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White Paper on Opportunities and Challenges in View of Enhancing the EU Cooperation with Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South Caucasus in Science, Research, and Innovation
The White Paper provides a knowledge-base on the state of affairs of STI policies in the EU Member States and the European Neighbourhood, and in the Central Asian countries, identifies a series of challenges and recommendations on enhancing the EU-EECA STI cooperation and proposes a short-term implementation scenario to a variety of stakeholders.
The findings of the White Paper are based on a broad methodological approach: analytical desk research concerning a variety of EU programmes and instruments was complemented by interviews with policy stakeholders and representatives of the science and innovation communities in the EECA region, as well as by mutual learning exercises, discussions at STI policy stakeholders’ conferences in Athens, Moscow, Astana, Warsaw, and expert meetings on ENPI and DCI as well as meetings of NCP. The presentation of the draft of the present White Paper during the Warsaw Conference was followed by an open web-based consultation process of the wider public, which resulted in additional feed-back.
The White Paper presents a knowledge based approach to tackling major issues of relevance for enhancing STI cooperation between the EU and EECA countries. However, it should be perceived as experts’ advice that neither reflects the official positions of individual countries nor of the European Commission. Stakeholders from the policy sector as well as from the science and innovation communities and civil societies in both regions are invited to reflect on the recommendations given in this White Paper and to draw their own conclusions for joint concrete actions to prioritize and implement in favour of advancing the bi-regional cooperation in science, technology and innovation.
