EURussia: A multifaceted partnership

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EU-Russia A multi-faceted partnership
EU-Russia science cooperation Where are we? What
could be done?

• Richard Burger
• Science Counsellor
• Delegation of the European Commission to Russia
• 22 May 2009

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EU-RU ST Cooperation

• Outline of this presentation
• Overview context current state-of-affairs
  recent milestones
• Inventory of EU-funded ST policy management
  projects
• Some thoughts on future areas of cooperation on
  the enabling conditions

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International ST Cooperation

• Guiding principles for the EU
• Support competitiveness through strategic
  partnerships with third countries in selected
  fields of RD
• Address global challenges
• Address specific problems facing third countries
  on the basis of mutual interest and mutual
  benefit
• Use ST cooperation to reinforce EC external
  relations and other relevant policies
• Coordination b/n European Community and EU member
  states

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EU-Russia ST Cooperation Overview

• EU-Russia ST cooperation
• - 27 EU Member States Russia
• - European Community Russia
• (gt see Compendium on EU-Russia Science
  Cooperation)
• Legal bases
• - EU Member States - Russia bilateral Agreements
  (MoU)
• - EU-Russia Partnership Cooperation Agreement
• - EC-Russia ST Cooperation Agreement
• - Euratom-Russia Cooperation Agreement in
  Nuclear Fusion
• - Euratom-Russia Cooperation Agreement in
  Nuclear Safety
• Road-map for the Common EU-Russia Space in
  Research, Education Culture

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EU-Russia ST cooperation Steering bodies
Policy scientific dialogue top down

• Permanent Partnership Council (PPC) in Science
  (ministerial level)
• Joint EC-Russia ST Cooperation Committee(ST
  Agreement)
• Joint EU-Russia Thematic Working Groups in
  priority areas (DG Directorate level)

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Joint EU-RU Thematic Research Working Groups

• Nanotechnologies New Materials
• Health
• Food, Agriculture, Biotechnologies
• Non-nuclear Energy
• Aeronautics
• Space
• Nuclear Energy Fission Research
• Information Communications Technologies
• Environment

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EU-RU ST cooperationPolicy scientific
dialogue

• Bottom-up EU Russian scientists themselves
  (!!)
• - scientific advisory councils and committees
• - expert advice to governments
• - joint evaluation committees
• - peer reviews
• - joint projects publications
• - scientific conferences
• - research visits

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EU-Russia ST Cooperation (1)Main instruments
EU member states

The bilateral ST, RD cooperation programmes of
the 27 individual EU member states (see
Compendium on Science Research Cooperation
between the EU and Russia).
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EU-Russia ST Cooperation (2)Main instruments
European Community

• European Community Framework Programme for
  Research Technological Development (2007-2013,
  50 billion)
• Euratom Framework Programme for Research
  Training Activities (2007-2011, 4.0 billion).
• TACIS, Common Spaces Facility, TAIEX - e.g.
  projects on the commercialisation of scientific
  results
• European Community Competitiveness Innovation
  Programme (to promote innovation,
  entrepreneurship growth among SMEs, 2007-2013,
  3.6 billion)

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EU-Russia ST Cooperation (3)Main instruments
pan-European organisations

• Eureka - a pan-European network for
  market-oriented, industrial RD (www.eureka.be)
• ESF - European Science Foundation (www.esf.org)
• INTAS - International Association for the
  promotion of scientific cooperation with the
  countries of the former Soviet Union

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EU-Russia ST Cooperation (4)International
initiatives

• ISTC International Science Technology Centre
  (www.istc.ru)
• ITER - International Thermonuclear Experimental
  Reactor (www.iter.org)
• CERN - the world's largest particle physics
  centre (www.cern.ch)
• International Space Station (ISS)
• ()

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Russia in the EU Framework Programmes for
Research Technological Development

• Overall, Russia continues to be the most active
  third country in the EU FPs
• e.g. Russia was most successful third-country
  in FP6 330 signed FP6 contracts, incl. 60 Marie
  Curie fellowships), worth 2.8 billion
• Total EC contribution to RU participants in FP6
  was 120 million (including INTAS)

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EU-RU ST cooperation

• also extends to related areas such as
• Higher Education
• - Russias participation in the Bologna
  process
• - Tempus programme
• - Erasmus Mundus programme
• Space (research)
• European Commission - European Space Agency -
  Roscosmos

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EU-RU ST cooperation

• and also includes Russias active participation
  in major European research infrastructures and
  facilities such as
• CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
• FAIR - Facility for Antiproton Ion Research
• GLORIAD - Global Ring Network for Advanced
  Applications Development
• GÉANT - European computer network for research
  education
• XFEL - European X-ray Free Electron Laser

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Recent milestones (1)An equitable partnership

• 2007-2008 Launch of EU-RU coordinated calls for
  co-funded research proposals in Energy and
  Food-Agriculture-Biotechnology
• 2008-2009 Launch of EU-RU coordinated calls for
  co-funded research proposals in Health and
  Nano-technologies New Materials and in Nuclear
  Fission Energy research
• Preparation of EU-RU coordinated calls for
  co-funded research proposals in Aeronautics in
  2009-2010

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Recent milestones (2)

• 10/04/2008 Russian expression of interest in
  association with EC and Euratom Framework
  Programmes for Research
• 26/05/2008 ministerial-level EU-Russia Permanent
  Partnership Council (noted that an eventual
  association of the Russian Federation to the 7th
  Framework Programme on Research Technological
  Development would take Russia-EU ST cooperation
  to a new qualitative level and stated that the
  European Research Area would be enriched and
  strengthened by Russia also becoming a full part
  of it).

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EU-RU ST cooperationMain conclusions (1)

• ST cooperation covers virtually all scientific
  areas includes a very broad spectrum of
  different activities.
• ST cooperation is a very dynamic,
  multi-dimensional fast developing area of
  cooperation of by itself.
• ST cooperation is an integral component and an
  important part in the overall EU-Russia
  relationship.

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EU-RU ST cooperationMain conclusions (2)

• Arguably, the ST relationship of the European
  Union with Russia is as broad deep as (if not
  broader deeper than) the EUs ST relationship
  with any other non-EU member state, and one of
  the most dynamically developing areas of the
  EU-Russian relationship overall.

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EU-RU ST cooperation

• Science policy management
• the enabling conditions
• at the EC-level, there have been numerous
  projects initiatives supported by
• FP5, FP6, FP7, TACIS

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ST policy management projects (1) - General

• FP6 RUS-ERA FP6 RUS-ERA.EXE (Extending the
  ERA to Russia)
• INTAS ININ (Information Network in the NIS
  countries)
• FP6 CREATION (support RU SMEs participation in
  FP6 in ERA)
• FP6 ERA-NIS (strengthening ST cooperation b/n
  ERA and NIS)
• FP6 RegionERA (RU regional support network for
  ST cooperation with EU)
• FP6 NIS-NEST (opening up New Emerging ST to
  NIS)
• FP6 ScopeEast (Scenarios for a Coordinated
  Approach to ST Cooperation with the Eastern
  Neighbours of the EU")
• FP6 BRUIT (Benchmarking RU UA with Innovation
  TrendChart)

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ST policy management projects (1) - General

• FP7 INCONTACT (Network of INCO-NCPs)
• FP7 BILAT-Rus
• FP7 ERA-Net.RUS
• FP7 INCO-Net EECA (Eastern Europe Central Asia)
• FP7 Access4EU.Rus

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ST policy management projects (2) - Thematic

• FP6 SITE (ICT)
• FP6 InJoyTrain (Food Quality and Safety)
• FP6 Admire-P (ICT)
• FP6-INTAS GlobalSSH (Social Sciences
  Humanities EU-Russia-CIS-China)
• FP6 Ideal-IST (ICT)
• FP6 ISTOK-RU (ICT)
• FP7 ISTOK-Soyuz (ICT)
• FP7 EURAL (Environment)
• FP7 Nano mapping (Nano-technologies)

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ST policy management projects (3)

• Tacis ST Development in the Russian Market
  Economy (EDRUS9512)
• Tacis Science Cities and Innovation Centres
  (FINRUS 9804)
• Tacis "Science Technology Commercialisation
  (AP 2002)
• Tacis "Innovations strategy in the use of
  intellectual property" (AP 2002)
• Gate2RuBIN (RUITC-RA-RTTN) partner in CIP
  Enterprise Europe Network (EEN)

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Some (not all!) lessons learnt

• Need to listen to all partners stakeholders
  (scientists researchers, policy-makers) in east
  west.
• Realise that learning from experience and
  applying in practice the lessons
  recommendations from past projects takes time.
• Learn to understand, and navigate, ones own
  flexibilities rigidities and those of ones
  partners.

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Reported weaknesses in EU-Russia ST cooperation
/ Possible areas of future attention (1)

• Language barriers, differences in working
  cultures, weak networking
• Mobility of researchers (visa issue) and of
  materials equipment (customs issue)
• Banking issues international transfer of funds
  into out of Russia
• IPR issues e.g. full direct enforcement of
  IPRs in Russia in joint (transnational) ST
  projects
• Compatibility of standards methodologies for
  performance assessment, independent project
  evaluation, bench-marking of organisations
  activities

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Reported weaknesses in EU-Russia ST cooperation
/ Possible areas of future attention (2)

• Access to use of ST infrastructures
  facilities (including in Russia)
• Joint identification of priority areas for joint
  activities
• Development of mechanisms instruments for joint
  / coordinated actions
• Participation of European researchers in Russian
  ST programmes
• Recognising using the scientific capacities
  the cooperation potential of the Russian regions
• Information contact points in key Russian
  regions

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Possible areas of future attention (3)

• Understanding using the synergies
  complementarities of different European Community
  schemes (e.g. TAIEX, Common Spaces Facility,
  Framework Programme, Erasmus Mundus, Tempus, CIP,
  etc.)
• Synergies coordination between instruments of
  EU Member States, the European Community, and
  Russia (variable geometries) - linking
  bilateral multilateral schemes

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• Thank you for your attention.
• Richard Burger
• Science Counsellor
• Delegation of the European Commission to Russia
• ltRichard.Burger_at_ec.europa.eugt