, which is a showcase of the Portuguese Mediterranean Diet, recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Heritage of Humanity and which has its representative community in Tavira.
In this way, the entity will have a strong presence at the event that starts today in Tavira, where it will promote, with the help of the Algarve Biomedical Center, an initiative on RIS3 and the changes that are planned. The action will take place «in an informal environment, around the table» and aims to debate «the opportunities that the Mediterranean Diet brings together, as a transversal societal challenge, a motto for regional development, which is desired to be competitive and sustainable», according to the CCDR of the Algarve.
The event, which will take place at the Tavira Municipal Market, «is exclusively for guests, representatives of the different domains of intelligent specialization in the Algarve».
The same entity will also present a program of activities that will serve to «promote reflection on the strategy for the Algarve and Europe in the next decade».
The Europe Direct Algarve centre, which will share the CCDR stand, will have «information, publications and hobbies about Europe for all ages» .
From the 5th to the 8th of September, always at 18 pm, in front of the Casa André Pilarte, the Europe Direct Center will promote the sessions “Recipes to change the world”, which will feature “a guest, Executive of his office, which every day, at the right time, will bring us suggestions of gestures and attitudes that can actually change the world».
This is just one of the many activities that are part of the extensive Program of the Mediterranean Diet Fair 2019, which can be downloaded here (PDF format).
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