Page 40 - Revista del Observatorio de la Internacionalización de la Educación SuperiorVol 3. 2019

State of Play in the EU–CELAC Common Research Area
de sole, m.

namely, the regional (the first summit between The working groups are co-chaired by representa-
the EU and CELAC was held in Santiago, Chile, in tives of one CELAC and one EU country to ensure that
January 2013), the sub-regional (Central America, the interests of both groups are taken into account.
the Caribbean, the Andean Community and Mer- The currently existing working groups focus on
cosur), and, increasingly, the bilateral levels. the following subject areas:
The Bi-Regional Policy Dialogue Process in
Science and Technology ended its first decade 1. Bio-economy, including food security, co-chai-
in 2009. During that time, it has advanced its goal red by Argentina and France
of strategic partnership through policy dialogue 2. Renewable energy, co-chaired by Mexico and
in regular summits of head of states from the EU Spain
and CELAC. In 2010, CELAC was established as a 3. Biodiversity and climate change, co-chaired by
regional bloc of 33 sovereign countries, represen- Colombia and France
ting roughly 600 million people. It is now the EU’s 4. ICT for meeting societal challenges, co-chaired
counterpart for the bi-regional partnership process. by Chile and France
It was only in January 2013 that the new summit 5. Health, co-chaired by Spain and Brazil
process, known as the EU–CELAC was launched. 6. Cross-cutting working group on instruments and
The cooperation on research and innovation is funding, co-chaired by Portugal and Mexico
one of the three pillars of the EU–CELAC bilate-
ral dialogue, together with trade and investment The achievements attained and dialogue con-
and cooperation, relating to investment and ducted under the JIRI have led to support for the
entrepreneurship. development of an EU–CELAC Common Research
To govern this, the JIRI was established in 2010 Area to focus on three strategic pillars: researcher
with the intention of facilitating bi-regional dialo- mobility, access to research infrastructure and
gue on common priorities, as well as encouraging jointly addressing common global challenges,
mutual policy learning and ensuring cooperation such as climate change and the Zika outbreak.
through biannual action plans. The senior officials
meetings (SOMs) with EU–CELAC representatives
was established as a part of regular bi-regional dia- Common Research Area
logue on research and innovation to consolidate
EU–CELAC cooperation to implement the JIRI by During a JIRI meeting held in March 2017 in Brus-
updating common priorities, encouraging mutual sels, the Policy Advice Initiative to support CELAC
policy learning and ensuring proper implementa- countries in addressing the Sustainable Develo-
tion and effective cooperation instruments through pment Goals through research and innovation
biannual action plans. was presented as a first instrument to implement
The thematic areas chosen for cooperation at activities under the three pillars presented by the
the very beginning were bio-economy, including European Commission presented.
food security, renewable energies, biodiversity and This new instrument was welcomed, generating
climate change, ICT and health. clear interest from several countries.
Five thematic working groups were set up Among additional concrete achievements for
under the JIRI to discuss and develop sugges- each of the pillars of the common research area
tion for joint action. A sixth working group on are the following:
instruments was also created, and its mandate
was expanded at the last SOM in March 2017 to 1. Researcher mobility: aside from supporting
include researchers’ careers. a more structured bi-regional academic and

Revista Obies • Bogotá-Colombia • Vol. 3 de 2019 • pp. 38-43
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