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Impact

ALCUE NET has achieved a great deal for NCP systems in LAC

03/11/2016

Based on an interview with Claudia Romano, Direction of International Relations and Projects, Ministry for Education and Culture Uruguay (MEC)

ALCUE NET has contributed significantly to further developing the system of Latin American and Caribbean National Contact Points (NCPs). National NCP systems in LAC were at very different stages when ALCUE NET started. In countries where no NCP system existed, like El Salvador or Bolivia, ALCUE NET supported the initiation, design and construction of such systems or the appointment of first national NCPs. In other cases, like...

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Peru on the uprise in scientific cooperation

12/09/2016

Although Peru is no official partner in the ALCUE NET project, the country has shown high interest in diverse ALCUE NET actions and is making serious efforts to position itself stronger in EU-CELAC scientific cooperation and shows potential to play a greater role in this arena the future.

Lourdes Cecilia Tapia Nunez works as Coordinator for Technological Development in the Peruvian Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation (CONCYTEC). The actions implemented by the ALCUE NET project go hand in hand with the efforts which CONCYTEC is currently undertaking to...

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Connecting academic and commercial sectors for cooperation in bioeconomy

07/09/2016

Elizabeth Hodson of the Universidad Javeriana credits ALCUE NET with contributing to make bioeconomy a trend research area in Colombia by enabling exchange between different stakeholder groups who have complementary knowledge which can be used for cooperation projects. Elisabeth Hodson is very active in the process of building up those networks, especially between the academic and the commercial sector.


Various ALCUE NET workshops, round tables and meetings connected representatives from different stakeholder groups such as researchers, entrepreneurs or political decision make...

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Bolivia's success in catching-up

30/06/2016

based on an interview with Mauricio Céspedes, Bolivian INCO-NCP

Bolivia is a country with a relative young history in cooperating in the European Framework Programmes for Research. It’s Vice-Ministry for Science and Technology was only found in 2007 and only then did the country start building a national NCP system. However, since then these efforts have been quite ambitious and Bolivia has achieved considerable improvement in their cooperation records. Starting with 4 projects with Bolivian participation in FP7, Bolivia reached to have 11 projects and ...

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When today one speaks of bioeconomy in Colombia, the reference is ALCUE NET

22/12/2015

based on an interview with Rafael Aramendis and Adriana Castaño from SURICATA S.A.S., Colombia.

Rafael Aramendis works for the Colombian consultancy SURICATA SAS. The company was in charge of realizing a series of case studies for ALCUE NET for the topic of Bioeconomy in Colombia.
Rafael sees a clear maturation of Bioeconomy as a field of research and business in Colombia since the start of the ALCUE NET project. According to him there is now consciousness for the topic on the political level. Bioeconomy is being discussed by gover...

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ALCUE NET drives media coverage on Bioeconomy in Central America

17/12/2015

Informed by Ricardo Esmahán, columnist for the online newspaper El Diario de Hoy and Ex-Minister for Economy from el Salvador

Ricardo Esmahán from el Salvador is a faithful believer that Bioeconomy is the only alternative to achieve decarbonization of economies. He set himself an ambitious goal to incorporate Bioeconomy as a new concept in public policy in the region of Central America as there is yet little knowledge on Bioeconomy in the region.

Anyway, the Paris Agreement from December 2015 will increase the relevance of Bioeconomy on the continent and it is ...

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Developing a common understanding for local effects of Climate Change

10/11/2015

Based on an interview with Rasmus Benestad, Norwegian Met Service


Rasmus Benestad was invited to the ALCUE NET / CORDEX Workshop on Biodiversity and Climate Change in Bogotá in September 2015.


The event provided him with the opportunity to get connected with a new community, after all Mr. Benestad had not been active in cooperation with Latin America before.


For him, not only did the event connect researchers from two world regions, but also from different research communities: Biologists, Sociologists and Climate Researchers...

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It is tremendously important that ALCUE NET is committed to strengthening the link between biodiversity and climate change

22/09/2015

based on an interview with Carlos Ereño, Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences, University of Buenos Aires

Carlos Ereño is convinced that ALCUE NET has already made essential contributions to bringing the bi-regional cooperation in biodiversity and climate change (WP5) forward.

In a first step, ALCUE NET thematic workshops have achieved to establish a link between scientists who work in climate change and those working in biodiversity. A link that is historically weak, but very fundamental. In biodiversity a lot of climate scena...

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EU cooperation projects reduce fragmentation in biodiversity research

30/03/2015

based on an interview with Klaus Riede, Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK), Germany

Klaus Riede participated as speaker/participant in the ALCUE NET Workshop on Biodiversity in Santa Marta (Colombia).  For him, the participation in the workshop was interesting and worthwhile, because he could intensify valuable contacts. Especially interesting was for him a presentation on the World Meteorology Organisation (WMO) and their monitoring system. For Mr. Riede it was the first time to get in touch with this scientific community and he found the co...

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ALCUE NET achieves progress on consolidation in bioeconmy

23/03/2015

Based on an interview with Eduardo Trigo, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Argentina (MINCyT), International Relations Directorate

For Edurado Trigo ALCUE NET is most importantly an instrument for the advancement of CELAC - EU cooperation in key areas. In his specific area of interest, bioeconomy, the project already resulted in the consolidation of bioeconomy concepts and strategies in the CELAC region. In his opinion the project is contributing to set RTI cooperation into a broader political context and “that is good”, particularly ...

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MICITT Costa Rica conducted awareness-raising activities to promote STI cooperation with the European Union.

03/03/2015

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT), through the International Cooperation Unit (UCI) have been promoting info days about research and innovation cooperation options, capacity building, matchmaking and join activities with partners from the EU-LAC region.

These info days bought together private enterprises; universities and the public sector interested in formulate projects on the EU priority areas (Biodiversity and Climate Change, Energy, Bioeconomy and Health). In that sense, they were trained on cooperation opportunities such as ALCUE NET, Horizon ...

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ALCUE NET events enable actions in Bolivia

05/02/2015

based on an interview with Lucio Alejo Espinoza, Ph.D., Director of the Centre for Agroindustrial Technology (UMSS) and Bolivian NCP for Renewable Energy

Mr. Lucio Alejo participated as Bolivian expert in 2 Energy related ALCUE NET events in Mexico and Argentina. For him, the participation in the events was highly valuable as it enabled concrete new partnerships and new joint research actions in the energy field. Thanks to the workshop on Geothermal Energy in Salta (AR) Mr. Lucio Alejo made first contacts with European researchers and got especially interested in fu...

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"ALCUE NET allows to connect things which otherwise wouldn’t get connected"

05/02/2015

based on an interview with Gonzalo Arenas S. (Director International Relations) and Trinidad García Santa María (Coordinator Program International Cooperation) from CONICYT Chile

Gonzalo Arenas sees the big benefit of a project like ALCUE NET in the possibility to create synergies between different cooperation projects and initiatives (at national level or bi-regional level) which augment their impact by complementing each other: “ALCUE NET allows to connect things which otherwise wouldn’t get connected”. At the same ...

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ALCUE NET opens eyes on LAC potentials

17/12/2014

based on an interview with Miimu Miimu Airaksinen, Research Professor at VTT (Finland) and ALCUE NET Expert Panel member for Energy

Miimu Airaksinen said that her participation in the ALCUE NET project opened her eyes in the sense that she now sees how much potential there already is in Latin America in the area of smart cities and smart energies. She mentioned a system for smart integration in Brazil as an example for good practice where the fulfillment of the criteria of the smart grit was integrated from the beginning on. In the European case, on the other hand, ...

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ICT is well positioned in the EU-CELAC Policy Dialogue

24/11/2014

basen on an Interview with Yolanda Ursa, Grupo Inmark & representative of the Leadership project (FP7)

Yolanda Ursa is cooperating with Latin American partners in EU funded projects for many years and is convinced that EU-CELAC cooperation stands on a good foundation and has always worked well. The Leadership project is in continuous exchange with ALCUE NET and involves and promotes ALCUE NET whenever possible. At the same time is ALCUE NET a very valuable partner for the Leadership project, especially due to its close relation with the Senior Official Meeting (...

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Joining forces between FP7 projects is strengthening EU-CELAC cooperation

19/11/2014

based on an interview with Dr. Rafael Andres Medina, Instituto de Salud Carlos III & EU-LAC Health Coordinator

Rafael Medina, coordinator of the project EU-LAC Health, stressed the good relationship that was already achieved between EU-LAC Health and ALCUE NET. Medina thinks that it is important to align activities with ALCUE NET in order to avoid unnecessary redundancies and duplications of efforts. Medina thinks that projects like ALCUE NET or EU-LAC health are important in order to support the activities and tasks of the SOM working groups. Even more, EU-LAC ...

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The Caribbean is gaining visibility in the Policy Dialogue

03/11/2014

based in an interview with Cardinal Warde (Interim Director) and Lois Oliver, Caribbean Science Foundation

The Caribbean Science Foundation (CSF) exists for only 4 years and is therefore a pretty new partner in EC projects. Since the start of ALCUE NET the CSF, as a project partner, had a very steep learning curve according to Cardinal Warde, Interim Executive Director of CSF, and Lois Oliver, Assistant Director at CSF. The CSF did a lot of listening and a lot of learning to get familiar with “EU speak” and with EC rules and project proc...

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FINCEAL enhances impact of ALCUE NET in Finland

16/04/2014

Strategically, Finland has decided to increase researcher's cooperation with the Latin America and Caribbe and Africa. An important project/funding instrument has been established specifically to enhance Finnish participation in projects with these regions. FinCEAL (Developing Finnish Science, technology and Innovation Cooperation between Europe, Africa and the LAC Region) is an initiative by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture with the purpose of enhancing cooperation between the research and science policy communities in Finland, Europe and Africa and the LAC region. The Ministr...

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