IncoNet EaP

There is a political interest in the European Union in closer collaboration with the so called Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The partners in both regions have committed themselves to jointly promote economic development and social cohesion and to increase stability and prosperity of all participating countries.

General Objectives of IncoNet EaP

Support the advancement of the policy dialogue among the regions, aiming at mutual benefit and thus contributing to develop the collaboration in Science, Technology and Innovation between the EU and the EaP countries through different approaches and communication and exchange formats which are described later in detail.
Explicitly focus on the societal challenges that have been identified as equally important to all countries involved during the preceding projects, namely Climate Change, Energy and Health, which will be addressed through various structural activities both at policy-support and operational research-support level.
Introduce concrete measures to strengthen an effective and sustainable innovation partnership between the two regions by launching pilots on basis of variable geometry.

The project will go beyond building the bridge between the 7th Framework Programme on Research, Technological Development and Demonstration and the upcoming new research and innovation programme for 2014-2020, Horizon 2020; it will also embrace other Community policies and instruments (such as ENPI and its follow-up ENI) as well as further international initiatives such as UNDP, UNECE, UNEP, World Bank, etc. in order to identify complementarities and synergies among the relevant instruments.

Specific Objectives of IncoNet EaP

A. Focus on Societal Challenges (SC)

The present project will support joint agenda setting on research priorities in the 3 SC: Climate Change, Energy and Health. It will investigate joint programming possibilities and funding, as well as capacity building activities. The project will identify relevant stakeholders in the 3 SC building on the experience from the previous IncoNets, will carry out pilot actions and will formulate recommendations after evaluation of the implemented actions.

B. Supporting policy dialogue

There is no formal STI policy dialogue forum between the EU MS/AC and the EaP countries. Policy Stakeholder Conferences are organised as a substitute with the participation of policy makers, the academic community but also the private sector, international organizations, etc. In the present project a strong focus will be given to the 3 Societal Challenges.

C. Foster cooperation between stakeholders

Under this heading two main fields of activities are mentioned in the INCO Work Programme 2013: activities to promote the EU’s Framework Programme and activities to promote the cooperation in Innovation.

D. Ensure effectiveness and impact

The project devotes a particular effort in terms of communication and dissemination activities in order to increase its impact.

List of Participants

Participant No	Participant short name	Participant organisation name	Country
1(coord.)	ZSI	Zentrum für Soziale Innovation	Austria
2	CeRISS	Centre for Regional and International Studies and Support	Greece
3	NIP	Centre for Scientific and Technical Information and Innovation Promotion of Ukraine	Ukraine
4	DLR	Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.	Germany
5	CIP	Centre of International Projects of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova	Moldova
6	BelISA	Belarusian Institute of System Analysis and Information Support of Scientific and Technical Sphere	Belarus
7	IPPT-PAN	Instytut Podstawowych Problemow Techniki Polskiej Akademii Nauk	Poland
8	TUBITAK	The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey	Turkey
9	NAS-RA	National Academy of Sciences of Armenia	Armenia
10	CNRS	Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique	France
11	ANAS	Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences	Azerbaijan
12	ETAg	Sihtasutus Eesti Teadusagentuur	Estonia
13	SRNSF	Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation	Georgia
14	K-T	TBI Kharkov Technologies	Ukraine
15	SPI	Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação, Consultadoria Empresarial e Fomento da Inovação, S.A.	Portugal
16	RCISD	Regional Centre for Information and Scientific Development Ltd	Hungary
17	UNU	United Nations University, Vice Rectorate in Europe, Institute for Environment and Human Security	Germany
18	APRE	Agenzia per la Promozione della Ricerca Europea	Italy
19	ICBSS	International Centre for Black Sea Studies	Greece