In Contact with the International Research Community
The 4th INCO Conference, “Strengthening international cooperation in Research & Innovation Experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean, and Mediterranean Partner Countries”, and the annual NCP meeting took place on 17—19 June 2013 in Marseille, France. The event focused on the future of international cooperation in Research and Innovation in Horizon 2020. It was held as a part of “INCONTACT—One World” project which is the official network of the FP7 INCO NCPs. The Russian INCO NCP, organised within the HSE ISSEK, was represented by Liliana Proskuryakova.
The participants of the conference are INCO NCP representatives that provide support to their national FP7 applicants and participants. The event also hosted representatives of national governmental agencies from the European and other countries, various Directorates of the European Commission, coordinators of FP7 projects and their participants — researchers from the developing countries and the emerging economies.
The 157 participants from 68 countries discussed the directions for international science and innovation cooperation between the EU and Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) countries, as well as with the Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPC). Many presentations were devoted to assessing the outcomes of the FP7, which runs until the end of 2013, as well as the new EU framework programme for the support of research and innovation “Horizon 2020”, which will be launched in 2014.
The conference was accompanied by a number of side events, such as the INCONTACT Inter-regional Dialogue Platform meeting, which was co-organized by HSE on 17 June. The Platform was designed to provide opportunities for an informal exchange of opinions on specific areas and instruments of science and innovation cooperation between the EU and specific world regions.
INCONTACT is the official project of the INCO NCPs and is implemented as a 'Specific Support Action' (SSA), funded under the Specific International Scientific Cooperation Activities (INCO) in the 7th Framework Programme for RTD (FP7). Its first phase was carried out in 2008—2009. The New Phase of INCONTACT — the “INCONTACT — One World” — has been implemented since 2010 and will be come to an end in 2013. HSE is one of the Russian consortium member of the “INCONTACT — One World” project. In 2007 INCO NCP was established within the University.
At this meeting ways for making partnership in this sphere more efficient between the EU, LAC and MPC were discussed. In particular the following issues were raised:
- What should be the priority thematic focus areas of cooperation, e.g. global challenges, and how to identify them?
- What are the instruments best suited to support LAC/MPC-EU STI cooperation?
- What are the most important capacity-building objectives to be achieved?
- Is there scope for synergy between development cooperation and competitive, excellence-based research cooperation programmes?
- What is the best way to address innovation, i.e. going beyond research, in cooperation programmes?
- What are the opportunities and challenges provided by brain circulation?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current LAC/MPC-EU science, technology and innovation (STI) cooperation institutional framework?
- Which framework conditions should be addressed to improve cooperation?
The conference web-site features presentations of the participants, which contain information about the preliminary results of third countries participation in FP7, the new EU priorities for international cooperation in STI, and the EU interaction with the LAC and MPC countries.
Prepared by Liliana Proskuryakova