Southeast Asian Science & Technology Year, 2012
The overall objective of the Southeast Asian Science & Technology Year, 2012
is to highlight, promote and extend the EU-SEA S&T cooperation. By
concentrating the efforts on topics strategic importance and of global
relevance it the cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation
between the two regions should reach greater impact and a higher visibility.
The idea was born within the FP7/Capacities Project SEA-EU-NET; but the
activity should ultimately be driven by a wide range of stakeholders from the
two regions.
The Science Year woiuld be the fist of its kind, in whch the cooperation
between Europe and a partner region is highlighted. This is offering the
opportunity to develop synergies between bilateral cooperation and to push
forward ne joint bi-regional initiatives.
There are multiple reasons why Southeast Asia qualifies for such a pilto
initiative:
-
Dynamic regional ASEAN integration process; e.g. in the area of
science and technology cooperation
-
Existing diveres and stable bilateral cooperation between EU and
ASEAN member states (GER-VNM/IDN, UK-THA/SGP, NL-IDN, FR-VNM)
which would form the basis for a bi-regional Year of Science
-
Strong interest among stakeholders in SEA to intensify S&T cooperation
with Europe (reflected by the newly established EC-ASEAN political
dialogue on S&T). The iniative of the S&T year shoudl be established
within teh framwork of a strategic EU-ASEAN S&T dialogue
-
There is an increased S&T Cooperation between EU and ASEAN, which
would be further fuelled by the intitiave (SEA countries already
participate in over 80 FP7 projects, a strong increase compared to FP6)
-
Necessity for stronger collaboration to contribute solving global
challenges (SEA as one of the most volnerable regions to climate
change)
-
SEA has pockets of research excellence, which could be developed as
hubs for collaboration with EU. Cooperation with SEA is not meant as
development aid but as collaboration on equal footing
1) Objectives
The activities of the Science Year should be based on three pillars
Political Dialogue on S&T
Communication between political stakeholders on the thematic priorities and
instruments for future cooperation, with the following specific objectives: To
acknowledge the long-lasting relations in S&T between the two regions and to
give an impetus for future activities

Give impetus for new joint activities

Enlarging bi-lateral cooperation towards bi-regional cooperation
patterns

To identify common global research challenges and to identify ways to
tackle them
Science awareness/Science communication
Communication with the wider pubic on the relevance and importance of
S&T, with the following specific objective

To promote and disseminate success stories of EU-SEA S&T cooperation

To increase the visibility towards the public of the diverse and longlasting S&T relations between the two regions

To promote the competencies in S&T in Europe and Southeast Asia in
the respective regions
S&T cooperation
Concrete Instruments and activities to support scientists; e.g.

Targeted calls/SICAs for SEA in the FP7Cooperation programme 2013

To launch new initiatives and activities in research funding and research
cooperation that are of strategic interest for both regions

To foster mobility of ideas, researchers and research personnel between
the two regions
2) Activities and Instruments
There should be a variety of different activities and instruments undertaken
during the EU-SEA S&T year, most notably events, the launch of new
cooperation actions and the development of a joint communication platform

Kick-off event with high political and public visibility (beginning 2012)

Road shows – series of information & scientific events promoting biregional S&T cooperation (participation in FP7 and other European &
international programs, e.g. Aid Cooperation, World Bank, etc.);
Scientists of specific scientific disciplines as well as programme experts
will be invited from both the EU and the SEA-region. Main goal of the
road show is to enhance cooperation between the regions and
encourage joint proposals.

Innovation fora and workshops to initiate new forms of bi-regional
cooperation

Participation in leading S&T fairs in Europe and Southeast Asia

Summer Schools

Complementary actions; in particular in the area of capacity building
and technical cooperation
-
Implementation of a communication and information strategy; incl
series of publications to highlight successful S&T cooperation projects
3) Stakeholders, actors
-
Policy makers in Science, Technology and Innovation
-
S&T funding organisations in both regions
-
Research Organisations, Universities and individual researchers as the
main actors of research cooperation and collaborative action
-
Technology oriented companies in Europe and Southeast Asia
-
Multipliers, Media and the interested public
-
Non-governmental organisations, foundations, etc, involved in S&T
and capacity building
4) Steps to take to implement
-
Invitation Letter to Stakeholder institutions in EU and SEA (February
2011)
-
Internal Management meeting of all supporting institutions (April 2011
– via webconference)
-
Launch of YoS Communications platform (June 2011)
-
Kick-off event
Hanoi/Vietnam)
with
High-level
policy
makers
(Nov
2011,