Towards the EU-LAC Knowledge Area

Climate change, demographic transitions, expectations for better health and greener and more inclusive economies are among the drivers for more scientific and technological cooperation and innovation. The Guadalajara Summit in 2004 therefore placed the development of an EU-Latin-Caribbean Knowledge Area on the political agenda of bi-regional relations. In 2010, this concept gains fresh momentum through the endorsement of a new Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation. The selection of concrete research collaborations, mostly from the 6th and 7th Research Framework Programmes included here, can only cover a small part of the wide thematic range of joint activities addressing problems and oportunities of mutual interest.These projects mobilise teams from across Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and other continents as well. They are either still on-going or recently completed. New collaborations will come on-stream in 2010, 2011 and beyond to turn declarations into practice. They represent a sizeable potential for innovation in the direction of sustainable development and social inclusion, the focus of the 2010 EU-LAC Summit in Madrid.