6. Mar. 2008

The European Commission promotes a new type of project in the area of international cooperation (FP7 – Capacities): the so called INCO-NET and BILAT projects. These projects shall establish and support platforms of dialog with focuses on specific regions and countries.
Six INCO-NET projects have been selected after a call for proposals and started their projects. The ZSI is involved as a project partner in four of the six projects, which focus on the regions Western Balkans (with ZSI as project coordinator), Eastern Europe and Central-Asia, South-East-Asia and Latin America. Close cooperation with the other two INCO-NETs (Mediterranean countries and Africa) is aspired.
The INCO-NETs have funds between 2 and 3.5 million euro in a runtime of four years. At the moment there are/were being held the kick-off meetings of the respective projects in different parts of the world.

Research policy within and with Western Balkan States:

The kick-off meeting on February 1 in Ljubljana (Slovenia) was the first opportunity for all 26 project partners of the WBC-INCO.NET project to meet face to face and to lay the basis for a fruitful cooperation in the future work process of the project.
The basic objective of the project is the support of the bi-regional dialog between EU Member States, associated countries to the Framework Programme, and the Western Balkan Countries (WBC). Furthermore the creation of additional stimulations for the participation of researchers of the latter group of countries in European R&D projects shall be achieved.
Main focuses of the project are the analysis of existing and prospective possibilities of cooperation between Western Balkan countries and the European Union in the area of R&D, and the identification of bottle necks in the bi-regional cooperation. Additionally more effective networking and capacity building shall promote a better international perception of existing competences in the Western Balkan region.
The Centre for Social Innovation is coordinator of the project. Ministries for Science and Research from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia are part of the project consortium and are being supported by Ministries of Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Slovenia and Turkey, and by highly qualified research institutions (as for example the Institute for Prospective Technology Studies of the Joint Research Centre, the United Nations University Maastricht, the Mihailo Pupin Institute or the Institute Ivo Pilar from Zagreb). Also agencies, such as the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the Italian APRE, the German IB-DLR or linking offices in Brussels are involved in the cooperation.
contact person at the ZSI: Elke Dall, dall@zsi.at

EU cooperation with ASEAN states:

Between January 21 and 23 the kick-off meeting of the INCO-NET South-East Asia (SEA-EU-NET) took place in Bonn/Germany. Under the guidance of the International Office of the German Ministry for Education and Research (IB-DLR) six involved partners from South-East Asia and eleven European partners came together to initiate their collaboration and to concretize the work planning for the first year of operation of the project.
The central idea of this network is the promotion of the bi-regional research dialog between EU Member States and the most relevant ASEAN-countries (South-East-Asia), as well as to mark common goals, to further mutual information exchange, and to increase the participation of researchers from South-East-Asia within the 7th Framework Programme. Furthermore the visibility of the cooperation in R&D between ASEAN-countries and the European Union shall be improved. In line with the French (2008) and Hungarian (2010) EU Council Presidency, bi-regional research conferences will be organized.
The ZSI leads the work package 4 “Analysis, Monitoring and Review” which will provide scientific input for the bi-regional S&T policy arena.
contact person at the ZSI: gruber@zsi.at

Cooperation with Eastern Europe and Central Asia:

The third INCO-NET project, in which the ZSI is involved, has its regional focus on Russia, Ukraine and the countries of Central Asia, and is coordinated by the International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS) in Greece. The kick-off meeting was held on January 16 and 17 in Athens.
In the course of the project the ZSI cooperates closely with the Higher School of Economics in Moscow as the co-leader of a work package which deals with monitoring and analysis. Central cooperation partners for the work package are also the International Office of the German Ministry for Education and Science, the Norwegian Council for Research, the Moldavian Academy of Science, the University Tartu in Estonia, as well as organisations from the Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
contact person at the ZSI: Desiree Pecarz, pecarz@zsi.at

Fostering of the bi-regional S&T cooperation between Latin America and Europe:

The scheduled kick-off meeting of the INCO-NET project EULARINET („European Union – Latin American Research and Innovation NETworks") on March 26 - 28, 2008 in Buenos Aires forms the setting for the first come-together of the 20 Latin-American and European partners, who plan on establishing the guidelines for their 4-year lasting cooperation in the project. The start of the project takes place in the run-up to the EU-Latin America summit which will take place in May 2008 in Lima.
The principal goal of EULARINET is the promotion of the bi-regional research dialog between EU Member States and Latin America, as well as the elimination of mutual information deficits on research priorities and initiatives of excellence. The most important pillar for the upgrading of the bi-regional research dialog is the integration of those four countries, with which the EU already maintains an agreement for the scientific technological cooperation (Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina).
The focus of the scientific activities of the ZSI in the course of the EULARINET lies in the execution of a benchmarking-analysis of Latin-American research institutions.
contact person at the ZSI: Dirk Johann, johann@zsi.at