On the 10th of July 2014 participants from all over the region met in Belgrade to launch Danube-INCO.NET’s policy dialogue on how to work towards achieving the goals of the European Research Area (ERA) and the Innovation Union (IU). Recommendations are now available.

In order to facilitate the policy dialogue, Danube-INCO.NET foresees the organisation of a series of three workshops on specific IU commitments or ERA priorities, respectively, to be  held in different non – EU Member States, i.e. Serbia, Ukraine and Moldova.

Each workshop focuses on a coherent set of topics related to ERA priorities and IU commitments, respectively, that have been identified as priority subject for the partners involved in the task, and that are of particular relevance for the host country. The first workshop in Belgrade addressed the subject area “Optimal transnational co-operation and competition: Jointly addressing grand challenges” (ERA Priority 2), including through the “Joint establishment, operation and transnational use of national and European research infrastructures” (IU Commitment 5). The topic involves efforts to implementing joint research agendas addressing grand challenges, sharing information about activities in common priority areas, and ensuring that adequate national funding is committed and mutually interoperable.

In July the workshop´s specific objectives have been to:

–  analyse the state of progress in both EU countries and in non-EU countries regarding transnational cooperation of national programmes in the Danube region,

– discuss key issues from the national perspectives, focussing on Serbia as the host country and leading on the workshop theme, and

– identifying measures to be recommended for enhancing progress particularly in the non-EU countries.

Prior to the workshop, a discussion paper had been prepared, describing the context and current state-of-play in the topic area, thus providing a common point of departure for the discussion. The debate led to the attached recommendations for policy-makers in the Danube region so as to inspire joint efforts in supporting R&I through the pooling of national funds and in the cooperation between and transnational access to key research infrastructures in the region.

The project was organised by the Mihajlo Pupin institute. Find the discussion paper, the recommendations and presentations given at workshop at the official page of the project.

More info: http://danube-inco.net/object/news/13961