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Network of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean Countries on Joint Innovation and Research Activities

Final Report Summary - ERANET-LAC (Network of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean Countries on Joint Innovation and Research Activities)

Executive Summary:
Executive Summary
The “Network of the European Union (EU), Latin America and the Caribbean Countries (LAC) on Joint Innovation and Research Activities” ERANet-LAC (Grant agreement no: 609484 ), started in 10/2013 with the aim to support the political process of implementing the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation (JIRI), which was endorsed by the “Madrid Action Plan 2010-2012 in 2010. The JIRI aims, among others, to “establish regular bi-regional dialogue on science, research, technology and innovation to consolidate EU-LAC cooperation and to update common priorities, encourage mutual policy learning and ensure the proper implementation and effectiveness of cooperation instruments ”.

The initially foreseen project duration of 3.5 years, was extended for another nine months. Thus instead of 31st March 2017 the project ended on 31st December 2017.

The overarching outcome of ERANet-LAC is its contribution to fostering the bi-regional cooperation in research and innovation by organizing and implementing concrete joint activities and by creating a sustainable framework for future bi-regional joint activities with both European and Latin- American / Caribbean research and innovation funding agencies and programme owners.

In this period, ERANet-LAC has successfully organized three bi-regional joint calls and six Pilot Coordination Actions which support mutual opening of existing research infrastructures and innovation programmes. The joint calls were realized in close interaction with 36 EU and CELAC funding agencies and in cooperation with other bi-regional initiatives that aimed at initiating and fostering “bi-regional joint activities”, such as ALCUE NET and thematically focused initiatives such as EU-LAC HEALTH, ENSOCIO LAC and NMP-DELA.

In order to address the priority thematic areas discussed under the JIRI, the topic recommendations for the joint calls were prepared by the five thematic SOM (Senior Officials Meeting) working groups for Energy, Bioeconomy, Biodiversity/Climate Change, Health and ICT. Thus, ERANet-LAC has contributed to strengthen the existing thematic networks and partnerships on agreed issues of mutual interest. Furthermore, it offered concrete tools to implement the thematic recommendations resulting from the policy dialogue.

To guarantee sustainability of the activities realized in the frame of the project, the 18 consortium members and 11 non-partner funding organizations established the EU-CELAC Interest Group for bi-regional cooperation in science, technology and innovation (STI). The EU-CELAC IG builds on the collaboration experience and mutual trust established in the past FP7 projects, especially in the framework of ERANet-LAC and ALCUE NET and is committed to organize future joint actions. The EU-CELAC IG is technically supported by the EU-CELAC funding agencies platform which was developed in the frame of ERANet-LAC and offers information on EU-CELAC funding agencies as well as a partnering tool and an online “multi-call-tool”. It has implemented its first pilot joint call in December 2017 with the participation of 23 funding organizations from 21 countries.

The EU-CELAC IG, among others, is committed to support the implementation of the Common Research Area and to create further added value to its three pillars: mobility of researchers, international outreach of research infrastructures and increased thematic cooperation to address global challenges, to which all country representatives had unanimously re-committed themselves at the 5th Senior Officials Meeting under the EU-CELAC JIRI in March 2016.

Project Context and Objectives:
Summary description of project context and objectives

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) encompasses all 33 sovereign LAC countries, represents roughly 600 million people, and since 2010 is the EU’s counterpart for the bi-regional partnership process. In order to strengthen relations between both regions, EU-CELAC summits are organized approximately biannually where political leaders from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean meet. These summits are the main fora for dialogue and cooperation between both regions.

At the “VI European Union–Latin America and Caribbean Summit“ in Madrid in 2010 , the “Madrid Action Plan 2010-2012 - Towards a new stage in the bi-regional partnership: innovation and technology for sustainable development and social inclusion” was adopted. The Action Plan mainly aimed at designing bi-regional cooperation programmes and initiatives and also endorsed the development and implementation of a Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation (JIRI). The mandate of the JIRI is, among others, to “establish regular bi-regional dialogue on science, research, technology and innovation to consolidate EU-LAC cooperation and to update common priorities, encourage mutual policy learning and ensure the proper implementation and effectiveness of cooperation instruments”.

The Senior Officials Meetings (SOM) with EU-CELAC representatives was established as a regular bi-regional dialogue on Research & Innovation (R&I) to consolidate EU-CELAC cooperation under the JIRI. Objectives of the SOM are, among others, updating common priorities, encouraging mutual policy learning and ensuring the proper implementation and effectiveness of cooperation instruments through biannual Action Plans. At the EU-CELAC S&T Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) in Brussels in March 2011 a road map to implement the JIRI was adopted. In order to focus on the joint actions thematically, four SOM working groups were established to mobilise stakeholders on priority areas of mutual interest: Biodiversity/Climate Change, Bioeconomy, Energy, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). At a later stage a working group on Health was added.

In this context ERANet-LAC was launched in October 2013 with a duration of 3.5 years and the aim to support the aforementioned implementation process of the JIRI, to develop and coordinate concrete joint activities and thus to pave the way for bi-regional long-term initiatives. The project was extended for another nine months and ended in December 2017.

Focusing on the priorities defined in the JIRI, the most relevant and overarching objective of ERANet-LAC was to foster the bi-regional cooperation in research and innovation through the organization and implementation of concrete joint activities and by creating a sustainable framework for future bi-regional joint activities with both European and Latin- American / Caribbean research and innovation funding agencies and programme owners. With a today’s retrospective view it can be affirmed that the project has fully satisfied this objective.

Over its entire life-time, ERANet-LAC realized a consultation process and thus actively promoted the involvement of research and innovation funding agencies, programme owners, programme managers and other relevant stakeholders from both regions in the activities (within and outside of the project consortium). A strong focus was laid on the incorporation of partners with less international STI experience, in order to introduce them in the administrative and technical processes necessary for inter- and multinational cooperation. In addition, their participation in the joint activities gave them the opportunity to mutually learn and develop common governing principles on joint issues such as evaluation, general procedures or ethics. This intense process enabled the project to build and strengthen a solid network between the two regions which has the potential to persist beyond the life-time of ERANet-LAC.

ERANet-LAC has successfully implemented three joint calls with an overall participation of 36 funding organizations from 29 countries. This means in concrete terms: In the 1st joint call 61 projects with a total of 309 researchers and innovation actors have been evaluated; 14 projects were selected for funding. In the 2nd joint call 127 projects have been evaluated with a total of 688 actors; 27 were selected for funding (the 3rd joint call will be closed on 8th March 2018). I.e. more than 200 institutions from 29 EU-CELAC countries are presently active in projects that resulted from the joint calls and thus foster the knowledge spill-over by gaining and allowing access to international knowledge in the above mentioned priority areas. The 3rd joint call, including 23 funding agencies from 21 countries - was launched in December 2017 and is open until March 2018.

Furthermore, the project coordinated Pilot Coordination Actions which enhance the coordination and clustering of existing research programmes and the mutual opening of existing research infrastructures and innovation programmes, which have been important targets within the project. The six PCAs that were funded through ERANet-LAC have contributed to promote the establishment of common objectives in the strategic R&I agendas at national, regional and bi-regional levels.

Through the consultation process and through the joint activities realized, ERANet-LAC has supported the development of the EU-CELAC network of funding agencies on two levels of interest: horizontally by including funding agencies within and without the consortium in the joint activities and thematically, by addressing the priority thematic areas of joint interest discussed under the JIRI: biodiversity/climate, bioeconomy, energy, health and ICT.

One of the vital objectives of the ERANet-LAC was to address the innovation dimension particularly at the agency level. Thus, the innovation dimension run like a thread through all activities organized in the frame of ERANet-LAC. EU and CELAC innovation agencies were specifically addressed to be involved in the consultation process, in the joint actions, in the trust building activities as well as in those initiatives that build the ground for future cooperation, such as the below mentioned funding agencies platform.

These efforts climaxed in an innovation forum that was organized in Madrid in March 2016 and whose outcome is a document on concrete “Policy Recommendations on Innovation Collaboration between the European Union and Latin-America and the Caribbean”.
In its final project stage ERANet-LAC consolidated the activities realized in the frame of the project placing great efforts on their sustainability and on paving the way for bi-regional long-term initiatives:

The project partners developed the EU-CELAC Platform for Funding Agencies and launched it in March 2017 (www.eucelac-platform.eu) which serves as information and communication platform that shall facilitate and enhance the development of future joint initiatives. The EU-CELAC platform for funding agencies will not only guarantee the smooth implementation, administration and dissemination of the future joint activities but also the outreach of the activities to other countries (that were not partners of the EU-CELAC consortium). The platform is conceptualized especially to support the activities that will be coordinated beyond the life-time of the ERANet-LAC.

In order to create perspectives for future joint activities beyond the project, ERANet-LAC partners together with 11 non-partner organizations from CELAC, EU Member States and Associated Countries constituted the EU-CELAC Interest Group, which promotes bi-regional science, technology and innovation (STI) collaboration and concretely promotes future activities. The EU-CELAC Interest Group will concretely support the implementation of future joint activities, starting from the project end of ERANet-LAC. In December 2017, 29 members had confirmed their willingness to realize joint calls and or other types of cooperation activities to be carried out among different funding agencies in the EU and CELAC countries taking advantage of the experiences and structures developed through ERANet-LAC.
The EU-CELAC IG, among others, aims to support the implementation of the Common Research Area (CRA) and to create further added value to its three pillars: mobility of researchers, international outreach of research infrastructures and increased thematic cooperation to address global challenges.

In March 2017 the European Commission granted a project extension of further nine months. The consortium has made good use of this additional period: It consolidated and further strengthened the EU-CELAC Interest Group and the platform for funding agencies and thus prepared the ground for the implementation of a 3rd joint call, which results to be a pilot project for the Interest Group. The joint call was launched in December 2017 and attracted 23 funding organizations from 21 countries. It offers six topics, among them a topic concerning Research Infrastructures and a topic on Urban Sustainability and thus addresses two of the pillars of the CRA. Furthermore, the EU-CELAC IG explored and discussed opportunities in order to strategically reach out to other ongoing initiatives such as thematic ERA Nets, JPIs etc.
These activities built the groundwork for a framework for future bi-regional joint activities with European and Latin-American / Caribbean research and innovation funding agencies and programme owners, which has been developed with the objective to secure sustainability of the project outcomes beyond the life-time of ERANet-LAC. This framework has been summarized in a so-called EU-CELAC roadmap (https://www.eucelac-platform.eu/roadmap).

Summing up the above presented initiatives and outcomes of ERANet-LAC, one can conclude that the concrete project results in many regards found answers to support one of the principal objectives defined in the 2015 EU-CELAC Action Plan: improving cooperation in research and innovation and strengthening scientific and technological capacities, and infrastructures. Concretely this was achieved through:

• Raising awareness on the ERA-Net scheme and the added value of bi-regional cooperation at programme level and including interested EU and CELAC funding agencies and programme owners in the joint activities.

• Constituting clusters of funding agencies aimed at coordinating research and innovation programmes and mutually opening up infrastructures.
• Implementing three joint calls, developing a tailored EU-CELAC coordination and evaluation process.
• Involving less experienced and non-partner funding agencies promoting mutual learning of best practices and expertise.
• Establishing a sustainable network of research and innovation funding agencies willing to cooperate beyond the life time of the project.
• Formulating a roadmap to technically guide and support future activities and make the network activities feasible.

Project Results:
Description of the main S&T results
ERANet-LAC started in 10/2013 with the aim to support the political process of implementing the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation (JIRI), which was endorsed by the “Madrid Action Plan 2010-2012 in 2010. The JIRI aims, among others, to “establish regular bi-regional dialogue on science, research, technology and innovation to consolidate EU-CELAC cooperation and to update common priorities, encourage mutual policy learning and ensure the proper implementation and effectiveness of cooperation instruments”.
The initially foreseen project duration of 3.5 years, was extended for another 9 months. Thus instead of 31st March 2017 the project ended on 31st December 2017. The project activities were broken down in five work packages that built upon and were closely linked to each other (a 6th WP covered the project coordination and is not considered in the present document).
The consortium consisted of the following 18 partners:

1. Argentina: Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva, MINCYT
2. Barbados: Caribbean Science Foundation, CSF
3. Brazil: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnológico, CNPq
4. Chile: Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, CONICYT
5. Finland : Suomen Akatemia, AKA
6. France: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, IRD
7. France: La recherche agronomique pour le dévelopment, CIRAD
8. Germany: Deutsches Luft- und Raumfahrtzentrum e.V. DLR
9. Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, CONACYT
10. Norway: Norges Forskningsrad, RCN
11. Panama: Secretaria Nacional de Ciência, Tecnologia e Innovación, SENACYT
12. Peru: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica, CONCYTEC
13. Portugal: Fundacao Paraa Ciencia e a Tecnologia, FCT
14. Spain: Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, MINECO
15. Spain: Fundación Espanola para la Ciencia y la Tecnología, FECYT-CYTED
16. Romania: Unitatea Executiva pentru Finantaria Invatamantului Superior, a Cercetarii,
Dezvoltarii si Inovarii, UEFISCDI
17. Turkey: Turkiye Bilimsel vê Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu, TUBITAK
18. Uruguay: Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación, ANII

The following chapter 2.1 is divided in two parts: The first part summarizes the main achievements of ERANet-LAC. The second part highlights the main results in more detail along the individual work packages.


1.3 Description of the main results in each of the work packages WP1 to WP5
WP1: Identifying procedures, topics, instruments and actor
WP2: Definition of a project strategy and development of the Action Plan for the ERA NET
WP3: Promoting mutual opening and coordination of EU-LAC existing programmes and infrastructures
WP4: Implementation of two joint calls
WP5: Paving the way for innovative and sustainable bi-regional joint activities

1.3.1 Work Package 1
Identifying procedures, topics, instruments and actors

Mappings towards a toolbox for bi-regional joint actions

Task 1.1 Lessons learnt: ongoing and previous bi-regional joint calls
Task 1.2 The innovation aspect in the EU-CELAC STI cooperation

Summary:
The main objective of both these tasks was to gather information on lessons learnt from previous and ongoing bi-regional activities. To do so, three overall surveys covering the different topics relevant to identify procedures, topics, instruments and actors were realized in order to enhance a) the alignment among the very heterogeneous consortium partners and b) the dialogue among the consortium and funding parties potentially interested in participating in the ERANet-LAC joint actions. A third survey was dedicated exclusively to the innovation aspect.

Significant outcomes:
One survey with ERANet-LAC consortium partners only and a second survey including all funding organizations participating in the 1st Joint Call. The outcomes of both surveys gave a deep insight of the funding practices, taking into account partner organizations’ experience; good practices, and lessons learnt. A third survey was dedicated exclusively to the innovation aspect in the above mentioned projects. The interviews were conducted with 8 selected and very diverse EU cooperation projects; all with a strong innovation focus in common. This survey revealed valuable information on the projects’ approach towards innovation, their definition for innovation and their good practices” and “lessons learnt”, all in the context of innovation.
All three surveys yielded a presentation of results, which were the groundwork for all upcoming joint activities. They were distributed among the consortium partners for further use in their respective work packages. Thus they largely contributed to the alignment of the very heterogeneous group of funding partners who prepared themselves to cooperate in the upcoming two joint calls.

• D1.1: Recommendations for the project based on the lessons learnt from ongoing and previous bi-regional joint actions (with specific focus on innovation)


Task 1.3 Thematic recommendations for bi-regional joint actions

Summary:
Taking into account the topic recommendations developed by the five thematic Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) working groups for Biodiversity/ Climate Change, Bioeconomy, Energy, Health and Information & Communication Technology, ERANAet-LAC coordinated a the development of a report on “thematic recommendations for the 1st and 2nd joint call” comprising 45 topics. When developing the topic recommendations, the SOM working groups were supported by the thematic projects EU-LAC Health, ALCUE NET, NMP-DELA and ENSOCIO-LAC.

Significant outcomes:
The SOM delegates endorsed the suggestions developed by the SOM working groups and presented by ERANet-LAC and, for the 1st Joint Call, endorsed the topics ranked with highest priority in each research area, resulting in 20 topics in 20 research areas. On this basis, ERANet-LAC developed a topic document which was the basis for the discussion among the funding organizations participating in the ERANet-LAC Joint Calls.

For the 2nd joint call, ERANet-LAC - in cooperation with the SOM working groups - developed an updated topic document with now 26 topics. This document built the basis for the selection of topics among the funding organizations participating in the 2nd ERANet-LAC joint call.
For the 3rd joint call which was prepared in the extension period and implemented in 2017/2018, a consultation process with the SOM working groups was initiated, again to define topics in the relevant thematic areas, now explicitly considering the three strategic pillars of the Common Research Area: Two new thematic areas were incorporated: a) ICT for urban sustainability and b) large research infrastructures in ocean energy.

• D1.2 Thematic recommendations for bi-regional joint actions with relevance for the project


Task 1.4: Toolbox for bi-regional joint actions

Significant outcomes:
The Toolbox was developed during the entire lifetime of ERANet-LAC. First, all partners delivered names and contact data of funding organizations potentially interested in the ERANet-LAC joint activities. This initial database was then extended and developed towards a survey asking all consortium members to deliver information on Institutional players (Federal and State Ministries, Funding Organizations, Funding Foundations etc.), programmes, schemes, instruments and / or actors and recent and present bilateral / multilateral (EU-CELAC) activities.

This information was complemented by the mappings realized in before mentioned T1.1 and T1.2. A concise chapter on i) relevant trends in EU-CELAC S&T cooperation and key instruments as well as ii) scale and impact of the cooperation at stake rounded off this document which served as important source of information for the work packages 2, 3 and 4.

• D1.3 Toolbox for bi-regional joint actions

1.3.2 Work Package 2
Definition of a Project Strategy and development of the Action Plan for ERANet-LAC

Task 2.1: Formulation of the Project Strategy

Significant outcomes:
A general strategy of the project was elaborated, explaining ERANet-LAC objectives and potentials and the input requested. The strategy analysed how the joint funding activities should be organized in order to support the establishment of long-lasting co-operation between EU and CELAC not only within but also beyond the project. It then proposed ways showing how to commit ERANet-LAC project partners and non-partners to contribute to the joint funding activities. Finally, the project strategy served as a guideline for the implementation of the project activities through all work packages.

• D2.1 Concept note on the Project Strategy

Task 2.2: Organizing a consultation process with EU and LAC stakeholders

Summary:
In order to gain the commitment of new funding agencies to contribute to funding and to participate in the joint activities, a consultation process with EU-LAC research and innovation funding agencies and other stakeholders identified in WP1 has been implemented. Following the collection and analysis of the expectations from all consortium partners, their recommendations and demands were aligned with regard to the ERANet-LAC activities. In parallel the lessons learnt of ongoing and previous bi-regional cooperation (WP1, Toolbox) were analysed. Building on this groundwork the consultation process was rolled out, which means that external stakeholders (collected in WP1) were addressed by ERANet-LAC. As a result 18 new (non-partner) funding agencies (9 from each region) have participated in total in all three calls:

Non-partner Funding Organizations from Europe that have participated in one (or more) of the ERANet-LAC joint calls:
Belgium: Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique, F.R.S.-FNRS
Belgium: Belgian Science Policy, BELSPO
France: Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur, de la Recherche et de l'Innovation, MENESR
Germany: AiF Project GmbH | Project management agency of BMWi, AiF
Italy: Ministry of Health, SANITA
Italy: National Research Council, CNR
Israel: Ministry of Health, CSO-MOH
Latvia: State Education Development Agency, VIAA
Poland: Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju, NCBR
Spain: Instituto de Salud Carlos III, ISCIII

Non-partner Funding Organizations from CELAC that have participated in one (or more) of the ERANet-LAC joint calls:
Bolivia: Ministerio de Educación - Vice Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, MINEDU
Brazil: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, FAPESP
Colombia: Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, COLCIENCIAS
Costa Rica: Ministerio de Ciencias, Tecnología y Telecomunicaciones, MICITT CONICIT
Cuba: Fondo de Financiamiento a la Ciencia y la Innovación, FONCI
Dominican Republic: Ministerio de Educación Superior, Ciencia y Tecnología, MESCyT
Ecuador: Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación, SENESCYT
Guatemala: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, CONCYT
Trinidad and Tobago: Caribbean Council for Science and Technology, CCST

In individual face-to-face meetings and two workshops the new funders were familiarized with the joint activities as well as with the strategic challenges, research fields and priorities of ERANet-LAC. Thus the new (funding) partners were attracted not only to the joint activities in the frame ERANet-LAC but also to the funding agencies platform and future activities that will be planned beyond the life-time of the project (see also WP5).

In the final year of ERANet-LAC a strategy on how to overcome barriers in EU-CELAC participation has been outlined and best practices / lessons learnt have been formulated on the basis of the experiences made in the two joint calls.

In the interviews, mail exchanges and telephone conversations the funding organizations expressed as “main expected benefits and reasons for participation”:


• Gain access to international networks and actors
• Build or strengthen links with programme owners and managers
• Access international know how in thematic areas that are country-relevant
• Facilitate access to larger, internationally oriented and visible R&I projects compared to national projects
• Exchange knowledge on international cooperation
• Gain experience in the administrative processes of the EU and EC
• Optimize national funds through co-funding
• Facilitate access to international evaluation panels and peer reviews

On the contrary, the main reasons for non-participation in the ERANet-LAC joint call were::
• Budgetary restrictions
• Region (LAC & EU) is currently not a region of major focus of the organization
• Topics do not match national strategy
• Uncertainty on synergies between bilateral and multilateral activities
• Lack of strategies for internationalization
• Negative Experience from proceeding ERANets: A low number of successful projects did not allow to fully use its initial commitment
• Institution only engages in bottom-up approach to call topics
• Timelines could not be harmonized

On this ground, the funding agencies that seemed to have potential and interest in participating in future joint activities even though they had exposed their reasons for non-participation, were contacted once more in order to discuss more flexible solutions for participation in future ERANet-LAC activities. This final action raised interest in participating in future activities from further funding agencies, such as Czech Republic, the Netherlands or El Salvador (see also WP5).

NOTE: For the professional conduction of anonymous interviews in the surveys, the external communication agency Deutsches Dialog Institut (DDI) was engaged. DDI managed to create an interview proceding that allowed the funding agencies to express frankly the challenges and doubts they feel to have in this process. This openness has considerably contributed trust-building and to the successful implementation of the joint activities:

Significant outcomes:

In the interviews, mail exchanges and telephone conversations the funding organizations in detail expressed the main expected benefits they see in their participation and, on the contrary, the reasons for non-participation. A comprehensive picture on the expectations regarding EU-CELAC cooperation activities and an analysis of these interviews was developed, which built an essential groundwork for the upcoming joint activities.

The consortium members generally evaluated the consultation process to be very useful as regards the familiarisation with the project, the integration of consortium partners with less international experience and the development of common research areas and priorities. In particular, the increase in trust and transparency was especially appreciated.

• D2.2 Report on the consultation process

Noteworthy to be mentioned in this context is that the consultation process greatly contributed to the visibility of the ERA NET concept and to awareness raising among S&T and innovation programme owners outside the project consortium. The concept was disseminated to more than 100 programme owners. Many of them were individually contacted in order to raise further awareness. Several personal visits to external programme owners from CELAC were undertaken.

Task 2.3: Formulation of an Action Plan for bi-regional joint activities within the project
Summary and outcomes:

The Action Plan addressed the concrete joint activities during the project and the steps that must be taken for their successful implementation and thus built the ground for sustainable co-operation between EU-LAC programmes. It was built upon the results of WP1 and as well considered the inputs collected within the consultation process. The action plan served to adjust the implementation of the joint activities to the needs of the participating funding agencies.

The Action Plan was developed in the end of 2014 and mainly covered the period 2015 and 2016. It is structured in 8 action lines, each action line concluding with an action table presenting: Next steps, recommendations, time line.

• D2.3 Action Plan for a concrete implementation of joint activities within the project

1.3.3 Work Package 3
Promoting mutual opening and coordination of EU-LAC existing programmes and infrastructures LAC

Task 3.1: Identifying pilot coordination actions for a better coordination of EU and LAC programmes

Summary:
The “Pilot Coordination Actions” (PCA) concept consisted in building on existing programmes or infrastructures by promoting innovative ways of coordinating, connecting, opening, and pooling their existing resources. The final aim of this initiative was to establish common objectives in the strategic agendas at national, regional and bi-regional levels.
The PCA were a new instrument for cooperation that was defined and established within WP3 of ERANET-LAC. A Call for Expression of Interest (CEI) was opened to any field of R&I in order to include as many initiatives as possible, and to encourage the participants to suggest innovative activities responding to the aforementioned aim. Formulation and conceptualization of this unknown instrument and its communication to the consortium and the STI stakeholders turned out to pay off: 24 initiatives of good quality and matching with the concept of PCA were submitted to the Call for Expression of Interest (CEI).

In 24 projects a total of 147 partners from very different institutions from both regions showed their interest for this instrument despite the tight budget of 15.000 €. Some of the selected consortia even offered to bring their own extra funding in addition to the 15.000 € and exercise their pro-activeness by extending their initiative to new partners outside the initial consortium and invite new stakeholders to take part in the discussions.

Six concrete joint activities have successfully been implemented. All six projects were demand-driven through a bottom-up approach, guaranteeing a real interest and the settlement of working groups willing to implement pilot coordination actions (for further outcomes, see below T3.2 3.3 and 3.4)..

• D3.1 Report on responses to the Call for Expression of Interest as well as on the decision on supporting pilot action group

The pilot coordination actions were identified in a way that they are strongly interconnected to the tasks T3.2 T3.3 T3.4 namely:

Two projects were selected that focus on clustering bilateral / multilateral funding and/or research programmes:
• EMHE: Enhancing mobility between LAC and EU in health and environment sciences
• VIMESEA: Volcanism and its impact on environment and society (combined forces from EU and Andean countries)

Two projects were selected that focus on promoting opening of infrastructures:

• ELANAOST: Euro-Latin-American Network on Advanced Oxide Semiconductor TFTs
• NETWOOD-resist: Forest species facing climatic change, field-phenotyping network for drought resistance studies and wood production

Two projects were selected that focus on promoting opening and coordination of innovation programmes:

• ProBiTech: Promoting Bilateral Technology Transfer
• CoopBioPlat: A cooperative framework for building a common platform to serve biodiversity information at national level

Significant outcomes:
A closer analysis of the granted projects shows that the Pilot Coordination Actions as they were defined and implemented by ERANet-LAC are an appropriate instrument to successfully build complementarities among existing programmes and infrastructures through a bottom-up approach. The concrete outcomes are:
• Signed agreements establishing a long-term cooperation framework for PCA (5 out of 6)
• Roadmap with a financial strategy to support the implementation of the agreement (2 out of 6)
• Researchers’ networks (all)
• All foreseen activities have run successfully during the lifetime of the action. The feasibility plan was developed to lay the foundation for a sustainable partnership beyond the project lifetime (all)

The concept of building on existing programmes or infrastructures by promoting innovative ways of coordinating, connecting, opening, and pooling their existing resources has proven itself. The final aim of these initiatives, which was to establish common objectives in the strategic agendas at national, regional and bi-regional levels was promoted and largely reached. All partners expressed their interest and motivations to continue the activities established through the PCA beyond the project life-time.

The very small grant of 15.000 € was dedicated to merely cover travel costs for meetings necessary to elaborate a feasibility plan to secure the sustainability of the action. These feasibility plans, which are one of the expressly declared project outcomes, prove that even a small budget can lead to sustainable results, if the Coordination Actions are well thought-out and circumspectly coordinated and implemented.

Finally it should be mentioned that the PCA programme not only attracted members of the ERANet-LAC consortium but also non-members. Taking advantage of the outcomes of the ERANet-LAC consultation process, the coordinators of the PCA succeeded in including partners from the following non-partner countries in the above presented actions: Costa Rica, Ecuador, Greece and the United Kingdom.

Conclusions:

As was shown above, the PCA in generally developed successfully. However, in the evaluation realized in T5.3 the partners gave a mixed response to the question whether the PCA were a valuable instrument worthwhile to be continued in the future: 50 % of the partners considered them mediocre or not too satisfying, mainly due to the fact that this instrument a) is complex to explain and b) would work better with a serious commitment of all stakeholders or c) requires too many human resources when analysed against the outcomes and impacts of this type of activity.

To meet these arguments several recommendations have been developed (D3.3) however, they could not be questioned totally. The argument of high absorption of human resources must admittedly be taken into account and analysed against the outcomes and impacts of this type of activity. Due to this fact, this instrument was not recommended as prioritized instrument in the roadmap (T5.3).

The outcomes, results and recommendations of this initiative are summarized in the following documents
• D3.2 Summary outcome report on all Pilot Coordination Actions
• D3.3 Concept note on results and recommendations for future coordination actions which has contributed relevant input to the roadmap and the funding agencies platform (WP5)

SUPPLEMENT: Task 3.4: Promoting opening and coordination of innovation programmes
Responsibility: MINECO/CNPq


Innovation forum:
In March 2016 an Innovation Forum was organized in close cooperation with ELAN (European and Latin American Technology based Business Network) to foster bi-regional cooperation in innovation, identify future collaboration opportunities among innovation entities both, public and public as well as public and private, and to develop recommendations. The cooperation with ELAN was not randomly chosen: Whereas ELAN focused on fostering networking, strategic collaborations and new technology-based business opportunities, ERANet-LAC seeked to foster the bi-regional R+I cooperation particularly at a funding agencies’ level, covering innovation issues of common interest and concentrating on aligning experience in research and innovation programmes.
Thus, 42 experts in innovation and/or members of innovation funding agencies representing these two strategic approaches have successfully interacted with each other discussing around the following topics:
• Needs and demands of innovation actors with regards to policies and instruments for promoting innovation in EU-CELAC relations.
• Challenges and possible solutions for promoting innovation between EU-CELAC
• Means of collaborations among EU-CELAC innovation funding entities

Significant outcomes:
A set of policy recommendations to enhance and strengthen the cooperation among the EU and LAC countries taking into account the new cooperation trends, the needs according to the specific capacities as well as the drivers and barriers encountered: “Policy brief on the results and recommendation regarding the pilot coordination actions”. The main recommendations can be summarized as follows:
o New formulas and instruments to boost innovation cooperation among EU and LAC have to be developed
o Flexible instruments are needed to respond to different types of innovation
o Long term-planning is key for the success
o Better, more transparent and stable Regulatory Frameworks
o Policies and effective instruments need to be leveraged to trigger innovation
o Specific actions are needed to build on motivations, identified needs and real capacities for entering into innovation collaboration between Europe and Latin-America
o Building on drivers and overcoming the barriers as a way to strengthen the cooperation in innovation EU-CELAC
o Joint programming needed on science technology and innovation
o Mobility of R&I actors between EU-LAC on science, technology and innovation: A key for successful cooperation
o Enhance EU-LAC Interregional Cooperation on innovation and extend the existing mechanisms oriented to innovation and technology: i.e ERANET-LAC (staff exchange programme and PCA); AL-INVEST (include the innovation concept as a favorable condition in evaluation)
o Foster entrepreneurship cooperation between EU-LAC
o Knowledge transfer and market-oriented R&I between EU-LAC: A key for improved competitiveness

For full document see: https://www.eucelac-platform.eu/roadmap

Note regarding Mutual opening of infrastructures:
In the extension phase the “Mutual opening of infrastructures” was continued. A 3rd joint call was launched (see below WP4), and – as a pilot initiative - one of the topics concerns research infrastructures in Ocean Energy. To achieve this important goal, two expert workshops in Ocean Energy were organized in Spain and Mexico to lay the ground for research infrastructures in Ocean Energy.

1.3.4 Work Package 4
Implementation of two joint calls

Task 4.1: Definition of procedures and preparation of documents for the joint calls

The Terms of reference including input on evaluation guidelines, call text, guidelines for applicants, evaluators and panelists were formulated with the cooperation of all partners participating in the joint call. The open discussions on the content of all documents assured the highest level of transparency and definitely contributed to trust building among all partners, since all concerns and barriers were clearly expressed in the open forum.
Following the first joint call, all documents were revised and re-worked upon the lessons learnt and implemented in the 2nd joint call.
• D4.1 Documents on statistical data corresponding to the first joint call
The topics selected refer to the thematic areas discussed under the JIRI. They were developed and recommended by the SOM Working Groups and endorsed through the SOM delegates: Biodiversity/Climate, Bioeconomy, Energy and Health and – in the 2nd joint call - additionally Information- and Communication Technologies (ICT) (see details in T1.3 page 10f).
Significant outcomes:
Task 4.2: Technical implementation of the first joint call and Task 4.3: Technical implementation of the second joint call

The 1st joint call was open from 16th September to 27th November 2014. As the consultation process had only recently started, no more than six non-partner funding organizations participated in the call. Thus a total of 19 funding organizations have participated in the 1st joint call and submitted a total of 90 proposals. Brazil and Panama participated in the call but in the end, no projects with participation from these countries were funded
• Total available call budget: 10.8 M€
• Total call budget allocated from all partners: 7.6 M€
• Total call budget allocated from Latin-American/Caribbean partners: 3.45 M€
• Total number of projects funded: 14



2nd Joint call:
A key task during the entire preparatory period of the 2nd joint call was to train those Funding Agencies which were not members of the consortium with regard to the proceedings in the joint call in order to completely integrate them in the process. This was also part of the consultation process (T2.2) and was done in personal conversations – taking advantage of meetings and conferences that took place in 2014 /2015 and in intense telephone- and video conference assessments.
The 2nd joint call was open from 1st December 2015 to 10th March 2016. In the 2nd joint call, due to the successfully realized consultation process, now 14 non-partner funding organizations participated in the call. Thus a total of 29 funding organizations have participated in the 2nd joint call and submitted a total of 170 proposals. AiF Germany and Trinidad and Tobago participated in the call but in the end, no projects with participation from these countries were funded
• Total available call budget: 17.7 M€
• Total call budget allocated from all partners: 12,85 M€
• Total call budget allocated from Latin-American/Caribbean partners: 3.8 M€
• Total number of projects funded: 27

Table: Comparable data from 1st and 2nd joint call:
1. Joint Call 2. Joint Call
Date of launch 16.09. - 27.11.2014 01.12.2015 - 10.03.2016
Number of funding organizations 16 (7 LAC, 9 EU) 25 (12 LAC, 13 EU)
Number of funded projects 14 27

Funded projects according to thematic areas 1. Joint Call 2. Joint Call
Biodiversity 3 7
Biorefinery 6 6
Energy 2 4
Health 3 6
ICT n.a. 4
Total of projects 14 27
Total funding budget 7,6 M€ 12,85 M€

For further details, see below statistics comparing the 1st and the 2nd joint call and https://www.eucelac-platform.eu/joint-actions


Comparable data of both joint calls:

Participating Institutions Participating Institutions
1st Joint Call No. of funded projects No. of funding partners 2nd Joint Call No. of funded projects
ARG MINCYT 7 1 ARG MINCYT 16
BEL BELSPO 2 2 BEL BELSPO 1
BEL FNRS 1 3 BEL FNRS 1
CHL CONICYT 8 4 BOL MINEDU 1
COL COLCIENCIAS 5 5 BRA CNPq 5
DOM MESCYT 1 6 BRA FAPESP 3
FRA BPI / MENESR 4 7 CHL CONICYT 9
GER BMBF 7 8 COL COLCIENCIAS 4
MEX CONAYT 2 9 DOM MESCYT 6
NOR RCN 3 10 FIN AKA 5
PER CONYTEC 5 11 GER BMBF 13
POR FCT 7 12 GUA CONCYT 1
ROM UEFISCDI 2 13 ITA SANITA 6
SPA ISCIII 3 14 ITA CNR 4
SPA MINECO 5 15 LAT VIAA 5
URU ANII 2 16 MEX CONAYT 2
17 NOR RCN 4
18 PAN SENACYT 4
19 PER CONYTEC 8
20 POL NCBR 8
21 ROM UEFISCDI 6
22 SPA ISCIII 4
23 SPA MINECO 5
24 TUR TUBITAK 2
25 URU ANII 5

Note: As it turned out that CFS (Barbados) was not involved in any of the projects selected for funding, in the 2nd joint call they decided to incorporate and finance an SME subsequently in a consortium that was confirmed for funding. This proves the openness for flexible solutions among the group of funding partners and the benevolence and trust that was seeded during the ERANet-LAC project life-time.

• D4.1 Statistical data corresponding to the 2nd joint call
• D4.2 Lessons learnt from first joint call – were thoroughly implemented in the 2nd joint call.
• D4.3 Statistical data corresponding to the 2nd joint call

3rd Joint Call

In the extension period, a 3rd joint call was organized and successfully implemented in cooperation with the EU-CELAC Interest Group (see below). 23 funding organizations from 21 countries are participating in this joint call which offers six topics; the total allocated budget amounts to 10.64 m€. Launch of the call was 10th December 2017, deadline for submission is 8th March 2018. The topics for the 3rd joint call were carefully selected together with the SOM thematic working groups, considering interdisciplinary emerging topics between the thematic areas. Furthermore, this time a pilot call was included involving large-scale research infrastructures in Europe and Latin America in the marine energy topic.

In total, 20 non-partner funding agencies (10 from each region) and all of the 16 ERANet-LAC partner funding organizations have participated in the three calls (see above page 7 – list of partner organizations and T2.2 page 12 - names of non-partner agencies). I.e. 36 funding partners from 29 countries.


Monitoring of projects funded through 1st joint call

During the ERANet-LAC extension period (April – December 2017) the partners had planned to assess and monitor the 41 projects funded through the two joint calls. When preparing the meeting it turned out that it was too early to monitor the projects funded through the 2nd joint call, as these had only recently started.
Therefore, a meeting with all coordinators of the projects funded through from the 1st joint call as well as with external scientific experts was organised by FECYT-CYTED in Lisbon (Portugal) on 9th October 2017. The lessons learnt from this exercise have been incorporated in the 3rd joint call. The main outcomes of the evaluation are:

• The majority of projects are performing their activities as planned and are obtaining the expected results.
• Dissemination and publications of the projects must be improved in almost all projects.
• The projects’ impact and their potential for subsequent project phases was analysed in autumn 2017, i.e. approx. 1.5 years following the project start. At that time, the impacts of the projects did not present a clear picture yet, so that the projects showed a moderate outcome.
The reasons for this low outcome may be that a) several consortia showed a delayed calendar due to delays in providing funding or problems when transferring biological materials to the other continent; b) as several consortia started their projects later than expected it was too early to start considerations for future phases beyond the project; c) coordination of the international consortia turned out to be more complex than expected.


1.3.5 Work Package 5
Paving the way for innovative and sustainable bi-regional joint activities

Task 5.1: Trust building: Staff exchange among EU-CELAC funding agencies

Summary:
The ERANet-LAC Staff Exchange Programme (SEP) between EU and CELAC research and innovation funding agencies (ERANet-LAC partners and non-partners) aimed at sharing knowledge and experiences as well as building trust among partners. The Staff Exchange Programme’s objective was to build a frame for inter-institutional exchange in order to support building professional networks and good relationships across the partner organizations. Since ERANet-LAC has deeply engaged in joint funding activities, mutual learning of each other´s practices has been crucial. By visiting each other, the agencies could exchange experiences from important fields such as peer review systems, funding opportunities and international collaboration. All funding parties were encouraged to attend.

Significant outcomes:
The Staff Exchange Programme consisted of two rounds of visits; first in 2015 and second in 2016. The organizations that participated in the programme can be seen in the table below. The total number of participants in the SEP reached 30 and the number of organizations sending staff to visits or hosting visitors amounted to 15.

Organizations that participated in the programme and their roles
2015 2016
CELAC EU CELAC EU
Programme proposals CNPq, CONACYT, CONICYT, MEC of Uruguay, MINCYT, SENACYT AKA, CYTED, DLR, IRD, RCN, UEFISCDI MINCYT, CNPq, CONICYT, CONACYT & IIE, SENACYT, ANII AKA, DLR & AiF, SANITA, MINECO & CDTI & ISCII & CYTED
Sent visitors CONCYTEC, MINCYT AKA, DLR, IRD CONACYT, CONICYT, FONDECYT, INDICASAT-AIP, MINCYT, SENACYT AiF, AKA, ISCII, MINECO
Received visitors CONACYT, MINCYT, SENACYT AKA, DLR ANII, CONICYT, CONACYT & IIE AKA, DLR & AiF, MINECO & CDTI & ISCII & CYTED

• D5.1 Report on exchange activities between EU and CELAC funding agencies



Conclusions:
In the final reports of the participants the programme was evaluated extremely positive; it was considered an useful tool for building trust in networks. Some of them expressed their hopes for the continuation of the programme.
As is illustrated in the above table, mostly larger countries with wide international experience participated in the programme. From the hosts´ feedback, however, rose the wish to include more funding agencies that are less experienced and especially new organizations interested in participating in the EU-CELAC joint activities. This could give these organizations the possibility to learn more about EU-CELAC cooperation and to learn how to participate in international research and innovation activities. ERANet-LAC strived to include these non-partner agencies, however with poor outcome. It may be assumed that there have been problems for these organizations to take part in the activities due to lack of information. This is owed to the fact that many of them participated for the first time in EU-CELAC activities and the communication channels were not always continuous neither very clear. A fact that was improved during the project life with regard to the joint calls. In other activities, such as the staff exchange programme, however, these channels have to be extended and target groups have to be defined more precisely.


Task 5.2: Evaluation of the joint activities process

Summary:
The evaluation was realized on the ground of a questionnaire asking all ERANet-LAC consortium members for their detailed opinion on all activities from the beginning of the consultation process until the actual release of funding and implementation of the joint activities realized in the frame of ERANet-LAC. The survey was answered by all partners in the final consortium meeting which took place in March 2017, i.e. in the last project month.

Significant outcomes:
The answers reveal precise, critical and integrated considerations on all activities. These were analyzed and formulated into an evaluation report revealing obstacles as well as opportunities in the implementation of joint activities. The recommendations and lessons learnt presented in D5.3 shall be consulted before and enrich future activities. They will thus ensure that all interested EU-LAC stakeholders benefit from the experiences made in ERANet-LAC and pave the way for smooth collaboration in their future activities
Some of the recommendations concerning the joint activities shall be summarized as follows:
• Consultation process: Requires a high degree of transparency and trust. Face-to-face meetings, taking into account specific demands and pre-requisites of the partner to be involved, are indispensable to foster mutual trust and personal contacts. This requires insight in and knowledge about the motivations of the partner who wants to join the process. It is useful to establish know-how exchange on the procedures among the consortium, to integrate partners with less experience.
• Pilot coordination actions: The concept is innovative and was completely new to the ERANet-LAC members. These type of innovative actions require detailed and thorough explanation as well as a high degree of transparency. The involved partners must agree beforehand on a shared terminology and alltogether develop terms of reference or a project plan to optimise the internal communication.
• Joint Calls: Expectations of the participating funding partners, their concerns and the reasons for their participation in the call must be analysed and aligned in advance of the call implementation. Time tables and execution plans must be discussed early in advance so that the participating organisations are able to prepare adequately. Funding commitments must be ensured, national budget planning procedures must be considered beforehand.

• D5.2 Guidelines for the evaluation of bi-regional joint activities
• D5.3 Report on the evaluation of the joint activities

Task 5.3: Defining a roadmap for future joint activities

Summary:
A roadmap was developed in March 2017 with the objective to create perspectives for future joint activities beyond the project lifetime. The document comprises a timeline of approx. 3 years and builds on the experiences made during the joint activities realized in the frame of ERANet-LAC striving to facilitate future ones. Thus, it includes the lessons learnt and best practices made in the pilot coordination actions, in the joint calls as well as in the consultation process. It also considers the evaluation realized in the frame of T5.3 which has been assessed and evaluated with the aim of providing sustainable recommendations for future funding activities between EU and CELAC. It is enriched by a survey that was realized among the partners asking for priority thematic areas, topics and types of joint activities.

Significant outcomes:
A document presenting potentials and measures for future EU-CELAC joint activities to be organized through the EU-CELAC Interest Group consisting of the following sections and impulses:
- Maintenance and further development of the EU-CELAC Interest Group and the EU-CELAC Platform for Funding agencies incl. the integration of new partners including technical support to facilitate and enhance the development of future joint initiatives
- A selection of instruments and topics that should be considered when planning future activities and guidelines on how to carry out joint activities
- Outlook with – among others - recommendations regarding further joint actions and building synergies with related initiatives (JPI’s, Thematic projects, Programmes, ERA NETs, JRC, etc.) open to EU-CELAC cooperation and with the CELAC National Contact Point Network in order to better increase CELAC countries’ participation in the upcoming EU framework programme activities 2018-2020.

• D5.4 Roadmap for future EU-LAC joint activities (for full document, see https://www.eucelac-platform.eu/roadmap)


Task 5.4: Launching an EU-CELAC platform for Funding Agencies: http://www.eucelac-platform.eu

Significant outcomes:
The EU-CELAC platform for Funding Agencies was implemented and promoted in the final stage of ERANet-LAC and launched in an official event in March 2017. All those funding agencies contacted in the consultation process (T2.2) that are interested in enhancing long term cooperation beyond EU funding and committed to organizing and financing bi-regional joint activities are presented on this platform with their individual information on demands, interests and backgrounds in STI as well as with contact persons and contact data.

The funding platform also provides information on the recommendations elaborated during the project (e.g. best practice examples, tool box, evaluation guidelines, road map) and serves as interactive information and communication platform, offering an online partnering tool to develop future concrete joint initiatives.
The platform is designed to support the realization and administration of future joint activities. During the implementation period of the 3rd joint call, which is organized with the support of the EU-CELAC Interest Group, the site is linked to the Multicall Tool from CYTED.

European funding agencies presented in the EU-CELAC funding agencies platform:
1. Austria Austrian Research Promotion Agency
2. Belgium Fund for Scientific Research
3. Belgium Belgian Federal Science Policy Office
4. Czech Republic Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
5. Croatia Ministry of Science and Education
6. Finland Academy of Finland
7. Germany AiF Projekt GmbH
8. Germany Federal Ministry of Education Research
9. Italy Ministry of Health
10. Italy National Research Council
11. Netherlands Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
12. Norway The Research Council of Norway
13. Poland The National Center for Research and Development
14. Portugal Foundation of Science and Technology
15. Spain Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness
16. Turkey The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey

Latin-American/Caribbean funding agencies presented in the EU-CELAC funding agencies platform:

1. Argentina Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation
2. Barbados Caribbean Science Foundation
3. Bolivia Ministry of Education - Viceministry of Science and Technology
4. Brazil National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
5. Brazil Sao Paulo Research Foundation
6. Chile National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research
7. Colombia Administrative Department for Science, Technology and Innovation
8. Dominican Rep. Republic Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
9. Ecuador Secretariat for Higher Education, Science, Tech. and Innovation
10. Guatemala National Secretariat of Science and Technology
11. Mexico National Council for Science and Technology
12. Panama National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation
13. Peru National Council of Science, Technology + Technical Innovation
14. Trinidad+Tob. Nat. Inst. of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology
15. Uruguay National Research and Innovation Agency


Long-term vision
ERANet-LAC has developed a long term vision, including perspectives for future joint activities beyond the project: It established the EU-CELAC Interest Group for bi-regional cooperation in science, technology and innovation (STI). The EU-CELAC IG builds on the collaboration experience and mutual trust established in past and ongoing FP7 projects e.g. in the framework of ERANet-LAC and will organize future joint actions. The EU-CELAC IG is technically supported by the EU-CELAC funding agencies platform.
Most of the organizations that are members of the funding agencies platform have also joined the EU-CELAC Interest Group.
Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia and the Netherlands are presented on the platform but so far have not joined the EU-CELAC Interest Group. They will be invited in the near future once more.

Cross-cutting issue: Dissemination:
The project has put great emphasis on producing and regularly employing the usual project dissemination tools such as website, flyers and press-releases. In addition, all partners were made aware that they are responsible for identifying any publishing opportunities and carrying out all necessary actions to ensure publications of project assets and conclusions, after the consultation with the partner responsible for project dissemination. The coordinator and all WP (co-) leaders have set a special focus on assessing the communication and exchange processes with the existing INCO-projects and relevant thematic initiatives as well as with SFIC (see list of dissemination activities below, page 37).
It is important to mention that the joint activities (joint calls and PCA) organized in the frame of ERANet-LAC as well as the consultation process all included targeted dissemination activities. In addition, during the entire life-time of ERANet-LAC and through all WPs, a special focus was set on assessing the communication and exchange processes with the existing INCO projects and relevant thematic initiatives as well as with SFIC. As examples may serve:
Intense exchange with EU-LAC Health supported the integration of further partners from the health area in all three joint calls.
Cooperation with ALCUE NET ensured consideration of the political aspects in the project and secured a smooth process in the topic selection for the joint calls.
Exchange with ENSOCIO LAC added important background to the biodiversity/climate change topics.
Through participation of ERANet-LAC representatives in external meetings organized by the above initiatives, the ERANet-LAC consultation process was promoted and non-partner funding agencies were encouraged to join the activities.


Potential Impact:
Potential impact
Cooperation in “science, technology and innovation” (STI) between EU and CELAC has a long tradition and is a key driver in the overall EU-CELAC policy dialogue in achieving sustainable and economic growth. At bi-regional level, STI is part of the EU-CELAC Action Plan and bi-regional Senior Officials Meetings (SOM) on STI which are taking place regularly since 2011. Since the adoption of the “EU-CELAC Joint Initiative on Research and Innovation” (JIRI) in 2010, the SOMs have focused on implementing the EU-CELAC Knowledge Area by means of their thematic and horizontal working groups.
ERANet-LAC has supported the political process of implementing the JIRI of the EU and CELAC by coordinating joint activities in the thematic areas discussed under the JIRI: Biodiversity/climate, bioeconomy, energy, health and ICT and contributing to the opening of research programmes and the development of a bi-regional framework for joint activities.
At the 5th SOM under the EU-CELAC JIRI in March 2016, the Senior Officials confirmed their commitment to the implementation of the Common Research Area agreeing on three strategic pillars:
1. Mobility of Researchers;
2. Increased thematic cooperation to address global challenges and the International outreach of Research Infrastructures (RIs);
3. Societal Challenges such as health, sustainable urbanization and clean urban transport.
In its last project phase and in the extension period (2016-2017), ERANet-LAC pro-actively consulted with the respective SOM thematic working groups in order to develop a strategy on how to integrate the new areas and pillars into the upcoming funding activities.
Having achieved high visibility among funding organizations and STI stakeholders and having improved the coherence and coordination of STI cooperation between both regions, ERANet-LAC, in general, has promoted the significance of the EU-CELAC partnership and helped to reach a new level in EU-CELAC STI cooperation. Concretely, the main potential impacts of ERANet-LAC can be highlighted as follows:

Stimulating EU-CELAC research and innovation cooperation:
The main impact of ERANet-LAC has been the stimulation of STI cooperation between EU MS/AC and CELAC. Researchers from different types of research institutions (higher education, public research organizations, business sector) were animated to cooperate in transnational consortia. The two Joint Calls realized by ERANet-LAC were extremely successful in stimulating a broad range of programme owners to participate in these jointly funded activities. In the 2nd joint call (2015-2016) the number of funding partners increased from 16 (in the first call) to 32 (in the 2nd call). The new partners came from Belgium (2), Germany, Italy (2), Latvia, Poland, Spain, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Trinidad+Tobago.
In the 3rd joint call that was launched in December 2017, three additional non-partner funding organizations registered: Costa Rica, Cuba and Israel.

Focusing essential thematic areas:
ERANet-LAC focused on the five above mentioned thematic areas that have been considered most relevant in the EU-CELAC context and coordinated the efforts of 36 EU-CELAC partner funding agencies with regard to impact and mutual benefit. The impact of the 41 research and innovation projects that resulted from the 1st and 2nd joint call is, that they are enhancing networking and capacity building, mobility between EU and LAC researchers/manufacturers, sharing of knowledge, ideas and assets and the development of joint technologies in these areas.
These joint activities are tackling global environmental and societal challenges and will open new opportunities for both regions.

Focusing excellence:
The selection of excellent research projects in ERANet-LAC has been secured through a structured evaluation procedure, based on international expertise of independent peer-reviewers. Each full proposal has been evaluated by three external internationally active scientists identified by the participating call partners themselves. The ranking process of proposals was organized by the Ibero-American organization CYTED/FECYT (Latin American Programme of Science and Technology towards Development), with its longstanding international expertise. The Group of Funders identified the panelists and guaranteed for their quality and thematic expertise (which were then confirmed by the call partners) and thus provided valuable scientific expertise and impact through the selection of outstanding projects.

Supporting EU-CELAC Common Research Area:
By developing and implementing an EU-CELAC tailored strategy for the realization of joint (funding) activities, ERANet-LAC has strengthened the bi-regional cooperation dimension on STI. This overall strategy is expected to have an impact on the CRA as it provides well-structured and experienced guidelines on how to manage EU-CELAC STI funding activities and constituted sustainable networks including STI stakeholders from relevant thematic areas in both regions.
In preparation of the 3rd joint call, for example, one of the pillars defined by the CRA - Research Infrastructures - was addressed: A workshop on research infrastructures in ocean energy was realized to define topics for the joint call. As a pilot initiative, Research Infrastructures in Ocean Energy is one of 6 topics in the 3rd joint call. In addition, consultations with the respective SOM thematic working groups were realized in order to develop a strategy on how to integrate the new thematic areas in the upcoming funding activities. As a result, the thematic area “sustainable urbanization” was considered in the 3rd organized in the extension period of ERANet-LAC.

Reducing fragmentation:
The ERANet-LAC consultation process attracted funding agencies – especially from CELAC countries - that so far had not been very much involved in bi-regional STI activities. They were integrated actively in the joint calls and / or the Pilot Coordination Actions and are now familiar with the EU-CELAC tailored strategy for the realization of joint (funding) activities. As the bi-regional joint activities will be continued beyond the life-time of ERANet-LAC, it can be assumed that their gained knowledge and experience will be further applied and even enhanced in the upcoming joint actions. Through the integration of smaller and larger partners with more or with less international experience in its overall strategy, ERANet-LAC thus reduced fragmentation and initiated a more structured way towards bi-regional EU-CELAC cooperation in STI.
By making use of the well-established call tool used by the Ibero-American programme CYTED, the Latin American researchers also from smaller countries which are not so familiar with international cooperation, felt more comfortable to apply.

Network integration and expansion:
CELAC: The fact that several smaller countries or countries with little international experience, such as Barbados, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Panama and others actively participated in the joint calls, opened their structures for international cooperation and generated their desire to deepen their cooperation with the EU and its member/associated states in the future. Before participating in the joint actions, they thoroughly analysed their internal strategies to explore the options and conditions for participation and – in given cases – adapted them to ensure their incorporation in ERANet-LAC. This process will have a long-lasting and important impact for future bioregional activities.
By the end of ERANet-LAC additional smaller countries, such as Nicaragua, El Salvador or Costa Rica, had signaled their interest to join the group of funding agencies as well.

The integration of Caribbean countries was initiated. First funding agencies expressed their interest to participate and were informed and consulted by the ERANet-LAC coordination. Nevertheless, no project proposals with participation from the English-speaking Caribbean were submitted. Consultations with the respective agencies suggest that the communication between the funding agencies and the research communities are not very well established. As no project proposal with the participation of Barbados was selected for funding, the Caribbean Science Foundation financially supported a national SME to get involved in a project that was already implemented through the 2nd Joint Call.

EU: On the EU-side, network integration and expansion in the first line concerned the EU Central and Eastern countries that had not established concrete STI activities with CELAC before and took advantage of the joint activities to expand their networks to CELAC. Thus, Latvia and Poland were successfully integrated in the ERANet-LAC activities, and by the end of the project the Czech Republic and Croatia signaled their interest in being involved, as well.

All of them joined the EU-CELAC interest group and thus confirmed their interest in participating in future joint activities.
By reducing fragmentation on the one hand and extending the networks on the other hand, ERANet-LAC has built the ground for increasing and deepening the bi-regional cooperation in STI: The individual and mutual assessments of the new partners increased the practical expertise of ALL partners and – what is more important – standardized the processes of the joint activities. Thus an integrated and stable network of interested organizations for future joint activities was constituted and a tried and tested manual is ready for use for the upcoming joint calls.

Assuring sustainability of activities:
ERANet-LAC has put special emphasis on trust building, transparency and mutual understanding, which was considered by all partners the main prerequisite for the implementation of future joint activities. This key aspect for successful cooperation was reached, among others, through the engagement of the external communication agency Deutsches Dialog Institut. DDI professionally conducted anonymous interviews and managed to create an atmosphere that allowed the funding agencies to express frankly the challenges and doubts they feel to have in this process. This openness and trust has considerably contributed to the successful implementation of the joint activities and thus created a solid base for future cooperation among the group of partner agencies.

To guarantee impact, furthermore, two main initiatives were successfully established in the end of ERANet-LAC:
The EU-CELAC Platform for Funding Agencies (www.eucelac-platform.eu) will technically facilitate and enhance the development of future joint initiatives; and the EU-CELAC Interest Group, with its 30 participating funding organizations, will promote bi-regional STI collaboration and concretely support the implementation of future joint activities. By the end of ERANet-LAC the partners already planned the time-line for an upcoming third EU-CELAC joint call 2018/2019.

In March 2017 the European Commission granted a project extension of further 9 months. This extension will further consolidate and strengthen the project outcomes described in the present document and thus increase their impact.


List of Websites:
Project website
The former Project Website: www.eranet-lac.eu was taken off the web in January 2018 (following the extension period). Since October 2017 the Website of the EU-CELAC Platform for Funding Agencies is the main Website for the activities that will be organized following the life-time of ERANet-LAC, through the EU-CELAC Interest Group.

List of consortium members and contact details:
Argentina: Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation (MINCYT)
Name: Alejandra dadvidziuk
Email: madavidziuk@mincyt.gob.ar

Barbados: Caribbean Science Foundation (CSF)
Name: Cardinal Warde
Email: warde.csf@gmail.com
Brazil – CNPq: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq
Name: Paulo Siqueira
Email: psiqueira@cnpq.br

Chile: Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, CONICYT
Name: Pedro Figueroa Villa
Email: pfigueroa@conicyt.cl

Finland: Suomen Akatemia (AKA)
Name: Satu Huuha-Cissokho
Email: satu.huuha-cissokho@aka.fi

France: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)
Name: Ophélie Martinez (left IRD in 2016 – no successor was named, present contact person: Eloise Gransagne)
Present contact email: eloise.gransagne@ird.fr

France: Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, CIRAD
Name: Guy Henry, Marie Dequillon
Email: guy.henry@cirad.fr coordination@bioeconomy-alcue.org

Germany: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Implementing Institution: DLR - Project Management Agency (DLR)
Name: Marianne Vaske, Sophie von Knebel
Email: Marianne.Vaske@dlr.de Sophie.vonKnebelDoeberitz@dlr.de

Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, CONACYT
Name: Moira Karosuo
Email: eranet-lacmexico@conacyt.mx

Norway: The Research Council of Norway (RCN)
Name: Inger-Ann Ulstein
Email: iau@rcn.no

Panama: National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation of Panama
Name: Carlos Aguirre-Bastos
Email: caguirre@senacyt.gob.pa

Romania: Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding, UEFISCDI
Name: Domnica Cotet
Email: domnica.cotet@uefiscdi.ro

Peru: National Council of Science, Technology and Technological Innovation, CONCYTEC (FONDECYT)
Name: Cristina Leucci
Email: Cristiana Leucci

Portugal: Fundaçao para a Ciencia e a Tecnología, FCT
Name: Maria João Maia , Nuno Miguel Moreira,
Emai: Maria.Maia@fct.pt Nuno.Moreira@fct.pt

SPAIN: Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MINECO
Name: Joaquín Serrano, Juan Climent
Email: joaquin.serrano@mineco.es juan.climent@mineco.es

Spain: Latin American Programme of Science and Technology towards Development, FECYT
Name: Almudena Carrero, Cecilia Cabello
Email: Almudena.carrero@fecyt.es; cecilia.cabello@fecyt.es

Turkey: Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu (TÜBİTAK)
Name: Gaye Cetinkaya
Email: gaye.cetinkaya@tubitak.gov.tr

Uruguay: Ministry of Education and Culture, MEC / National Research and Innovation Agency (ANII)
Name: Verónica Suarez
Email: vsuarez@anii.org.uy