- Details
-
Published Date
-
Hits: 1514
Funded under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Community
Background and objectives
The countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) are of utmost importance for the political, treatment economic and social development of the European Union. As a neighbourhood region and as a huge resource in various respects, pills the political and social stability of the EECA countries and their economic growth contribute to prosperity and welfare in Europe as a whole.
The EECA countries have significant potential both in terms of the strong academic community and of worldwide leading S&T institutes in a variety of scientific disciplines. In order to make optimum use of each others academic strengths, to share respective resources and to prepare the ground for a joint transfer of academic results to national, regional and worldwide markets, there is a strong bi-regional interest in enhancing S&T cooperation.
Although the S&T cooperation between the EU Member States, Associated Countries and the EECA partner countries is quite advanced, there is still much room for its further development, addressing each others priorities as well as global challenges and building on national, bilateral and Community instruments. The IncoNet EECA project will facilitate a coordination of S&T policies building on common interest and aiming at mutual benefit in order to strengthen the cooperation between the EU and EECA.
More specifically, the main objectives of IncoNet EECA are:
- To support and facilitate a bi-regional EU–EECA S&T policy dialogue and, in the case of Russia and the Ukraine, a complementary bilateral S&T policy dialogue involving stakeholders from policy making, science community and industry (WP1). The dialogue will address national S&T potential, policy goals and demands in order to define common priorities and to develop respective joint scenarios and implementation strategies in order to strengthen S&T cooperation. During this project, three S&T Policy Dialogue Platforms will be established and supported through the creation of a knowledge base and a variety of other concrete activities.
- To address other EU policies and their Instruments from which S&T cooperation with EECA could benefit (WP2). Emphasis will be given to the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the Four Common Spaces with Russia, the Development Cooperation and Economic Cooperation (DCEC), the Education Policy (Life Long Learning Programme - LLL) and the Innovation policy (Competitiveness and Innovation Programme – CIP). The possibilities to exploit their potential and to combine instruments (FP7, ENPI, DCECI, LLL, CIP) to address various needs of S&T policy in EECA will be assessed. The results will be reflected in four analytical papers leading to recommendations on how to make the optimum use of the different instruments.
- To strengthen the participation of EECA countries in FP7 with emphasis on the “Cooperation” Programme but addressing other Specific Programmes, such as “People”, “Ideas”, “Capacities – SMEs”, as well (WP3). In parallel, concrete recommendation for future Specific International Cooperation Activities (SICAs) will be presented to the European Commission and to the responsible Programme Committees.
- To raise the capacities of the EECA through particular activities that will address the institution building and human potential development of the existing National Information Points / National Contact Points (WP4).
- To implement strategic analyses that will provide a knowledge base and scientific evidence for the bi-regional/bilateral dialogue (WP5). A number of analytical papers will address the development of S&T indicators, will identify leading S&T institutes in the EECA, and will investigate present and future cooperation patterns between the EU and the EECA as well as national approaches to global challenges.
- To monitor and review the activities performed in the context of IncoNet EECA in order to assess the quality of the overall process (SWOT analysis) and to ensure the sustainability of these activities beyond the four-year duration of this project (WP6).
- To build a public “EU-EECA S&T Web Portal” and to set-up a Central Information Office to widely disseminate information and to raise awareness of the potential of and the framework for enhanced EU-EECA S&T cooperation (WP7). Key Conferences as well as “EECA sessions” in the context of major European events will be organised as part of the dissemination activities of the project.
Duration and starting date
48 months starting 1 January 2008
Project Partners: http://international.asm.md/files/IncoNet_EECA/IncoNetEECA_ProjectPartners.pdf
