Initiatives
Project CONECTA 2020 (COoperation and NEtworking between Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe to Coordinate Research Opportunities around ICT and Horizon 2020 challenges via Technology PlAtforms ) was supported by the 7th European Framework Program FP7-ICT-2012.10. It began in February 2014, focusing on cooperation between Europe and Latin America and Caribbean countries around Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) applied to different fields. CONECTA 2020 proposed creating new knowledge networking mechanisms for interaction between Latin American Technology Platforms (LATPs) and European Technology Platforms (ETPs) as a new collaboration vehicle, sharing relevant knowledge on innovation within online communities of practice (CoIs) based on user roles, socioeconomic attributes, and regional priorities.
CONECTA 2020 focuses on the consolidation of EU-LatAm cooperation under the vision, principles and challenges of the Horizon 2020 Program of the European Commission. Its purpose was to convene existing Latin American Technology Platforms (LATPs) and create new LATPs to participate in a joint pilot effort to strengthen cooperation between the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean. CONECTA 2020 included the LATPs of Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay, and the European Technology Platforms (ETPs) of NEM and NESSI, with the aim of finding cooperation opportunities, with impacts on SMEs, corporations and regional research centers under the guidance of a national Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIAs) produced and maintained by each of these organizations.
A central objective of the CONECTA 2020 project was the strengthening of research links through the establishment of sustainable cooperation vehicles between European organizations and leading organizations in Latin America, with the aim of establishing mutually beneficial associations. The CONECTA 2020 Consortium agreed to establish four elements of its strategy Call to Action strategy:
-
Share or find innovation projects
-
Find support programs for innovation projects
-
Match requirements for innovation projects
-
Identify capabilities of companies
This strategy served as the basis for the consolidation of the knowledge model that enabled the Euro-Latin American CONECTA 2020 online community focused on global cooperation for innovation as part of the
Among the main Project CONECTA 2020 objectives approved by the European Commission were the following:
-
Extend and refine the Latin American Technology Platform (LATP) model created as part of the FIRST Project and take it to other Latin American countries
-
Update the Strategic Research and Innovation Agendas (SRIAs) of existing LATPs
-
Create the SRIAs of new participating LATPs
-
Promote cooperation between European and Latin American Technology Platforms.
-
Develop Matchmaking Tool to link Technology Platforms in the virtual realm and enable them with contextual knowledge
To facilitate the achievement of these objectives, the CONECTA 2020 Consortium studied different aspects of EU-LatAm cooperation on Future Internet, ICT Components and Systems, and ICT for Energy, beginning with an initial EU-Mexico pilot, whose implementation allowed to find new forms of cooperation between European and Latin American Technology Platforms. In the second phase of the project, the EU-Mexico pilot was extended to Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, and Uruguay, joining Colombia and Chile. The CONECTA 2020 knowledge network enabled virtual entailment of the organizations representing these countries, using the Spribo semantic engine to generate a knowledge base focused on Euro-Latin American cooperation on innovation.
The CONECTA 2020 Consortium adopted a common governance framework to establish a stronger Latin American bloc as a reconciled cooperation effort among participating Latin American countries and the European Union through Technology Platforms (TPs).
Examples of cooperation projects promoted between the partners of the CONECTA 2020 Consortium
R&D+i EU-LatAm cooperation priorities
(Source: European Support Action CONECTA 2020)
The CONECTA 2020 project generated a comprehensive set of reports delivered by the partners of the CONECTA 2020 Consortium to the European Commission:
