EU-LAC SUMMIT — Action Plan — Final Declaration

(a) Sci­ence, research, inno­va­tion and technology

The main objec­tive in this area is to devel­op the “EU-LAC Knowl­edge Area” through: i) improv­ing coop­er­a­tion in research and inno­va­tion; ii) strength­en­ing sci­en­tif­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal capac­i­ties, and infra­struc­tures; iii) to enable sus­tain­able research, inno­va­tion and knowl­edge shar­ing tak­ing into account the con­tri­bu­tion of ances­tral and tra­di­tion­al knowl­edge; iv) to boost the use of new tech­nolo­gies and tech­nol­o­gy trans­fer under­pin­ning sus­tain­able socio-eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and v) to fos­ter coop­er­a­tion between both regions as regards the dig­i­tal econ­o­my and the reduc­tion of the dig­i­tal divide for improv­ing com­pet­i­tive­ness while mak­ing social inclu­sion a cross-cut­ting issue. 

Work Pro­gramme:

* Dia­logue

a. Estab­lish a 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.

b. Explore the pos­si­bil­i­ty of work­ing joint­ly with oth­er insti­tu­tions in mat­ters relat­ed to inno­va­tion and knowl­edge, applied research and tech­no­log­i­cal innovation.

*Coop­er­a­tion activ­i­ties and initiatives

c. Com­mence the devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of the new mech­a­nism, the “EULAC Joint Ini­tia­tive for Research and Inno­va­tion” com­bin­ing instru­ments at nation­al, region­al and bi-region­al lev­el as appro­pri­ate in a com­ple­men­tary and syn­er­gis­tic manner.

d. Estab­lish or strength­en the­mat­ic net­works on agreed issues of mutu­al inter­est, which should facil­i­tate exchanges between EU-LAC uni­ver­si­ties and research cen­tres and net­works and pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tor institutions.

e. Strength­ened the inte­gra­tion of both regions in the Infor­ma­tion Soci­ety and Sup­port the devel­op­ment of the infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nolo­gies (ICT) sec­tor and the reduc­tion of the dig­i­tal divide and dig­i­tal illit­er­a­cy through an increase of inter­con­nec­tiv­i­ty between the edu­ca­tion and research net­works with­in and between regions and enhance access to and use of resources.

f. Devel­op and inten­si­fy the dia­logue and coop­er­a­tion on infor­ma­tion soci­ety, strate­gies, reg­u­la­tion mod­els for the com­mu­ni­ca­tion sec­tor and in the audio­vi­su­al field.

g. Devel­op an inter­face between research and inno­va­tion through a knowl­edge and inno­va­tion cen­ters net­work to facil­i­tate social appro­pri­a­tion of knowl­edge and tech­nol­o­gy in par­tic­u­lar keep­ing in mind the micro and SMEs.

h. Pro­mote the exten­sion of sci­en­tif­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal coop­er­a­tion with­in all Latin Amer­i­can sub-regions and the Caribbean, as well as the adop­tion of inno­v­a­tive instru­ments to strength­en coop­er­a­tion with spe­cial atten­tion to coun­tries with low par­tic­i­pa­tion in EU-LAC Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy coop­er­a­tion activities.

i. Fos­ter coop­er­a­tion for human and insti­tu­tion­al capac­i­ty build­ing and encour­age the return of researchers to their coun­tries of origin.

j. Exchange expe­ri­ences and best prac­tices in areas of inno­va­tion, such as incu­ba­tion, entre­pre­neur­ship, sci­ence parks and start-up enterprises. 

* Expect­ed results

k. New ini­tia­tives for more effec­tive coor­di­na­tion and coop­er­a­tion aim­ing at inter­con­nect­ing knowl­edge, sci­ence; research and inno­va­tion ;as well as busi­ness, entre­pre­neur­ial, and research cen­tres and net­works from the EU and LAC coun­tries, and lead­ing to an improved uptake and dis­sem­i­na­tion of research results for inno­va­tion in par­tic­u­lar for the micro and SMEs.

l. Road Map defin­ing spe­cif­ic tar­gets and asso­ci­at­ed per­for­mance indi­ca­tors for the imple­men­ta­tion of the Joint Ini­tia­tive will be set up and updat­ed on a reg­u­lar basis.

m. A com­pre­hen­sive joint strat­e­gy in research, devel­op­ment and inno­va­tion sup­port­ing, among oth­er things, an improved use of the pos­si­bil­i­ties that ICT offers, includ­ing in the areas of e‑Government, e‑Health and e‑Education, as well as in rela­tion to cli­mate change-relat­ed and oth­er rel­e­vant issues.

n. Rein­forced pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tor efforts for the improve­ment of the inter­con­nec­tion of edu­ca­tion and research net­works through the enhance­ment of transat­lantic links, includ­ing through new optic fibre cables.

o. Increased com­pat­i­bil­i­ty of reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works in the field of elec­tron­ic com­mu­ni­ca­tions and improved qual­i­ty of dig­i­tal contents.

p. Improved qual­i­ty and effec­tive­ness of the sci­en­tif­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal coop­er­a­tion through: i) increased knowl­edge of EU-LAC sci­en­tif­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal com­mu­ni­ties, ii) increased research focus on agreed items of mutu­al inter­est iii) larg­er sci­en­tif­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal capac­i­ties of LAC coun­tries, involv­ing also nation­al pro­grammes and capac­i­ty build­ing for the Caribbean, to dri­ve their own devel­op­ment and to achieve enhanced coop­er­a­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties with the EU iv) increased infor­ma­tion exchange.