Feb 2012
About the Project
EULARINET aims at establishing a co-ordination platform bringing together the key EU and LA policy makers and programme managers, as well as representatives of research entities, universities and the private sector, eminent researchers and representatives of the civil society, to set up dialogue fora at different levels, leading to the identification of S&T policies and priorities and defining specific activities to promote, support and stimulate participation of LA researchers in FP7 and to strengthen international S&T cooperation. These activities will be aimed at strengthening the EU – LA Knowledge Area.
As political background, EULARINET considers and develops the on going EU – LA dialogue on S&T, since the Río Summit in June 1999, the ALCUE´s Brasilia Action Plan for S&T Co-operation, the Guadalajara Declaration to set up the EU – LA Knowledge Area and finally the Vienna Summit in 2006 and the conclusions of the preparatory Senior Officials meeting in Salzburg, as a basis to go further in the practical implementation and updating of the existent policy guidelines.
EULARINET also takes into account the achievements of existent co-operation programmes, such as:
I) The multilateral programme CYTED with two MS (Spain and Portugal) and 19 LA countries, involving more than 15.000 researchers in research actions (thematic networks and projects);
II) The recently finnished ERA-NET EULANEST (6FP), co-ordinating the national programmes of International Co-operation in S&T of 4 MS (Spain, Portugal, France, Germany), 1 AS (Norway) addressed to LA, with the aim to launch a joint call specifically dedicated to LA in 2008.
III) Other National Programmes such as Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, IRD, etc.
With this respect, major objectives are:
• Facilitating a bi-regional and, in the case of Mexico and Central America, Andean Countries and MERCOSUR, a complementary bilateral sub-regional dialogue, involving stakeholders from policy making, science community and industries. The dialogue will address each others S&T potentials, policy goals and demands to define common priorities and to develop joint scenarios and implementation strategies for strengthening the S&T co-operation both at sub-regional level and bi-regional one.
• Facilitating the recommendations of the Brazilian Action Plan reiterated by the Salzburg senior officials meeting.
• Implementing strategic analysis based on evaluation, impact assessment and scenarios studies, in order to provide a knowledge base for the bi-regional/bilateral dialogue and to support priority setting and scenario development
• Strengthening the participation of LAPC in the 7th EU Framework Program with emphasis in the "Co-operation" part of the programme.
• Supporting the coherence and co-ordination of S&T co-operation activities with other EU policies (external, environmental, innovation etc.) towards the LAPC with emphasis on the EU – Latin America (LA) dialogue on S&T to set up the EU – LA Knowledge Area and the Education Policy (Life Long Learning Program). Exploitation of the full potential of combining different S&T co-operation instruments.
• Ensuring sustainability of the co-ordination and co-operation activities and building of joint venture of MS, AS and LAPC
• Setting up S&T related activities addressed to the challenges of the globalization of research and reaching the global Millennium Goals
• To increase the efficiency by avoiding redundancies, to ensure the sustainability of successful activities of the past and to learn lessons, EULARINET will consider relevant previous and ongoing activities both inside and outside the EU RTD Framework Programme, as well as links with other EU policies.
The Project is divided into the following "Work Packages (WPs)":
WP1: Analysis, Monitoring and Review
WP2: Strengthening the participation of LA in FP7
WP3: Bi-regional Policy Dialogue
WP4: Bi–regional Science – Industry Relationships
WP5: Raising awarenses and Dissemenation activities
WP6: Project Management