The EU eyes Australia
Representing one of the wealthiest and most advanced nations in the world, Australia harbours a myriad of opportunities for research partnerships with the EU. The EU-funded project 'Supporting EU access to Australian research programmes' (AUS-Access4eu) strengthened these partnerships by encouraging EU researcher access to Australian-funded research, development and innovation programmes. The project team launched an ambitious website featuring information on projects and project partners, as well as conferences, workshops, databases and reports. In 2010 it met with key Australian programme owners and funding organisations to secure their cooperation. It published a report on Australian research strengths and a paper titled 'Enhancing reciprocity in international cooperation in research: issues and metrics'. Dissemination efforts to raise awareness in Europe of partnerships with Australia included newsletters, brochures, online updates, infotours in different European cities, and activities at several European conferences. Through these efforts, the project successfully promoted relevant Australian programmes in Europe and brought Australian programme owners closer to global collaboration with European partners. AUS-Access4eu was very thorough in collecting data about participating in Australian programmes and advanced new ways to measure comparative research strength and reciprocity in research and innovation. It also opened doors for Australian stakeholders to participate in EU-funded projects now that a database for collaboration has been established. In this light, the project's efforts will help EU partners unlock potential collaboration opportunities in new territory and access a relatively overlooked yet highly developed continent. Australian stakeholders on the other hand will gain a foothold in Europe and EU policymaking, being able to tap into new partnerships and to learn from the EU experience. Collaboration is set to bring many advantages to both parties, boding well for technology, industry and innovation on both sides of the planet.