EU-Russia link on environment
Russia, the biggest country in the world, features numerous different environments and landscapes with the largest forest reserves on the planet, as well as the world’s biggest reserves of energy and resources. This poses enormous challenges to Russian S&T researchers but has also helped build their expertise and increase their resourcefulness, particularly in their bid to tackle environmental issues. In this spirit, the EU-funded project E-URAL (European Union and Russia link for S&T co-operation in the area of the environment) strengthened links between Russian researchers and EU-funded projects in the environment sector. Initially, Russian researchers were not aware of all the funding opportunities for cooperation under the EU’s generous Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). European researchers, on the other hand, were not aware of Russian expertise and in-depth knowledge in many different key areas that affect our world today, including environmental research. The E-URAL project increased the participation of Russian researchers in the FP7’s Environment Theme and opened up important avenues for knowledge exchange. To enhance collaboration between the EU and Russia, two major world powers, the project team mapped Russian research excellence and research needs in the environment sector. It created a database of 370 Russian stakeholders and relevant institutions across the Federation in addition to enlightening Russian researchers on FP7 opportunities. Topics of common interest included climate change impacts, coastal zone management, biodiversity, forests and environmental technologies, all of which were explored in workshops held across Russia. Once the dissemination of information was achieved, the project encouraged matchmaking activities to build project consortia that could apply for EU funding under FP7 calls for project proposals. This was also bolstered by the existence of other key EU-led initiatives such as IncoNet EECA, BILAT-RUS and ERA.Net RUS. The project’s outputs were revealed in a successful conference held in Belgium, highlighting the long-term impact expected from enhanced EU-Russian collaboration. These new partnerships have involved research institutes, universities, public authorities and government bodies in unprecedented ways. They have been cemented by a new, comprehensive database of stakeholders, important capacity-building initiatives, staff exchanges, workshops and brokerage events that will bring the EU and Russia much closer. Policymakers on both sides of the partnership can benefit from the results of joint projects and can help lead to a more environmentally aware and sustainable civilisation.
Keywords
Russia, environment, science and technology, forest reserves, E-URAL