1. INCONET MIRA Concept and Objectives
The Barcelona Declaration adopted at the Euro-Mediterranean Conference 27-28/11/95,
included in its recommendations: “…recognizing that science and technology have a
significant influence on socio-economic development, agree to strengthen scientific
research capacity and development, contribute to the training of scientific and technical
staff and promote participation in joint research projects based on the creation of
scientific networks;”
Science and technology cooperation will focus on:
Cromoting research and development and tackling the problem of the widening
gap in scientific achievement, taking into account the principle of mutual
advantage;
Stepping up exchanges of experience in the scientific sectors and policies which
might best enable the Mediterranean partners to reduce the gap between them
and their European neighbours and to promote the transfer of technology;
helping train scientific and technical staff by increasing participation in joint
research projects.
Following the Ministerial meeting at Sophia Antipolis in March 1995, a Monitoring
Committee was set up; this Committee met for the first time immediately after the
Barcelona Conference. It focuses on making recommendations for the joint
implementation of the policy priorities agreed at Ministerial level.
The European Neighbourhood Policy, ENP, (Com (2004)373 final) is a key component
of the European policy, as it integrates components of the three “pillars” of the EU
structure. In the case of the Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs), the Barcelona
Process is the reference for the implementation of the Action Plans that will develop the
Strategic Partnership, complemented with the actions executed under the Association
Agreements with each partner country. Research and Innovation is one of the priorities
of the ENP, and it will be implemented by means of the opening of the European
Research Area (ERA) to MPC and by supporting the capacity building activities needed
to guarantee a successful integration of the S&T community of the MPCs within the
ERA.
The MoCo is one of the Monitoring Instruments of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.
In turn, MoCo acts as Steering Committee of MIRA Project. In the course of its activity
it has identified the main issues related to the hurdles for participation of the MPC in the
FP. The 9th Meeting held in Cairo proposed an action plan that has been successfully
developed in the last four years in some specific projects: EUROMEDANET,
ASBIMED, MED7, ESTIME, ERAMED, etc. Some of the most visible results have
been: the establishment of the Information Points on the FP in most of the MPC, the
campaigns of awareness among the stakeholder of the MPC, the identification of the
common EU-MPC priorities for research, the identification of the on-going and past
bilateral scientific and technical cooperation programmes, the description of the RTD
system in the MPC.
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2. Moreover, there is a growing interest in the MPC to participate in the FP priorities other
than INCO-Med, which has been up to present the most used instrument for MPCs
participation to the FP. However, in order to guarantee such a participation, the MPCs
should develop the administrative capability, the procedural knowledge and a strong
financial capacity in order to guarantee a successful leadership or, at least, to be able to
compete successfully in the scientific market against strong European research
institutions. A very significant result of the research projects just mentioned under FP6,
that were suggested by the 9th MoCo Meeting held in Cairo, is that some MPC research
teams have gained a high competitive status and are able to formulate projects and to
create ad-hoc research networks. What seem to be missing are an institutional capability
and an institutional learning that would be necessary to rely upon in order to be able to
compete in equal terms to their European partner/competitor teams in the construction
and/or execution of an FP project. Various reasons explain this unbalanced situation that
range from administrative failures to management unpreparedness. Some of these
reasons have to do with the requirements in order to handle the administrative
procedures of European projects; others pertain to differences in administrative and
legal procedures on both sides of the Mediterranean. But, whatever the difference might
be, the main aspect is that research needs a strong institutional basis, active scientific
communities, and a strong social acceptance for research.
The Call for proposal for INCO-Net activities addresses the following objectives:
Promote, organise and contribute to the participation of third countries in the
activities of FP7.
Promote regional integration and will lead to the identification and the
prioritisation of common research areas of mutual interest and benefit.
Facilitate the uptake and use of common identified research areas and the
monitoring of performance and impacts of international S&T cooperation across
the Specific Programmes of FP7.
The present CA aims at tackling these objectives by creating a dialogue platform using
the state of the art of the ICT technologies, which will enable the discussion between
relevant stakeholders from both sides of the Mediterranean to improve the S&T
cooperation by, among other means, connecting and facilitating the interaction between
the dispersed S&T cooperation initiatives already existing supported by the Member
States, the European Commission and other political bodies. It will also address training
activities to improve the quality of the participation and management of the partners of
FP7 from the MPC. Is will create discussion platforms and meeting to monitor and
discuss the content of the Thematic priorities of FP7 in term of the common interest of
the EU and MPC and it will also create an Observatory of the EU-MPC S&T
cooperation, which will agree indicators for the monitoring of RTD cooperation
activities. It will also create a network of research institutions from both sides of the
Mediterranean, to support strategic collaboration and provide a reference element for
the development of the Euro-Mediterranean Innovation Space. All these activities are
aimed at providing a strong institutional basis.
Its main objective is thus to create a coordination instrument between activities of
different EU and MPC institutions that would contribute to the implementation of the
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3. European Neighbourhood Policy. In doing so, it is expected that this instrument would
permit to gradually enhance the EU-MPCs cooperation and thus follow the MoCo
recommendations to increase and improve the participation of the MPC stakeholders in
the 7th FP. The realisation of this objective is based on a series of policy tools that will
be fed the EU-MPCs cooperation, enrich the existing S&T cooperation policies, support
the existing Information Points, promote the participation of research centres and
companies from the MPCs in the FP, monitor the development of the participation of
the MPCs in the FP7 and identifying the common priorities of research.
Finally, the project will promote the cooperation in research and innovation activities by
designing recommendations to the MEDA, Bilateral EU-MPC Agreements
Implementation bodies, the 7th FP, as well as other initiatives created in order to
support research and innovation. In order to meet its general objective, the MIRA
Coordinated Action will have to create a support structure for the Euro-Mediterranean
Cooperation in S&T and organize actions to:
Enhance cooperation and favour the MPCs’ participation to the activities of the
7th FP.
Create discussion fora between EU and MPC stakeholder at different levels of
political and technical concern, to discuss the issues related to the S&T
cooperation.
Support the activity of the Monitoring Committee (MoCo) and identify the
common interests and monitor the activities of cooperation.
Create a large network of partners with different backgrounds, essentially
academics and policy makers, and incorporate, whenever possible, companies.
Promote specific topics for study and discussion, by identifying common
interests, knowledge building, and networking of experts from different fields.
Create specific indicators for S&T in MPCs and promote the creation of an
academic task force able to tackle the social study of research.
Facilitate the participation in FP7 through training of managers, scientist,
auditors and other relevant actors.
Disseminate the relevant information, and help build common knowledge and
competences for administrators, regulators, and managers in the Mediterranean
countries, but also among RTD performers and users. The creation of an EU-
MPC Portal on S&T cooperation is envisaged.
Promote the use of information and communication technologies as potent tools
for communication and management, by building virtual communities of
practice, opening several specific forums and diffuse management tools.
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