Context: ECRAAL assists research entities in Asia, Africa and Latin America and beyond, to build the capacity for accessing and take-up of EU funds available to them. With the European Union’s EU 2020 Strategy, EU funding for research is set to rise to 3% GDP by 2020 and due to the Union’s ambitions to tackle the grand societal challenges, international co-operation is an important component of the future EU research agenda. ECRAAL also, therefore, undertakes engagement actions for the AAL research community in the formulation of relevant EU policies.

Through such actions, ECRAAL aims ultimately to build trust and collaboration between international co-operation partners in research. To do this, ECRAAL is a platform for building a critical mass of international co-operation partners, actual and potential, in order to:

• facilitate the take-up of the full breadth of EU funding available to AAL partners;
• improve the governance and effectiveness of international co-operation through research policy;
• help shape appropriate research policy and funding in the European Union in order to improve the Union’s external actions and to meet the grand societal challenges of our day.

Workshop aim and purpose: Alongside consolidating its members' input into the formulation of the international co-operation dimension of the Union’s future Common Strategic Framework for EU research and innovation funding, ECRAAL is preparing parallel policy engagement actions at EU level. This workshop is one such action and it will follow hot on the heels of the European Commission’s high level consultation on international S&T co-operation on 17 May 2011, at which ECRAAL’s Scientific Director will speak.

The principal aim of such ECRAAL workshops is to represent the AAL research community in relevant EU policies, and this workshop approaches the international co-operation dimension of EU research and innovation policy from the perspective of development policy.

We are making a start with the topic of climate change adaptation and mitigation: one of the grand societal challenges facing the world today in which the research community in Asia, Africa and Latin America has a crucial, multi-dimensional role to play. Topics dealt with will include or touch upon:

• the formulation of future EU research priorities as concerns climate change; adaptation and mitigation and synergies with EU development priorities;
• the Treaty of Lisbon and EU development actions;
• the modernisation of EU development policy;
• new EU budget instruments to reflect parallel EU priorities in various relevant fields, including those of development, climate change and research.

The Proceedings: Prof. Dr. Gupta and Dr. van der Grijp will launch the debate with an introduction to the broader findings of their collected volume and its continuing relevance today: Mainstreaming Climate Change in Development Co-operation: Theory, Practice and Implications for the European Union (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

Dr. Von Burgsdorff of the European Commission will then talk about the role for research in the Union’s future development policy while Dr. Ghosh will address financing challenges for research and innovation in climate change in the context of development policy generally. ECRAAL’s Scientific Director, Dr. Inglis, will finish with a report to the conference on the Commission’s high level consultation on the international co-operation dimension of the future EU common strategic framework for research and innovation of 17 May 2011.

The last hour of the workshop is dedicated to debate and discussion. Participants are invited to submit comments or questions for discussion before the workshop, by 26 May 2011 to info@ecraal.org, providing headline questions for the panel or a brief abstract of a topic they wish to address themselves (to be strictly no longer than 5 minutes of oral intervention). We are particularly keen to have the input of AAL partners from the research community and will also accept questions and comments from those unable to attend the event in person.

Speakers (confirmed)

Prof. Dr. Joyeeta Gupta & Dr. Nicolien van der Grijp, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Dr. Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, Council on Energy, Environment & Water, India

Dr. Sven Kühn Von Burgsdorff, European Commission, DG Development

Dr. Kirstyn Inglis, ECRAAL

PROGRAMME

6 Rond Point Schuman, 1040 Brussels

1pm - 2pm Networking lunch beginning with a welcome address by

Luca Polizzi, CEO, ECRAAL

1.45pm to 2pm Some introductory comments on the new powers of the European Parliament concerning international S&T co-operation in development policy

Charles Goerens, MEP (tbc)

2pm to 2.40pm Current challenges in mainstreaming climate change in development policy

Prof. Dr. Joyeeta Gupta , Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Dr. Nicolien van der Grijp, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

2.40pm to 3.10pm The role for climate change research, science & innovation in future EU development policy

Dr. Sven Kühn Von Burgsdorff, European Commission, DG Development

3.10pm to 3.40pm Current challenges for financing mechanisms in international research, science & technology & climate change in the context of development policy

Dr. Arunabha Ghosh, Council on Energy, Environment & Water, India

3.40 to 4pm The outcome of the European Commission’s International S&T Co-operation Event of 17 May 2011

Kirstyn Inglis, Scientific Director, ECRAAL

4pm to 5pm Discussion animated by Luca Polizzi, CEO, ECRAAL

Access the conference rationale and programme.

Source: Kirstyn Inglis, ECRAAL.

Date: 27 May 2011 from 13:00 to 17:00