Overview
CoopAIR was an ambitious and innovative action supporting Latin American (LA) cooperation. It aimed at deepening strategic RTD cooperation between Europe and Latin America. It built, starting from what already existed, a multi-national and multi-stakeholder community that would involve a significant representation of the relevant RTD European and Latin American actors (researchers, companies, policy makers, users). The project also identified common needs, research issues and opportunities for cooperative RTD.
The project objectives were:
- To enhance the participation of Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile in the European RTD Programme of Aeronautics and Air Transport.
- To establish the dialogue for future co-funded aeronautics RTD programmes EU-Brazil, EU-Argentina, EU-Mexico, and EU-Chile.
The project:
- built the observation, analysis and forecasting capacity required to identify key R&D issues on which to focus EU - Latin America cooperation, and key actors that will be involved in EU - Latin America collaboration in the field;
- analysed the barriers and troubles found by the potential Latin American partners when trying to participate at EU R&D programmes, as well as the difficulties encountered while taking part at any project;
- considered the findings on what are the main obstacles, establish effective mechanisms to enhance the participation of the Latin American partners;
- guaranteed that information on European R&D is promoted to a large number of research, policy and practice actors in Latin America, therefore also facilitating dialogue among them;
- organised several conferences and divers workshops in Latin America and Europe and a final Conference in EU to bolster networking opportunities.
CoopAIR built on two EU supported successful support and networking projects targeted to Latin America (ABEST and UEMEXCYT, whose coordinators are part of the CoopAIR consortium). CoopAIR also coordinated its activities with the FP6 project B.BICE and the INCONET-EULARINET.
Funding
Results
COOPAIR-LA main outcomes can be classified in three sets:
1. Database of stakeholders in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico
To find potential partners and to identify who makes what in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico a database with more than 300 stakeholders was developed and classified by technology area of expertise. Three short lists of win-win partners (10-20 per country) were developed at the end of the project.
2. Guide of recommendations to Latin American stakeholders
COOPAIR-LA gives recommendations to Latin American stakeholders to avoid the barriers to their participation in the Framework Programme. The barriers were identified by two different ways: questionnaires and personal interviews during the Latin American workshops. The barriers were classified in four groups:
- Internal barriers (depending on the entity)
- Financial barriers
- Educational barriers
- Specific barriers for the participation in the FP7
The information about weak and strong points identified in each country has been used to the elaboration of the implementation roadmap, influencing in the calendar and the funding schemes of the proposed cooperation projects.
3. Technological areas for cooperation with Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, and an implementation Roadmap to establish a base for cooperation
Taking into account all the results obtained during the project, the preferred cooperation areas for the industry of Latin America and the EU were identified, as well as the proposal of a way to establish a base for actual collaboration (including budget sharing).
Dissemination
Dissemination has been a crucial activity to achieve COOPAIR-LA’s objectives. The dissemination activities aimed to:
- inform LA aeronautics actors about what COOPAIR-LA offers for enhancing their participation in European aeronautics research
- inform European entities about the objectives of COOPAIR-LA project
The dissemination of knowledge was performed through workshops, presentations, project articles and through the website.
Strategy targets
4. The external dimension.
Readiness
Have already been implemented.