SEA-EU-NET Indonesia

SEA-EU-NET

The SEA-EU-NET project is based on the program Capacities under the 7th Framework Program of the EU-Commission with the strategic objective of "Integrating and Strengthening the EU-ASEAN Science and Technology Dialogue through coordination and supporting activities”. It has a 4 years runtime, a budget of 2.9 Mio € and is currently supported by 25 key S&T institutions (17 participants and 8 additional members of the steering board) from Europe and Southeast Asia, while also encouraging additional SEA partners to join the consortium in the future.

The SEA-EU-NET will increase the quality, quantity, profile and impact of bi-regional Science and Technology (S&T) cooperation between the ten member countries of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Member- and Associated States of the European Union (EU). The Nuremberg Declaration on an EU-ASEAN Enhanced Partnership of March 15th 2007 recognises the increasing importance of Southeast Asia as a region and calls for a deepening of the level of cooperation, including S&T, between the EU and ASEAN. The EU is ASEAN’s second largest export market and third largest trading partner after the US and Japan.

There is significant potential in strengthening the participation of SEA countries in FP7, and for increased European involvement in SEA S&T. Untapped potential for bi-regional cooperation includes awareness of research cooperation opportunities, collaborations among researchers, bridging the “distance” hurdle for building trust and confidence essential for successful partnerships, facilitating the understanding of S&T programs on both sides, assistance when navigating such programs, and aligning asynchronous research funding systems between the two regions and within the member countries.

In addition to the potentials listed above, there also exist significant opportunities to augment and leverage on regional networks, policies and initiatives developed under for example the auspices of the ASEAN Committee on Science and Technology (COST) in South East Asia. Therefore increased SEA-EU cooperation requires targeted measures that integrate and strengthen the bi-regional S&T dialogue in a coherent and sustainable way.

Measures include the implementation of joint fora facilitating and strengthening the bi-regional and bi-lateral dialogue, analysing S&T structures and reporting to EU-presidencies in order to incorporate recent political and S&T developments and to generally highlight EU-ASEAN initiatives within the political decision making process in both regions. In addition the SEA-EU-NET aims at building a network of different stakeholders in the SEA region while at the same time linking it to other existing and upcoming ERA-, INCO-NET, and thematic EU-FP projects thus facilitating the development of a coherent European-level approach towards international S&T cooperation.

SEA-EU-NET will not only lead to enhanced S&T cooperation but will contribute to the Nuremberg Declaration goals of promoting collaboration to deal with global challenges, particularly in the fields of renewable energy, climate change and disaster mitigation. SEA-EU-NET will provide the S&T base for EU-ASEAN cooperation in achieving the Millennium Development Goals through joint efforts in nurturing human and scientific resources for sustainable development.

The main objectives are:

• Networking: To facilitate a bi-regional dialogue involving stakeholders from policy making, science community and industries. The dialogue will address the respective S&T potentials, policy goals and demands in order to define common priorities and to develop joint scenarios and implementation strategies for strengthening the S&T cooperation.

• Reporting: To report to the EU-Commission, EU-presidencies, the ASEAN-secretariat and the ASEAN-COST Chairman in order to incorporate recent political developments and to generally highlight EU-ASEAN initiatives within the political decision process.

• Analysis: To identify key-players and institutions in national research systems and to analyse the current S&T cooperation between EU and ASEAN member states by conducting a strategic mapping exercise and analysing bi-lateral EU-ASEAN relations. The strategic mapping exercise will facilitate information exchange and highlight opportunities for future cooperation.

• Advising: To support the coordination of S&T cooperation activities with other EU policies and thus to ensure a coherent approach towards the SEA-ASEAN with emphasis on the Neighbourhood Policy (External Relations).

• FP7- Participation: To strengthen the participation of EU-SEA-collaboration projects in the 7th EU Framework Program with emphasis on the “Cooperation” and “Peoples” part of the program by establishing a network of National Information Points for EU-FP7 in SEA.

• Topic Identification: To assist in joint identification of topics for collaboration under FP7 thematic programmes.

• Scenario Development: To develop joint scenarios and setting up S&T related implementation activities addressed to deal with global challenges (in particular Millennium Development Goals.

• Foresight: To provide EU and ASEAN S&T policy-makers with strategic policy recommendations on future research cooperation between these two regions.

The project consortium consists of 15 organisations from 7 EU Member States, 1 Associate State and 3 ASEAN Member States. All are involved in ongoing bi-lateral research programmes and /or working as strategy and foresight organisations in the cooperation and bi-lateral dialogue between EU and ASEAN. They focus on various scientific areas, reaching from human and social sciences to technology. Partners represent national ministries (or their office of international relations), research councils, foundations, science academies, or research organisations.

The central element of the INCO-NET will be a reinforced, enhanced and open policy dialogue among relevant political stakeholders, based on a Bi-Regional S&T Policy Dialogue Platform (Annual Senior Officials Conference). Stakeholders of the science policy community from both regions (e.g. EU-Commission, ASEAN-Sec., ASEAN-COST, all EU-MS, EU Associated States, all ASEAN-MS, and stakeholders of multi-lateral organisations (Asian Development Bank, World Bank), will be invited to join the dialogue in order to increase transparency. The meetings will be alternately organised in Europe and Asia (Paris 2008, Jakarta 2009, Budapest 2010, and Hanoi 2011).

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