an eu-latin american action to foster the research dimension of science and technology agreements

Fostering EU-Latin America ICT Policy Dialogue, Brussels, 28-29 November 2011

An EU-Latin American action to foster the

research dimension of Science and

Technology Agreements

ICT is boosting in Latin America: it is turning pivotal in many fields and used in several applications at government, industry, and education level. Latin America is investing a lot in ICT, and policy makers are increasingly aware of its strategic role. Several projects have been launched with the support of various inter-governmental agencies with the aim to promote the convergence of national ICT policies. Latin America is a strategic partner of Europe to face its future challenges. International research cooperation is crucial for both regions to pull out development. International cooperative research plans and projects have been defined, yet they still lack a precise identification of R&D themes of mutual interest for Europe and the Latin-American countries. A strategic planning of the research sphere in EU-LA ICT cooperation and policy dialogue is necessary.

These are the objectives of the FORESTA project: participated by a Euro-LA consortium of organisation playing key roles in the ICT research policy dialogue, FORESTA aimed to boost the research dimension of ICT cooperation and policy dialogue between Europe and the Latin-American region. Actions have been carried out in order to receive policy recommendations, the implementation of which can lead to improved cooperation on S&T research between the five countries covered directly by the project. During the two-year project duration, an articulated range of activities have been carried out, including: studies of LA national ICT policies and of cooperation initiatives for joint research at bi-lateral and bi-regional level; consultation and networking sessions with representatives of funding agencies, industry, policy makers, academia and other stakeholders of research and innovation cooperation; the operation of the ICT Policy Dialogue Council bringing together independent experts of the ICT INCO arena; five high-level policy conferences held in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico that contributed to integrate research communities, collect policy recommendations for funding instruments and priority topics for cooperative research with Europe; a ‘concertation workshop’, held in Brazilia, that brought together the representatives of LA funding agencies and research communities in order to identify common priorities and needs; follow-up activities to build on the high momentum generated by these events and foster synergies between the different LA countries.

The results and recommendations emerging from all these activities are summarised in this brochure to be brought to the attention of the European audience in the concluding milestone of FORESTA: The international conference ‘Fostering EU-Latin America ICT Policy Dialogue: Paving the way to a more structured and intense Euro-Latin America ICT research cooperation’. Building on the results produced by the FORESTA project and involving other initiatives of the international ICT cooperation, ‘Fostering EU-Latin America ICT Policy Dialogue’ aims to assess the different INCO activities, schemes and projects in order to extract best practices and policy messages that may pave the way to a reinforced Europe-Latin America cooperation in ICT research and innovation.


Overview of ICT policies in Latin America

Latin America is investing about 0.3% of its GDP in activities related to R&D, ranging from the peak represented by Brazil (1,02%) to the bottom of Honduras (0,04 %). These data make the Latin American region a priority for the implementation of the Europe 2020 goals. During the last 10 years ICT policies have started to be considered as an important tool for the economic development in all Latin American countries. ICT policies are mentioned in the national development plans, either as a part of them or as an important independent horizontal policy, and Telecom liberalization policies have been replaced by Information Technology policies focusing mainly on education, e-Government and enterprise competitiveness.

Research ICT policies in the Latin America are relatively new and in some cases are not clearly identified. Objectives of ICT policies are always strategic and qualitative, and less focused on quantitative goals. It is to be noted that ICT policies are basically national policies: transnational cooperation is in fact more a matter of declarations than of actual partnerships.

According to the results of studies and surveys performed under FORESTA project, the establishment of region-wide research ICT policies, similarly to Europe, looks unlikely and it is more practicable the setting up of LatAm cooperation links at a lower level, i.e. at programmes and instruments level. The need of an improvement in the LatAm research cooperation among countries is therefore clear: EU-LatAm research cooperation may act as a catalyser of these cooperation practices and the European Research Area may act as a valuable example to structure a LatAm political strategy in this field.

Latin American participation in the Framework Programme for Research and Development

A rising trend of Latin-America participation in the FP is to be appreciated. However, most of FP projects have been, or still are, projects promoting the improvement of the research cooperation scenarios, therefore few quantitative results can be measured yet from the perspective of research results.

In LatAm the process from the idea to the research project is clearly longer than in Europe. As a consequence, it is necessary to provide continuity to the actions launched in order to capitalize on the efforts made at the stage of “raising awareness” on the cooperation opportunities.

Most of the participants in the current or past research projects are either academic, governmental organizations or promoters of research activities and the impact and effectiveness of the cooperation EU-LatAm cannot be widely assessed.

Surveying participation into FP7, the only LA country showing a European-wide balanced cooperation is Brazil. For what concerns Argentina, cooperation is intense only with some specific countries, notably the countries with which LAC majorly cooperate within FP7. As for the remaining LA countries, cooperation appears to be limited at bilateral and national level, with Chile, Colombia and Mexico majorly cooperating with Spain.

The impact of bilateral cooperation

During the last ten years there has been a significant activity in the field of ICT research bilateral cooperation that must be taken into account. Notably, a higher rate of joint participation can be noted within Iberoeka. This experience can be considered as a best practice and a model to follow in order to increase the links and synergies between policy agreements and actions carried out in the implementation of joint cooperation projects. A recommendation could also be the increase of initiatives such as ACCESS4EU, and also the setting up of Joint Calls and ERA-NETs. To this end, a


useful activity is the creation of an integrated database of programmes and projects in the field of ICT, in order to obtain more synergies and a greater visibility.

While mapping the EU funding opportunities and the existing cooperation at bilateral level between the target LAC and specific EU Countries, the FORESTA project followed two main principles: the principle of Continuity and the principle of Reciprocity. A lack of Continuity of the actions undertaken at both national and European level can be remarked, along with a scarcity of impact assessment and follow-up measures to initiatives implemented. Only in some specific cases, continuity can be found between bilateral relations and joint participation in EU-funded projects. A recommendation is the setting up of an ERA-NET among the target countries in the field of ICT in order to strengthen and develop a Continuity principle between initiatives at national and European level.

In line with Reciprocity, a “Partnership” approach, as mutual learning, should be preferred to a “Cooperation” approach, as an incentive to participation of LAC in FP7. A recommendation is increasing the participation of ICT proposals in programmes such as Capacities and People, as well as a better coordinated vision of programmes such as FP7 People, Bilat, Erasmus Mundus and @lis, that could prevent actions overlap and reduce fragmentation in the different programmes to support ICT.

The innovation factor

An important aspect that emerges from the analysis of the existing programmes, bilateral agreements and projects is a general lack of innovation factors. FORESTA studies, consultation and conferences have revealed that main interests of most LatAm countries are more in the innovation than in the basic research field. Innovation, in all its applications, is equally perceived as a growing necessity, and LA National Policies and Funding Instruments are starting to pave such direction. It is relevant to increase the opportunity of LAC to develop and participate in projects for Innovation, which is quite weak on the side of bilateral cooperation and not sufficiently implemented through FP7.

In order to increase the innovative impact of cooperation actions, a greater participation of enterprises should be encouraged, also to promote not only basic research but also applied research. Bilateral agreements should therefore broaden their focus by promoting synergies not only at research level but also with enterprises in general and SMEs as target groups.

Notably, the Innovation issue is currently being debated in Europe. It can be stated that the current direction of Europe towards the Innovation Union and Digital Agenda for Europe, weighting the innovation stage as a crucial milestone, will match the interest from the LatAm researchers.

From collaborative research to collaborative funding?

Debates held at the five policies conferences and the follow-up activities made it possible to identify common Priority Topics among LAC involved and in a wider Regional LA dimension, as well as common obstacles, challenges, synergies and future opportunities in EU-LAC Cooperation in the field of ICT. In order to discuss Priority Themes per each Country, during Policy Conferences, dedicated

Working Groups have been set up. The Working Groups have brought together key players from national ICT companies, industry, ICT associations, universities and government agencies with an interest in enhancing cooperation with Europe. The communalities which have emerged from the five Policy Conferences have lead to the identification

of three Joint Priority Themes that are: Future Internet, E-Inclusion and E-Health.


As a step forward to a priority setting exercise, FORESTA has considered the availability of funding schemes for each of these priorities in each LA country. The Brazilian concertation workshop bringing together the LA funding agencies representatives has been the starting platform for this action. A mapping of funding mechanisms at National/Regional level, within the thematic cooperation areas of mutual interest, has been performed. The final objective was the identification of elements of continuity between funding schemes at LAC and EU level and of possible ways for future cooperation scenarios where funding instruments can be majorly integrated and complemented. For each of the identified priority, instruments have been identified in each targeted Latin American country. This is a crucial point as it evidences shared paths in both European and national LA funding schemes, thus leading to an analysis of future trends. The existence of such common priorities in policies and financing instruments proves that the Principle of Reciprocity between EU and LA is more and more a fact. Such Reciprocity is increasing, also due to the crisis of the European market, and the growing role of Latin America as a leading engine of global economy. Such development and economic growth of the LA Region, and of Brazil in particular, represents an opportunity for overcoming the crisis in Europe, and leads to greater Reciprocity and to the intensification of cooperation schemes with the MERCOSUR area.

Reciprocity is first of all convergent in terms of Priority Themes, thus leading to a growing Continuity between LAC and EU policy trends and consequent funding schemes. Secondly, such reciprocity is proving to be increasing in its variety and volumes of financing. Best practices in such directions can be individuated particularly in Brazil and Uruguay.

Another common aspect that has been highlighted is the need of greater coordination synergy and visibility among funding mechanisms. This relates to the necessity of achieving a greater integration of funding instruments at EU level, at LA Regional level, and within each single LAC. In fact, the Fragmentation of initiatives still appears to be a constraint. In such perspective, a recommendation could be the setting up of projects or bilateral/multilateral cooperation initiatives aimed at pursuing a greater integration of funds at all levels, for the respective mutual Priority Themes. Such approach could generate greater continuity and capitalisation of existing initiatives and a larger impact thanks to the convergence of funding schemes on common priorities. The launch of the Europe 2020 strategy and the Innovation Union Flagship is expected to increase the intensity of joint opportunities. In order to maximise such objective, the first step could be seeking for a better integration and visibility of funding schemes within the single LAC at National level, secondly such effort should be done at Regional level, thus leading to a more systemic and accessible architecture of existing opportunities. In such scenario, the financing programmes, initiatives and instruments available at EU level, could more easily act as a multiplier for dynamics and cooperation schemes.

Documents providing full details backing the information presented in this brochure can be retrieved freely from the FORESTA project website.

www.forestaproject.eu

FORESTA is a Support Action funded by DG INFSO of the European Commission under the 7Th Framework Programme.

The FORESTA project is coordinated by TESEO Sprl. Contact: [email protected]

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