Supporting R&I cooperation between the European Research Area and South Africa

The STI cooperation between the EU and South Africa as originally framed by the South Africa-EU Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement and as constantly steered by the JSTCC requires a support mechanism which can translate and facilitate policy decisions, and provide intelligence and information services to various actors and stakeholders.
In previous years the ESASTAP project series (ESASTAP, ESASTAP-2 and ESASTAP+) has successfully provided this support to the bilateral dialogue.

ESASTAP 2020 project was a coordination and support action that aimed at advancing further the EU-SA bilateral STI cooperation, building on the work and results of three preceding actions and responding to the needs and recommendations at the policy dialogue level, in particular to the mandate of the JSTCC and to the adopted Roadmap for cooperation between South Africa and the European Union.

The project aimed to provide efficient services on three levels (priority areas):
a. R&I Cooperation in areas of common interests (Horizon 2020 and others).
b. Policy Dialogue between EU and SA and by increasing the knowledge of the EU’s external environment.
c. Provision of a Cooperation platform and tools to alleviate obstacles.
These priority areas translated into four major objectives through which the project was aiming to address the specific challenges of the call.

With the bilateral STI agreement between South Africa and Austria in 2015, ZSI's participation in ESASTAP2020 was an important contribution to support bilateral exchange.

Within the work packages, ZSI was carrying out the following (mainly dissemination) activities:

• Design and implementation of the Dissemination and Communication Plan
• Organisation of Information days to encourage South Africa’s participation in Horizon 2020 and to inform about the opportunities for European researchers to participate in South African STI programmes
• Contribution to an analysis of the South African innovation system and an action plan to foster an enabling environment for innovation in EU-SA collaboration
• Based on this action plan, ZSI organised a showcasing event, in symbiosis with the above mentioned information sessions, spotlighting successful examples of EU-SA cooperation in STI to learn from.
• Raising awareness of SA-EU collaborations with socio-economic impact to SA and EU decision makers

Team:

• Magª (FH) Isabella E. Wagner, MA (project leader)
• Magª. Elke Dall
• M.A. Gorazd A. Weiss
• Michael Wilkinson, MA

Section: Research Policy & Development

Partners:

• Academy of Sciences of South Africa
• Agency for the Promotion of European Research
• L'Institut de recherche pour le développement
• National Research Foundation South Africa
• Project Management Agency at the DLR (German Aerospace Center)
• Research Council of Norway
• South African Department of Science and Technology
• Technology Innovation Agency South Africa
• PRAXI / HELP-FORWARD Network (Coordinator)

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Tags: Africa, international cooperation, RTDI cooperation