The Committee assessed the current state of cooperation and discussed future projects under the new “Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation”, born in the EU-LAC Summit held in Madrid in May 2010.
The fifth meeting of the Executive Committee of the Cooperation Agreement on Science and Technology between Chile and the European Union was held at the Fundacion Telefonica building on Thursday 4 November, 2010.
It was chaired by Jose Miguel Aguilera, President of CONICYT; Jose Manuel Silva Rodriguez, Special Advisor of the European Union’s Research Directorate-General; and Jaime Perez Vidal, Head of the European Union’s Delegation in Chile.
Jose Manuel Silva Rodriguez is the former Director-General of the European Commission’s Research Directorate-General in Brussels. Also from Brussels, the meeting was attended by Alessandro Damiani, Head of Unit of RTD International Scientific Cooperation; Cornelia Nauen, Principal Policy Officer, International Cooperation, DG RTD; and Klaus Pendl, Principal Policy Officer, Audiovisual, Media, Internet; International Relations, DG INFSO.
Also participated in the event: Gabriel Rodriguez, Director of Energy, Science, Technology and Innovation in the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and several FP7 National Contact Points (NCPs), such as Louis de Grange (Transport), Ricardo Oyarzun (Environment), Claudio Huepe (Energy), Monica Rubio (Space), Beatriz Bustos (Mobility), Manuela Caruz (SMEs representative) and Amador Guzman (Nanotechnologies representative).
An Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation was signed between Chile and the European Union in September 2002. The National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) is in charge of its implementation and execution. This Agreement, together with enabling access to the European Research Space for Chilean researchers through their participation in the Framework Programmes, has also made it possible to organize various activities for promoting and strengthening scientific and technological research directly benefiting Chile's scientific community.
The purpose of this Fifth Meeting of the Executive Committee was to evaluate the current state of cooperation in science between Chile and the European Union (66 Chilean scientific institutions are currently participating in EU-financed research projects), and exploring bilateral cooperation prospects under the new “Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation”, born in the “European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean Summit (EU-LAC) in Science and Technology” held in Madrid in May 2010.
Infrastructure for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-based research is one of the priorities identified by regional governments with the aim of improving interconnection of academic networks and strengthen transatlantic links. For that reason, as soon as the meeting at Fundacion Telefonica was over, the European Union Delegation participated in the launching of the High Speed Network for Astronomy and Science in premises of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). This network is one of the most significant results of the EVALSO project (of the Seventh Framework Programme, FP7).
It is worth highlighting that Chile will be co-president in the next EU-LAC Heads of States Summit, to be held in Chile in 2012. “For us, organizing this meeting is a major challenge, an opportunity and a responsibility; we will devote our best efforts and capacities to achieve its success”, noted Jose Miguel Aguilera.
Jose Manuel Silva Rodriguez -who will assume as Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development- highlighted in turn that international cooperation within the Seventh Framework Programme is currently in its highest point. He also emphasised on the fact that last July’s Call for Proposals was the biggest call ever made.
