IncoNet EULARINET

Background and objectives

EULARINET stems from the agreed common vision for S&T cooperation between Latin America (LA) and the EU that evolved during the Summits in Rio de Janeiro in June 1999, Madrid in May 2002, and the Guadalajara Summit in May 2004 that ended with the Guadalajara Declaration on the creation of an EU-LA Knowledge Area. The project builds on existing structures and will be reinforced and extended to the appropriate areas in order to cover all countries and strategic concerns of mutual interest and benefit.

EULARINET's goal is to strengthen bi-regional dialogue on S&T between EU Member States (MS), Associated States (AS) and Latin American Partner Countries (LAPC) at policy, programme and institutional (research and industry entities) level, thus contributing to a three fold objective to:

1. Promote the joint identification, establishment, implementation and monitoring of mutual interest priorities of future work programmes across the Specific Programmes  of FP7 and future FPs
2. Jointly define S&T co-operation policies
3. Support and stimulate the participation of LAPC in FP7

Dialogue activities

EULARINET will establish a network between European and LA stakeholders (research entities, universities, industry, policy-makers, programme managers and civil society), as well as multidisciplinary partnerships to identify priorities of mutual interest and benefit for both regions. An EU-LA Board of Advisors will assist the process.

Bilateral sub-regional dialogues will be organised yearly in the three sub-regions of: Mexico and Central America, Andean Countries and the MERCOSUR countries, involving stakeholders from policy making and the science and industry communities. A co-leadership between LAPC and EU partners will ensure balanced responsibility and participation in the activities.

High-level bi-regional platform meetings are planned during the whole duration of the project. The platform is open to all EU and LA countries; the EULARINET consortium will actively address and invite other MS, AS and LA countries that currently are not members of the EULARINET consortium, to participate and contribute thus to increasing the impact of the dialogues. These high-level meetings will highlight and reflect the results from the sub-regional meetings on the common topics for FP7 Thematic areas.

Overall EULARINET will:

• Structure the communication channels, offering ad-hoc fora for bi-regional dialogue on S&T policy between LA-EU, for the exchange of views and information on national and bilateral S&T policies relevant for the bi-regional S&T co-operation, and for a more comprehensive and structured exchange with LAPC regarding the research activities of the European Commission.
• Promote regional integration as an asset both for LA good neighbourhood reltionships and for increasing the attractiveness for S&T co-operation through regional networking.
• Address global issues of common interest, and develop scenarios and concrete recommendations for actions on these matters with emphasis on S&T activities addressing topics related to the EU Framework Programme (e.g. Specific International Cooperation Actions - SICAs).

Links with broader EU S&T policies will contribute to social and economic development and stimulate an environment for trans-national scientific co-operation of both individual scientists and institutions. EULARINET will try to ensure a coherent approach, develop synergies with other Community External Co-operation Programmes and Policies, and maintain a constant information flow to on-going policy dialogues.

Implementation and dissemination activities

A proactive dissemination strategy will be implemented in order to raise awareness for the potential of S&T in LA, inform interested stakeholders from science, industries and policy making, about opportunities for an enhanced S&T co-operation within EU FP7, and to foster active networking. This networking will address the science communities and innovative industries in  MS, AS and LAPC. Here, synergies with existing programmes from the European Commission will be widely explored.

Specific workshops, training sessions, etc. will be carried out, and for managerial reasons, a number of horizontal events aiming at awareness raising and information dissemination will be implemented through a series of national, regional and bi-regional conferences, seminars and workshops on S&T co-operation opportunities. Depending on the respective objective, the events will address various groups of stakeholders from the science, industries and policy making communities.

The following events are foreseen:

• National and regional Information Days in LA on FP7 in close co-operation with the respective stakeholders (governments, science organisations, and NIPs and NCPs)
• Specific information sessions at EU conferences informing on the S&T potential of LA
• Sub-regional conferences in LA (e.g. Mexico and Central America) addressing the future co-operation with the EU

Selected targeted political events, addressed to political stakeholders on national, regional and EU level, will be targeted to raise awareness on the opportunities and challenges of a closer bi-regional co-operation between the EU and LA.

The following outputs are foreseen:

• A dedicated website with public and private areas, that will link to other relevant websites - variety of information sites exist, which are explicitly or to some extend devoted to the co-operation with LAPC, and advanced functionalities to support collaborative dialogues among the partners.
• A new EU-LA internet portal as future single point of access building on existing websites and electronic information provided by previous and ongoing projects on EU-LA S&T cooperation.
• A series of publications to disseminate the major EULARINET activities, findings and events to external stakeholders including industry, society and the research community, such as regional magazines, advertisement about achievements on science, and technology benefits for society.

Monitoring and review activities

Monitoring will be focused on past and ongoing co-operation activities, and will provide a complete view of the modalities and intensity of the bi-regional co-operation through continuous interviews in each of the participating LA countries, by using the well-established contacts.

Main activities will be:

• Developing questionnaires, interview schemes, S&T indicators, benchmarking criteria, working jointly and taking into account results and working methods of ongoing initiatives (CYTED, EULANEST, EU-LAC Access).
• Mapping the activities through an online inventory for the results and statistical data of all tasks as a "work-in-progress" S&T observatory.
• Developing specific criteria for assessing EU-LAC FP6/FP7 cooperation activities.