Latin America, the Caribbean, the European Union's Member States and the European Commission (EU-LAC/ALCUE)

News and highlights

2010/07/20 The work programmes for 2011 of the Specific FP7 Programmes have been formally adopted by the Commission on 19 July and published on 20 July 2010 in line with the request of Research and Innovation Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. This way research teams in Europe and their international partners have more time to prepare strong proposals in time for the submission deadlines - the earliest ones already before end 2010. The entire FP7 is open to international participation. Such cooperation is particularly welcome as many societal problems investigated by research have international, even global, dimensions. International Cooperation Partner Countries (ICPC - developing countries and emerging economies) can receive co-funding, while industrialised countries pay their own way in most cases. How to prepare for cooperation as a potential partner from a third countries? Here are some hints 'at a glance': EN  3.0 MB - FR  222 KB - ES  3.0 MB . All information on the 2011 work programmes, calls and guidelines for proposers and evaluators are available on Cordis. News Alert

2010/06/22 Results from the "ALCUE-Health" research are available for download: Health systems research RESCATE conducted in the post-conflict context of Central America with support of the INCO-DC programme provided evidence of the potential of the Primary Health Care strategy to change the determinants of health. The gap between research, policy and practice was recently closed in El Salvador, where the newly elected Ministry of Health adopted a new health policy approach based on the results of the research. This book - to be downloaded here ( 6MB) - examines lessons learned through the RESCATE project in El Salvador and in other countries in Latin America. It is the product of an international seminar within the framework of ALCUEH.

2010/05/14 The EU-LAC Ministerial Forum on Science and Technology, Madrid, adopted today the proposal for an EU-LAC Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation, put forward by the Senior Officials Meeting in Buenos Aires, 25-26 February 2010. The Initiative is intended to help make progress on the road to the EU-LAC Knowledge Area. It entails priorities for boosting bi-regional S&T cooperation and making high-level dialogue a permanent feature of the relationship. It is expected to strengthen cooperation and monitoring of implementation. The Ministerial Forum also offered the opportunity for the official launch of ALICE2 project, which will enable the consolidation and extension of RedCLARA, the advanced network e-infrastructure strengthening interconnections within Latin America and linking Latin America to the European GEANT network. See the document on the Joint Initiative here in English  105 KB and Spanish  119 KB . Click here to see the photograph taken at the closure of the Ministerial Forum.

2010/05/11 Towards the EU-LAC Knowledge Area. Climate change, demographic transitions, expectations for better health and greener and more inclusive economies are among the drivers for more scientific and technological cooperation and innovation. The Guadalajara Summit in 2004 therefore placed the development of an EU-Latin America-Caribbean Knowledge Area on the political agenda of bi-regional relations. In 2010, this concept gains fresh momentum through the endorsement of a new Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation. A new publication traces the development of cooperation and illustrates the link between policy and action through a sample of concrete research collaborations, mostly from the 6th and 7th Research Framework Programmes. They represent a sizeable innovation potential for sustainable development and social inclusion, the focus of the 2010 EU-LAC Summit in Madrid. Brochure  35.0 MB

2010/03/22-26 From March 22, 2010 to March 26, 2010 a delegation of representatives from public administration, business and research of each of the MERCOSUR countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) visited Brussels. The visit was organised in the framework of the Platform BIOTECSUR to understand the functioning and organisation of European centres of excellence in R & D, business incubators and European technology platforms. The delegation also wanted to learn more about how the European Research Framework Programme supports international cooperation. Two BIOTECSUR projects already participate in the first round of twinning between European and Argentinean agriculture research projects. Read more about the BIOTECSUR Platform supported by an EC technical cooperation agreement (ALA/2005/017-350).

2010/02/25-26 Buenos Aires, Argentina. An EU-LAC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) on science and technology adopted a 'White Paper' proposing a Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation to the forthcoming ministerial and the Summit, both scheduled in Madrid in May 2010. The SOM also proposed its instauration on an annual basis to monitor implementation of the Summit Action Plan and other follow-up. Read more

2010/01/14-15 Santiago de Chile. EULARINET II. Sub-regional Conference "Towards a new emphasis of the S&T cooperation between Latin America and the European Union - the vision of the Andean countries". The Second Sub-regional Conference of the EULARINET project for dialogue between Europe and Andean countries is scheduled 14-15 January 2010. The conference, which will gather EC officials working with the Andean region, experts and government officials from the Andean region and other key actors in international cooperation, aims at preparing a working document that can provide inputs to the meeting of high-level officials from the European Union and the Latin American and Caribbean countries scheduled in Buenos Aires in February 2010 ahead of the EU-LAC summit in Madrid in May 2010. By preparing a working document it is hoped, that the perspectives of the Andean countries will feed into the EU-LAC Summit preparations together with those from other regions and sub-regions. Similar sub-regional conferences will take place in Mesoamerica and MERCOSUR.

2009/11/24-25 Brasilia, Brazil. EULARINET II. Sub-regional Conference "Towards a new emphasis of the S&T cooperation between Latin America and the European Union - the vision of the MERCOSUR countries". The Second Sub-regional Conference of the EULARINET project for dialogue between Europe and MERCOSUR countries is scheduled. The conference, which will gather EC officials working with the Andean region, experts and government officials from the Andean region and other key actors in international cooperation, aims at preparing a working document that can provide inputs to the meeting of high-level officials from the European Union and the Latin American and Caribbean countries scheduled in Buenos Aires in February 2010 ahead of the EU-LAC summit in Madrid in May 2010. By preparing this working documents it is hoped, that the perspectives of the MERCOSUR countries will feed into the EU-LAC Summit preparations together with those from other regions and sub-regions. Similar sub-regional conferences will take place in Mesoamerica and Andean countries.

2009/11/18-19 Brasilia, Brazil. EULARINET II. Sub-regional Conference "Towards a new emphasis of the S&T cooperation between Latin America and the European Union - the vision of the Mesoamerican countries". The Second Sub-regional Conference of the EULARINET project for dialogue between Europe and Mesoamerican countries is scheduled 18 and 19 November 2009 in Mexico City. The conference, which will gather EC officials working with the Andean region, experts and government officials from the Andean region and other key actors in international cooperation, aims at preparing a working document that can provide inputs to the meeting of high-level officials from the European Union and the Latin American and Caribbean countries scheduled in Buenos Aires in February 2010 ahead of the EU-LAC summit in Madrid in May 2010. By preparing this working documents it is hoped, that the perspectives of the Andean countries will feed into the EU-LAC Summit preparations together with those from other regions and sub-regions. Similar sub-regional conferences will take place with Andean and MERCOSUR countries.

2009/11/18-20 Bogotá, Colombia. EULARINET Latin American-European Workshop on Environment. In the framework of the EULARINET project (European Union-Latin American Research and Innovation Network), COLCIENCIAS (Colombia), together with DLR (Germany) and CONICYT (Chile) will be hosting the Latin American-European expert Workshop on Environment in Colombia. This will serve to discuss priority areas for scientific collaboration following up on the political orientations of the Lima Summit in 2008. The participants are expected to produce recommendations for such priority topics to be presented to the European Commission for consideration in future FP7 Work Programmes.

2009/10/07-09 Santiago de Chile. International Workshop on the social and environmental challenges of Latin America and the Caribbean. The European Programme at CONICYT, together with the European Commission, DG Research-L2, Science, Economy and Society, is organising a three-day workshop aiming at discussing the increasing social and environmental challenges that both the European Union and the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) are facing. This workshop should also help stimulate strong proposals in response to the SICA in the recently launched 2010 Work Programme of FP7 in the Social Science and Humanities Theme: "Collective Challenges of Latin America and the Caribbean". The call response should help construct research networks aimed at addressing the economic and social uses of the environment for social inclusion in LAC and supporting the formulation of new policies.

2009/04/03 The LAC-ACCESS project convened its final workshop in Brussels, drawing a positive balance of its achievements, particularly in terms of making Latin American teams better known in the European research community, supporting match making for 31 excellent scientists from Latin America and compiling useful overviews of S&T cooperation mechanisms available in four key themes: Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology; ICT; Energy and Health. In addition, the feasibility of an EU-LAC S&T liaison office in Brussels was thoroughly studied. Click here for more information.

2009/03/17-19 Information events on S&T cooperation opportunities in FP7 were held in Bogotá and Caracas for senior research managers and researchers. Moreover, discussions were held with the respective authorities on strengthening or establishing FP7 contacts in the countries. Peru is in the process of nominating an FP7 contact, thus leaving only Venezuela still to do so in South America. EULARINET has a mandate to strengthen the capacity and networking ability of FP7 contacts in the region and is planning a specific workshop to this effect in the second half of 2009.

2009/03/16 The first S&T dialogue took place with Andean Countries in Cartagena de Indias, organised in the context of EULARINET with COLCIENCIAS (Colombia) and CONICYT (Chile) in the lead. The meeting drew a suitably diversified participation from Andean countries and European partners in the project. Presentations and debates focused on the institutional framework and practical experience made so far as well as potential for developing cooperation further for mutual benefits. The role of human capital and long-term institutional relations came out as central for all parties' needs to address sustainability and innovation challenges as well as developing relations between Europe and the Andean sub-region.

2008/11/24 In the context of EULARINET, the INCONet for Latin America, a sub-regional S&T dialogue meeting took place in Buenos Aires with strong participation from all MERCOSUR countries. The complementary presentations and much of the discussion presented an aggregate picture of what was the political context of bi-regional S&T cooperation, its trends since FP5 and how best to build on achievements so far. Discussions also explored how to continue consolidating the transparent process of identifying joint priorities for future cooperation and look for stronger connections between different forms of bilateral and bi-regional cooperation. There was a shared consciousness that this needs to go beyond getting a couple of SICAs into any of the annual work programmes in FP7. More than 60% of European-level S&T cooperation is with MERCOSUR countries, thus representing the greater part of the potential the EU-LAC Knowledge Area as mandated by the bi-regional summits since Madrid (2002).

2008/05/16-17 The EU-LAC Summit of Heads of State and Government in Lima provided another important opportunity for political dialogue at the highest level in order to address major challenges on social inclusiveness and climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity, water and forests in a frank and open way and to assess recent developments in both regions. It was also an occasion to give more visibility to the extensive cooperation between both partners, and to analyse the action and policies undertaken within the framework of the EU-LAC Strategic Partnership. Summit themes need much follow-up in terms of scientific and technological cooperation to strengthen the basis for decision making and implementation. Click here for more information.

2008/03/31 The INCONet for Latin America – EULARINET – convened its kick-off meeting in Buenos Aires. Its objectives are to support bi-regional dialogue on S&T between EU Member States (MS), Associated Countries (AC) and Latin American Partner Countries (LAPC) at policy, programme and institutional (research and industry entities) level. It sets up 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 and defining specific activities to promote, support and stimulate participation of LA researchers in FP7. Click here to read more

2008/03/04 The first EU-LAC Ministerial Meeting on Environment was convened in Brussels in preparation of the Lima Summit, given its focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation and related challenges for biodiversity, water and forests. Addressing these key issues for our societies requires significant investment into scientific and technological cooperation as well as drawing on local knowledge, developing and implementing stronger enabling policies and capacities to act. A minibrochure highlighted examples of past and on-going S&T cooperation making contributions to the summit process agenda. Minibrochure in English  347 KB

2007/10/24-30 First official visit of Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik to Brazil (24-26 October) and Chile (27-30 October). The visit was an opportunity to demonstrate the EU's commitment to strengthening S&T links with South America and to building solid research partnerships to combat global challenges. In Brazil, this follows on the launch of an EU-Brazil Strategic Partnership and the recent entry into force of an EU-Brazil Science and Technology Agreement. With Chile, the EU has an established, ambitious bilateral relationship with an S&T agreement dating back to 2002. In both countries, the Commissioner will combine meetings with ministers and senior officials with visits to research projects and interaction with the business community. [Further information]

2007/10/09-10 Preparations for the EU-LAC Lima Summit in May 2008 moved one step forward in Lisbon through a Senior Officials Meeting (SOM). EU and LAC delegations formally agreed on thetwo key themes for the agenda: 1. Poverty, inequality, inclusion; 2. Sustainable development: Environment; climate change; energy. Both themes have heavy implications for science, technology, education and innovation. Other steps in the preparatory process were the Ministerial Meeting on Social Cohesion, convened successfully in Santiago de Chile, 23-25 September 2007 and the forthcoming First Ministerial Meeting on the Environment, scheduled for 4 March 2008 in Brussels. For more information on the EU-LAC Summit process.