I am a professor in water resources engineering and presently Deputy director of the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies. I am co-coordinator of the national Strategic research area Middle East in the contemporary world. I have recently coordinated the Water JPI EU-Formas project RainSolutions (Research-based assessment of integrated approaches to nature-based solutions) and participated in the EU-horizon 2020 project FASTER (Farmers´ adaptation to sustainability in Tunisia through excellence in research). The next coming years I will be coordinating the EU H2023 project FarmWise, Future agricultural resource management and water innovations for a sustainable Europe. I will also be acting as coordinator for the SmartWater4Future, Coupled urban-rural water infrastructure management under hydroclimatic extremes with decision-support systems. My main research interests are processes of water as a driver for collaboration and sustainable development.