The webinar "Latin America and the Caribbean and the future Horizon Europe programme" took place on 23 November, 2020 and was organised by the EU-LAC International Foundation in cooperation with the European Commission, the Argentina-EU Liaison Office, the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation (AUCI) and the LAC National Contact Points Network. The seminar was moderated by Nicolás Patrici from OBREAL-Global Observatory. The recording is available on the YouTube page of the EU-LAC Foundation.
One of the priority areas of the EU-CELAC Action Plan approved in 2015 is the promotion of academic and scientific cooperation between the two regions. European programmes, such as Horizon 2020, Marie-Skłodowska-Curie actions, as well as Erasmus+ programmes, are a few of the examples of EU funding programmes for research and innovation. On this basis, in 2019, the "1st Capacity Building Seminar of EU and LAC Institutions for Bi-regional Cooperation on Research" was held in Ljubljana, and due to the great interest shown by the member states, it was decided to hold a second edition in 2020. The objective of the seminar held in 2020 was to examine the lessons learned and good practices in accessing the resources of the Horizon 2020 Programme, and with these elements, enhance the possibilities of application to future projects financed by the Horizon Europe programme.
The webinar brought together a wide range of leading experts, including Dr Adrián Bonilla (Executive Director of the EU-LAC Foundation), Claudia Gintersdorfer (Head of the Americas Division of the European Foreign Service, EEAS), Mauricio Escanero (Head of the Mission of Mexico to the European Union and Ambassador of Mexico to the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg), Claudia Romano (Manager of the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation, Coordinator of the Latin America and the Caribbean National Contact Points Network), Maria Alejandra Davidziuk (Ministry of Science and Technology of Argentina and NPC of Marie-Skłodowska-Curie and Horizon 2020) and Rita Lecbychova (Directorate General for Research and Innovation and International Cooperation, European Commission).