Register for the newsletter on EU-Latin America cooperation
8. Okt 2015
You can subscribe to the newsletter here: http://alcuenet.eu/newsletter-subscribe.php
The issue from October 7, 2015 can be found below. It highlights some events that took place in the frame of the project including a pre-announcement of the 2nd ERANet-LAC call for research proposals which is currently under discussion and planned to be launched in December 2015.
ALCUE NET Newsletter
SPACE week in Rome
01/10/2015
SPACE Week 2015 will be held in Rome this October
The SPACE week 2015 is an international event dedicated to the SPACE sector that will be aimed to universities, research centres, industries, SMEs and SME associations and local administrations with the view of providing new opportunities and competitive advantages for the participants and offering strategic networking opportunities.
The SPACE week 2015 is hosted by the Italian Space Agency and will take place in Rome, from 21 to 23 October, 2015.
Focus
Between 2014 and 2020, over EUR 12 billion will be spent on the implementation of the EU’s space programmes:
1. Satellite Navigation: The Galileo and EGNOS programmes which provide positioning, navigati on, and timing information world wide.
2. Earth Observation: The Copernicus programme which provides Earth observation data and information.
3. Space Research: Part of the Horizon 2020 programme focuses specifically on space technologies, applications (e.g. GNSS and Earth observation), weather, sciences, exploration, and other space related topics.
Activities covered during the SPACE week
•Latest trends in space technologies;
•Short, sharp 20 minute meetings to foster effective networking;
•Get to know key R&D players offering their capabilities;
•Find solutions to your technical/development problems – Matchmaking with organisations offering or seeking solutions;
•Stimulate the technology transfer from/to the SPACE sector.
Why participate
•Initiate cross-border contacts and cooperation;
•Find new commercial/technological/ research partners;
•Present your know-how and innovative technologies.
Institutions from Argentina, Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States of America have confirmed participation.
For more information: https://www.b2match.eu/spaceweek-italy
Horizon 2020 Draft Work Programmes 2016-2017 are available on the Internet
22/09 /2015
The first drafts of the Work Programmes for the 2016-2017 period of Horizon 2020 are now available on the Internet.
Like in the previous years, even though they are labelled as “confidential”, Work Programmes are now available for many institutions and also online (CLICK HERE to access the website and check the documents).
These Pre-Publication documents do not hold any legal value, once not yet officially approved by the European Commission. Still, they can provide aspiring participants with a view on what ought to come, including proposed deadlines.
The official version of the Work Programmes is scheduled to be published in mid-October 2015.
Excellent Science
* Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions [1,031 KB]
* European research infrastructures, including eInfrastructures [1,399 KB]
Industrial Leadership
* Information and Communication Technologies [1,257 KB]
* Nanotechnologies, advanced materials and advanced manufacturing and processing [3,168 KB]
Societal Challenges
* Personalised Medicine [Health] [201 KB]
* Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy [465 KB]
* Secure, clean and efficient energy [1,432 KB]
* Smart, green and integrated transport [502 KB]
* Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials [596 KB]
* Europe in a changing world – inclusive, innovative and reflective societies [1,196 KB]
* Secure societies – Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens [10,416 KB]
Source: EURIDA Research Management
ERANet-LAC funding agencies workshop for the 2nd Joint Call of research proposals
18/09/2015
The ERANet-LAC Funding Agencies' Meeting happened on the 29 th and 30th of September 2015, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation (MINCyT) and the ERANet-LAC consortium organised the preparatory meeting of senior representatives of research funding agencies in the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean for the 2nd joint call of research proposals.
ERANet-LAC is a Network of the European Union and the Community of Latin-American and Caribbean States (CELAC) on Joint Innovation and Research Activities. It is co-funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme and aims to strengthen the bi-regional partnership in Science, Technology and Innovation by planning and implementing concrete joint activities.
Based on these activities, two joint transnational calls were scheduled. The first call was launched in September 2014; the 2nd joint call is planned to be launched in December 2015. The main target of this meeting was to define the budget which funding agencies are willing to provide for the second joint call and to finalize the selection of topics.
Specifically EU-CELAC funding and innovation agencies were invited to participate. Furthermore, European, Latin-American and Caribbean programme owners which are Ministries or regional authorities defining research programmes and programme managers, as for example research councils, funding agencies managing research programmes participated within this meeting.
For more information please contact Marianne Vaske Marianne.Vaske@dlr.de
Agenda: http://alcuenet.eu/meeting-events.php?event=TkRRMA
"No company innovates to look good or because it's cool; a company innovates because it is a market imperative, Paulo Mól from IEL
02/10/2015
In an interview for the International Relations Division of the Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT), Paulo Mól comments about innovation in Brazil.
Paulo Mól is National Superi ntendent of the Euvaldo Lódi Institute (IEL). The research about innovation was conducted by the National Confederation of Industry (CNI).
Held with the goal of mapping the perception of Brazilian companies and foreign executives about the current scenario in innovation inside and outside major companies in the country, the survey reveals that 54% out of all respondents considered that the level of innovation in Brazil is “low”, while other 8% assessed it as “very low”. Other 35% affirmed “it is neither high nor low”, while only 3% believed Brazil has a “high” potential for innovation.
In the interview, Paulo Mól, an economist who also holds a master’s degree in economics, talked about international cooperation and science, technology and innovation (CT&I) for Brazilian businesses on an international level.
Check out the interview (written and extended version below) or click here to watch it on Youtube (in Portuguese).
What has this research carried out by the CNI revealed about innovation in Brazil?
It is a novel research, which was performed for the first time with 100 entrepreneurs, 60 of them from micro and small enterprises and 40 from large companies. For this research, the companies chosen were ranked among the highest in Brazil for innovation. These are companies that show systematic and regular innovation. The survey reached some important conclusions: the first of them is that 62% of companies indicated that the innovation level in Brazil is low or very low. This is relevant because entrepreneurs stated that one of the main reasons for these low levels is exactly the fact that there is not a culture of innovation in Brazil.
This is an important point because entrepreneurs are complaining about their own sector and bring ing to themselves the responsibility to be the protagonists of an innovation agenda, as it is in all of most developed countries in the world. This is new because, normally, one has several agents working in innovation, and transferring responsibilities to one another. In this research, entrepreneurs showed that they also have a part to work on; whilst there is a need for a well-formed institutional environment and for universities that are more aligned with business demands. The main conclusion is that the innovation agenda is an agenda for everyone.
How can innovation be enhanced in Brazil and how can the Government, universities, enterprises and the third sector act in order to promote it?
The first step is to have coordinated activities, unquestionably. The issue of innovation in Brazil is a very complex agenda that depends on multiple agents. There shouldn’t be only improvement on institutional conditions offered by the Government; t his is just part of the process. It is also necessary to have a better performance of entrepreneurs and universities. This is an agenda for the country. To improve our situation concerning innovation, a national initiative is needed to support the innovation agenda.
Regarding the process of internationalization, how can Brazilian companies work in partnership with those outside the country?
The innovation agenda is interconnected and associated with an agenda of internationalization. Many times, people do not directly associate work, innovation and foreign trade. Research shows that the most innovative companies are exporters or those ones that have been internationalized. If we wish to have a better performance in innovation, we must encourage our businesses to operate in the international market. And why is this so? When a Brazilian company starts to operate in the international market, it will be immediately exposed to new consumers – much more demanding consumers, new management models, new suppliers, new materials, new everything.
Therefore, it has to adapt to work in a much more demanding market. When, a company innovates, it benefits from high productivity gains, which are brought back to the company’s headquarters in Brazil. This process of internationalization and development of partnerships with international firms, universities and laboratories abroad is extremely important. The innovation agenda is an agenda that needs an open and dynamic economy that is mainly linked to more developed countries.
Could you talk about the expansion of business partnerships? What is the importance of these partnerships? And how turn partnerships that are historically based on individual connections into institutionalized contacts?
Innovation today requires an important level of resource migration. Nowadays, when we talk about innovation, we’re talking about open innovation. It is highly unlikely that a company will innovate only using projects that are intramural, inside the company itself; it needs resources that are located outside of these companies. CNI has recently worked with 22 companies showing how these Brazilian companies innovate. And what we realized was this: there are many ways for companies to innovate; there is not a rule of how to innovate. Innovation can happen in several ways, but there is an absolute common point to all: no one innovates alone.
When a company decides to innovate, it will automatically reach out for several other agents. It needs to interact with universities, products suppliers and buyers, because many times these actors bring ideas to improve products. The paths are multiple, but one thing is for sure: no one will innovate alone. The innovation agenda largely requires partnerships, which will happen in several ways. These partnerships can happen from technological transfer processes to the e xchange of labour.
It is essential to have researchers from Brazil that are able to go to foreign laboratories to become familiar with international technologies. And also the opposite, researchers from other countries should be able to come to Brazil to work here and together develop new technologies, making knowledge flow. One of our questions is exactly that: how do these companies innovate? A significant part of these firms showed that innovations happen within these exchanges with universities and research centres. Therefore, those exchanges need to increase more and more. Then, we see a topic for improvement, especially for universities.
That is because 89% of companies stated the following: our human resources – when they come out of universities – are not fully prepared to work in the market. And why aren’t they? Because generally, we need more than technical skills, which are what universities today are prone to teach. Today, quite po ssibly when an engineer graduates and enters the workforce, the first tool he will work with will be a management tool, a “Project” software. And when did he learn that? This is an important process that needs to be in our agenda, and then what we are talking about is an exchange of information, to know how the world outside is training our engineers so that we can have a better performance here.
What is necessary to increase international cooperation in CT&I in Brazil?
We need to modernize international cooperation. International cooperation has to be different from the 20th century model, when it was almost exclusively based on technology transfer between companies and universities. Today, companies are seeking more partnerships with private laboratories or companies out there. I’m not saying that the agreements with universities are not important, but there are other agents who have entered this open innovation model an d are equally important. Today, for example, when I talk to companies, they want their researchers, their staff, to visit other laboratories. When we asked entrepreneurs which countries’ innovation agenda they admire the most, surely are the United States, Germany and Korea. Thus, enabling our students and researchers to be in contact not only with universities, but also with the laboratories in those countries is a very important breakthrough.
What is the role of information and communication for innovation? Why are they important to increase innovation?
No company innovates to look good or because it’s cool; a company breaks new grounds because it is business imperative. It breaks new grounds because it needs to increase productivity, it needs to boost productivity and gain a competitive edge. This is the logical process. Innovation is a business attribute anywhere in the world, and the 21st century is known as the century of know ledge. If you do not have access to information and knowledge, you are out of the game. This is the game. The more access you have to data and information, and the better you manage to classify this information, the more you will be able to use it to your own advantage, the better. A company has to be connected with its consumers’ needs to see if its product meets the market demand.
And why does it change? Because of the world’s natural tendency is to be always dynamic. So, for example, environmental issues are starting to become more relevant. Thus, it is important to know which are the main technological routes and what the world is thinking, in addition to good observatories/centres, with updated information, that give entrepreneurs access to this information, one needs to develop more and more what we call competitive intelligence, and to know what is happening out there and how Brazil stands within. This is a very important mission for the Government.
Brazil is a country that has a wide range of multinational companies in its territory, but usually these companies are working in operational areas and not much in research and development. It is important to make these companies bring their research and development centres and, in order to do that, it is essential to have an agenda of competitive intelligence. The Government has to have a very clear idea of which companies they are working with, where they want to open their R&D centres and how to attract these R&D centre to Brazil. There is a whole attraction strategy, in the same way Brazil has applied to hold the World Cup and the Olympics, the country should have an active agenda of attraction of R&D centres, because it would bring knowledge, better jobs and income to the country. This is only possible to achieve if a strategy for competitive intelligence is created, if we have the knowledge of how opportunities can be captured and how to work their way to B razil.
Click here to read the complete survey.
International Seminar on EU-CELAC Common Research Area: Towards a long-term vision
01/10/2015
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation (MINCyT) of Argentina organized the 'International Seminar on EU-CELAC Common Research Area: towards a long-term vision' on September 28th 2015, at Hotel Conquistador, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The main objective of this Seminar was to give more visibility to the bi-regional cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation, mainly through on going platforms, thematic projects and other initiatives. In addition, it represented an unique opportunity to discuss future joint actions to enhance CELAC countries participation in H2020.
Agenda: http://alcuenet.eu/meeting-events.php?event=TkRVMg
Interview with Glenda Mezarobba, CNPq Institutional Cooperation Director
02/10/2015
In this interview, Mezarobba talks about international cooperation and the strengthening of Science, Technology and Innovation (CT&I) in Brazil and in the world
“Sometimes, Science can bring countries or regions closer together in a way that other diplomatic relations sometimes won’t be ab le to”, affirms Glenda Mezarobba, the Director of Institutional Cooperation at the National Council of Science and Technology Development (CNPq), in an interview for the International Relations Division at the Brazilian Institute of Information, Science and Technology (Ibict).
Holding a Master’s degree and a PhD in Political Science from the University of São Paulo, and also a post-doctorate from University of Campinas, Mezarobba works especially for Human Rights affairs. Besides the experience with Human Rights, Mezarobba is known for her work as Director of Human and Social Sciences at the Supporting Research Foundation of São Paulo State (FAPESP) between 2010 and 2012, and also for her past two years in the National Truth Commission for the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil.
In this interview, Mezarobba talks about international cooperation and the strengthening of Science, Technology and Innovation (CT&I) in Brazil and in t he world. She also talks about the Science Without Borders Programme.
Check out the interview (written and extended version below) or click here to watch it on Youtube (in Portuguese).
In your opinion, what is the relevance of international cooperation in CT&I for Brazil?
Nowadays it is impossible to think about science without an international component and partnership. For some time, science has been structured in the form of a network. In Brazil, this means building it in different regions of the country, and with overseas partnerships. I think at least since the Renascence science was already believed to be something international, but recently it has become impossible to think about science without the existence of an exchange capable of crossing borders. The dialogue on knowledge does not have geographical limits, in contrast to how we got used to think about the world. Scientific cooperation with other countries is inherent to science: it is part of science’s natural course and part of reflection and research. Furthermore, when we think about innovation, it is impossible to conceive it without thinking about what this network of cultural exchange can provide.
Are the current international cooperation activities in the area of CT&I sufficient? If not, how can that be improved?
Brazil is very uneven in all areas, also in C,T&I this can be noticed. There are certainly some knowledge areas where the desirable international dialogue is not yet developed. On the other hand, there are other knowledge areas where this is already very well structured. With some countries, we have strongly consolidated relations for cooperation, but cooperation is still to be built with other ones. This is a very interesting feature. We can observe that, as an area of knowledge becomes more con solidated, it is almost inevitable for it to be more engaged in partnerships and international cooperation. It is hard to identify an area in which Brazil is in the cutting-edge in which, at some moment, it didn’t have a strong international cooperation. In the past, Brazil used to send their researchers to other countries to acquire knowledge. Today, when we think of science, we relate it to exchange, to cooperation. We don’t want unilateral actions, we want other researchers from other countries to come to Brazil too, and we want them to think of collaborative research projects, and to discoveries and brainwork to be made in groups, because this is the way it works the best.
In Brazil, how can we identify those areas and its priorities for international cooperation in CT&I?
If we think of a subject, I believe the area will manifest by itself. There are matters that transcend national borders, not only in the field of science, but also geopolitics and international relations, subjects like energy and water.
For example, recently, we have seen Pope Francis talking about these subjects, and emphasizing the need for knowledge area to be worked on and thought for the benefit of all humanity. On the other hand, there are matters that are very specific and regional, or even local, such as ore mines which some countries have and others don’t. We are working on this in Brazil, and it is already well structured, but it can be improved. We need to be more connected to the networks and to researches. We also need a better understanding about what is being studied, so we can work together.
At CNPq we have the help of tools, like the Lattes Platform, which gathers curriculums of researchers from all over Brazil. This is very unique because most countries don’t have it. This platform allows us to find out easily who is doing research on a given subject in Brazil. These are challenge s that we face not only in fields of knowledge, but also in our social life. We are living in an era where society produces a lot of information, but sometimes it overlaps in some areas more than others. Furthermore, there is a great need to organize information, to make it more accessible, to avoid wasting efforts, for example, in a case where someone is working to discover something that another person have already discovered.
How important is the Science Without Borders Programme? How could its actions collaborate for a better cooperation in the areas of CT&I between Brazil and other countries?
Science Without Borders started about four years ago, during the current administration. It is a project that started under a lot of negative criticism. I am particularly enthusiastic about it because this project has allowed more than one hundred thousand students and researchers to study abroad. Although, regarding the project’s firs t phase – which had more then ten thousand students – we are still in a stage of analyses, what we have noticed so far is that the project has a great impact on students’ life. Most of them, maybe the majority, had never traveled abroad before. They usually get accesses to highly qualified structure of and teaching and research. This concretely opens a new universe for them.
We can also mention the language aspect, especially when students go to countries where the language is very distinct from ours, and we understand that a language is not solely a phonetic code, but rather a way of seeing the world we live in. So, when one learns a new language, this person also is magnifying his or her way of seeing the world.
We have some interesting data. After the launch of Science Without Borders, the demand for language courses increased 20% in Brazil. Naturally, when these students return to Brazil, they bring back a network of connections that they have created while abroad, connections with others students or researchers in their areas of knowledge from all over the world. This often generates a long-term connection. Not to mention connections built with professors, tutors and supervisors from the places where they had been based, these connections can facilitate academic and scientific networking too. We have received school reports that say Brazilian students are very interested and committed.
Overall, we have noticed that they take great advantage of this opportunity. Also, we understand that experiences lived as a young adult have a great impact for the rest of our lives. We are living a period of exacerbated critics on anything and everything, where nothing works and nothing is good enough, but when we put it under perspective, they can find many interesting things and also realize that some things that work better here than in another country. It is clear, there are countries better developed in some specific areas, including science. However, we also make good science.
Another interesting point – one that science has been accomplishing more and more – is what some authors refer as a diplomatic role. Science enables dialogue among countries in fields in which, sometimes, traditional diplomacy fails to perform because they are too intricate. It is a form of soft power that, in reality, is not that soft.
What is the pot ential of knowledge and information to solve the global issues with the aid of cooperation in CT&I to solve these issues?
It is a very interesting point because the world is connected in all senses, either for the good or for the bad. It is impossible to escape that. This connection is increasing more and more, particularly with social networks and large scale access to the Internet. This expands any frontier that we can possible think of and it changes the way we understand, for example, education, from small kids to a highly qualified researcher. I can work in a lab here in some specific areas of knowledge and at the same time have a researcher in Greenland working on the same topic, we can work together in real time.
Information also – it is a lot harder to retain information’s flow. It is much easier today, for example, to follow what someone is doing even if you haven’t met this person. This changes the world on an indelibl e way. That means the clock cannot be turned back. Governance and public politics are also changing. Generally, science always works with acquired knowledge in order to leap to another level. This connection and this possibility to access information and make it spin is unique. We are living in a very particular moment for structured knowledge, and there is no doubt that, in the future, when someone from the science field looks back and studies this period , some turning points in favor of good science will be very clear.
Verwandte Artikel: