Enhancing the Bilateral S&T Partnership with Ukraine (BILAT-UKR)

Against the background of the EU-Ukraine S&T Cooperation Agreement, BILAT-UKR focused on providing a smooth and flexible frame to foster EU – Ukraine cooperation in science and technology, aiming in particular at an increased Ukrainian participation in FP7.

Background

Ukraine is a country with a high potential for scientific and technological development and at the same time looking back on a long tradition of scientific cooperation with EU countries like Germany, France and Poland. There was, however, a need to enhance the cooperation under the EU – Ukraine S&T Cooperation Agreement by initiating dedicated activities with a view to contributing to sustainable and equitable economic development of Ukraine, including through fuller participation in research-related activities such as the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), thus also preparing the ground for Ukraine’s association to FP7 and for establishing a broader European Research Area.

Objectives

The major objectives of BILAT-UKR were:

to strengthen the S&T cooperation between the EU and Ukraine, in particular through a stronger participation of Ukraine in FP7 and other Community programmes and initiatives and through a better link between activities on Member State and Community level,
to further improve the framework for enhanced future and sustainable S&T cooperation between the EU and Ukraine and contribute to develop optimum cooperation instruments,
to provide support for the Working Groups set up in Ukraine with the aim to prepare a thorough thematic and high level policy dialogue between the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the European Commission in view of the envisaged association of Ukraine to FP7.

Activities

The individual work packages and tasks of BILAT-UKR covered a wide range of activities, in particular:

facilitating coherent information gathering and dissemination on S&T in Ukraine, on relevant cooperation programmes and examples of good cooperation practice as well as raising awareness of cooperation opportunities, including the creation of an EU-Ukrainian S&T web-portal,
contributing to the optimisation of the framework and instruments appropriate to enhance future EU – Ukraine cooperation across all S&T fields, including an inventory of existing instruments, rules and regulations and a proposal for legal and organisational frames for cooperation as well as brokerage and partnering events in priority thematic areas,
creating a knowledge base for newly emerging horizontal issues of sustainable cooperation (mobility, S&T infrastructure, innovation), primarily addressed to European and Ukrainian policy makers and decision makers in implementing institutions,
contributing to raising the awareness of policy stakeholders of the needs to support and improve instruments of cooperation, both organisationally and financially, also by accompanying and supporting the activities of the relevant Ukrainian Working Groups.

Synergies of the BILAT-UKR activities with the activities of the running IncoNet EECA with its Central Information Office for EU – Eastern Europe S&T cooperation and its regional correspondents were in particular ensured by those partners involved in both projects.
The kick-off meeting for BILAT-UKR took place on 26 September 2008 in Brussels.

Participants

France:
CNRS – National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) - Coordinator

Ukraine:
NIP-UA – The National Information Centre for Ukraine-EU Scientific and Technical Cooperation at the Kyiv State Centre for Scientific, Technical and Economic Information - Co-Coordinator
NASU – National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Germany:
International Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research c/o German Aerospace Center (DLR)
(Internationales Büro des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung beim Deutschen Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt e.V.)
ZENIT – Centre for Innovation and Technology in NRW (Zentrum für Innovation und Technik in NRW)

Austria:
ZSI – Centre for Social Innovation (Zentrum für Soziale Innovation)

Poland:
PAN – Polish Academy of Sciences (Polska Akademia Nauk)

Romania:
ANCS – National Authority for Scientific Research (Autoritatea Nationala pentru Cercetare
Stiintifica)
IPA-SA – Research & Development Engineering and Manufacturing for Automation Equipment and Systems
CCIAT – Timisoara Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture