ELAN Network and ERANet-LAC working together in the promotion of EU-LAC cooperation in innovation policies
On 23-24 of May took place the “ERANet-LAC Innovation Forum” in Madrid. More than 50 programme managers and designers of innovation funding agencies and innovation stakeholders from the EU-CELAC countries took part in a very dynamic and participative forum aimed at increasing innovation projects between agents from both regions.
The Innovation Forum was a unique opportunity to discuss and answer questions on innovation policies analyzing the main barriers and proposing solutions, and developing policy recommendations that will be presented at the next EU-CELAC SOM (Senior Official Meeting on Research and Innovation), which is expected to take place in 2017.
ERANet-LAC and ELAN Network worked closely together preparing the two-day programme, which was an exceptional opportunity for the participants to meet and also to share impressions and reflect about cooperative innovation in both regions.
Innovation inspires innovation; consequently the forum was organized using completely dynamic and participative techniques where “special” environment for discussion was created and all the participants contributed. The results were reflected visually by an artist using graphic recording in the front of the room, which made the event more attractive.
Different ideas were exchanged during the conversations in the tables. The first day, motivations, needs and capacities drivers and barriers for entering into innovation collaboration were discussed which served as a basis for drafting specific measures for boosting bi-regional innovation activities and identifying possible solutions to the actual barriers to EU-CELAC innovation cooperation.
Learning and exchanging experiences from Good Practices is crucial in both the EU and LAC, and should be used as a new tool for increased EU-LAC collaboration. In this sense, the second day agenda was devoted to sharing Good Practices and successful exemplary cases in the innovation field around five action lines. These were inspiration to develop a first poll of more than 60 Policy Recommendations on Cooperation Programmes: on science, technology and innovation, mobility of R&I actors, Interregional Cooperation on innovation Entrepreneurship and Knowledge transfer and market-oriented R&I between EU-LAC.
Creating platforms for the exchange of experiences and knowledge on policy design and implementation could be a tool for both European and Latin American and Caribbean countries as they work on crafting new sustainable and inclusive development strategies. This is exactly what both ELAN Network and ERANet LAC foresees and the framework in which the Forum was organised. We hope that the future collaboration between these two projects will be as fruitful as in the innovation forum!
