The second edition of the LMI Days took place in Marseille (France) on June 25-26, 2024, around the theme « Water as a Common Good: Towards an Integrated Vision and Sustainable Solutions ». The event brought together various stakeholders involved in research partnerships focused on this theme in South and Southeast Asia through plenary sessions, workshops, and discussion periods. India was well represented at this event. In addition to three members of IFCWS, there were also colleagues from IITB and ICRISAT.
The main objective of this meeting was to provide participants with the opportunity to exchange perspectives, highlight scientific frontiers, and foster synergies among teams involved in Joint International Laboratories, International Research Networks, and observation systems. The discussions were enriched by testimonials from young researchers conducting studies on water-related topics.
These two days were punctuated by participatory workshops, aimed at identifying associated societal and environmental issues and the actions needed to address them.
IFCWS led a workshop on the Impacts of Global Changes on the Water Cycle. Numerous synergies were discussed, allowing for the identification of cross-cutting themes such as space hydrology and associated transfers, sustainable food systems and agroecology, governance and the science-policy interface, securing water availability and resilience to environmental and societal pressures and sharing knowledge on an interdisciplinary basis. The insights gained from this event will contribute to reinforcing the actions and to enriching the connections between research partnership initiatives in South and Southeast Asia.