On 1 October, the Georgian capital of Tbilisi hosted the annual conference of the Eastern Partnership Panel on Research and Innovation. The event gathered over 80 representatives from the EU and its six Eastern Partner countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
The conference “EU4Innovation: Fostering Research/Industry Links” discussed smart specialisation strategies (the S3 Platform) and technology transfer. There were also sessions on framework conditions for research and innovation, and EU research and innovation support to the Eastern Partner countries to increase participation in the €80 billion Horizon 2020 programme.
The Eastern Partnership countries expressed interest in further exploring how they can develop bilateral and multilateral strategies for smart specialisation and technology transfer in the framework of their commitment at the November 2017 Eastern Partnership Summit to “Integrate Eastern Partnership and EU research and innovation systems and programmes,” one of the 20 Deliverables for 2020.
The conference was organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) and Directorate-General Joint Research Centre (DG JRC), with the support of the Directorate-General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR).
#EU4Innovation is a joint initiative of DG RTD and DG NEAR, launched in Yerevan by Commissioners Moedas and Hahn in November 2016. It aims to coordinate EU assistance to the Eastern Partner countries in the area of innovation.
