Foreign and development aid projects

The objective of this study was to get a compact overview of current and future Latin America policies of the key European NGOs as a basis for mutual discussion and joint activities between European and Latin American NGOs. The following central research question was formulated: How do the European (non-governmental) agencies envisage their future policies and relationships (agenda, priorities, funding allocations) with Latin American partner organisations?

Through the Tuning-Latin America competencies project, Latin American universities have been incorporated into the Bologna Process. In 2003 the European Commission approved an initiative of this project for Latin America and began to promote it among ministries, university presidents' organisations and other institutions in Latin America. This initiative, however, carries problematic implications. It is an initiative which: (1) simply copies a European model and applies it unchanged to Latin America; (2) opens the door to greater influence by large corporations in the universities; (3) maintains the idea of the pensamiento unico, or single way of thinking, seen now in a single group of competencies that are considered valid for Europe and Latin America, without considering the enormous cultural, social and political diversity of the countries of those regions; (4) offers an educational-pedagogical approach that fragments the professional education of students; and finally (5) has a negative impact on the work and identity of Latin American university professors and students as key players in university transformation. Adapted from the source document.

This volume presents an overview of the results of almost a decade of continuous support from the European Community to cooperation between EU scientists and their Latin American counterparts. In addition it gives full details ofthe teams involved and how to contact them.
It gives me great satisfaction to present this overview of the results of almost a decade of continuous support from the European Community to cooperation between our scientists and their Latin American counterparts. In addition, this publication provides researchers with a valuable source of information on the projects supported, their scope, objectives, and results, and gives full details of the teams involved and how to contact
them.
The reader will find in the pages that follow the practical results of the Community's policy on scientific cooperation with the Latin American region. As in the case of other developing regions, Community policy has sought to harmonise a contribution to the region's socio-economic progress with our own scientific interests.
Implementation of this policy has allowed Community scientists to gain access to localities displaying particular environmental, agricultural, ecological and public health characteristics, and to undertake their research in these areas. As a counterbalance, we believe that Latin American researchers have derived great benefit from interaction with their European peers. Given their own scientific quality, this sharing of experience
places local teams in a privileged position from which to contribute to finding sciencebased solutions to problems faced by their communities.
It is precisely with the aim of tackling these problems effectively that, after extensive dialogue with the scientific authorities and communities of the region, the Commission selected areas on which to target cooperation. Agriculture and agroindustry, health and environmental issues were considered the most important priorities, as the reader will be able to see in the body of this publication. However, in order to capitalize on the human potential available, research in other relevant fields such as earth sciences, materials and different branches of engineering was also supported when resources permitted.

EU-LAC Summits since Madrid in 2002 have promoted the development of a shared Knowledge Area. European Research Framework Programmes are among the principal instruments for its development. In the 6th Research Framework Programme (FP6: 2002-2006) alone,some 221 collaborative scientific projects mobilised 538 teams from Latin America (529) and the Caribbean (9) and 2,679 European (and other non-Latin American) teams with a total value of more than €1.3 billion (EC contribution more than €700 million). Many of these address directly the topics forming the basis of dialogue at the level of the 2008 Lima Summit between Heads of State and Government from the EU-LAC regions.
Under the 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7: 2007-2013) international cooperation is intended to be more substantial, better coordinated and integrated by opening all its components to international cooperation and a high percentage of research opportunities are directly relevant for improved transitions towards sustainable development and a better grasp of the socio-economic conditions for change. It also creates an enabling framework for such cooperation through measures on scientific and technological policy dialogue, promotion and activities to improve coordination of international S&T cooperation of EU Member States.
The present leaflet shows a small sample of concrete collaborations contributing to making the EU-LAC Knowledge Area a reality.