The 2nd EU-Brazil Summit took place today in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The EU was represented by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the President of the Commission José Manuel Durao Barroso. The event was hosted by Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The presidents visited an exhibition on European Research. The principal deliverable of the Summit was a Joint Action Plan that sets out the political priorities and actions of the EU-Brazil Strategic Partnership. The Science and Technology Chapter of the Joint Action Plan that confirms the priorities identified in the Roadmap prepared following the 2nd Steering Committee of the EU-Brazil S&T Agreement (Brussels, 22-23/10/08) is available here.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Commission thus becoming associated to the seventh European research framework programme (FP7)(2007-2013). This "associated status" will allow B&H to participate in all calls for proposals and compete on an equal footing with the EU Member States and the other associated countries for research co-operation and support actions funded under FP7, as of 1 January 2009. Read More

Call publication: Implementation of the “ACP Science and Technology Programme”
The ACP Science and Technology Programme is focusing on building and enhancing strong scientific and technological capacity to support research, development and innovation in the ACP region, and enabling the identification and formulation of activities or policies that are critical to sustainable development. The call is funded by the European Union and implemented by the ACP Secretariat. Call description Call text

The European Commission published a Strategy for international cooperation in science and technology (S&T). It calls on Member States' governments to jointly develop this strategy within the proposed framework with a view of strengthening science and technology cooperation with non-EU countries, notably in the field of Information and Communication Technologies where Europe is a strong exporter. The Commission's objective is to contribute to sustainable development worldwide while at the same time as improving Europe's competitiveness in S&T and increasing impact of such cooperation.

Read the press release
Download the full text of the Communication

Researchers around Europe and the Mediterranean are looking at new ways to preserve ancient icons and textiles. The plant and insect pigments used to colour old paintings and tapestries are being isolated using 21st century technology so they can be turned into modern chemical formulae.

(Video)(Website)

Four new calls for proposals for the international cooperation activities of the Capacities Programme have been published on 03/09/2008. The closure date for these calls is 12/01/2009. The calls aim at reinforcing the cooperation between Europe and specific regions of the world (INCO-NET call), specific countries with S&T cooperation agreements (BILAT and ACCES4EU calls) as well as strengthening the network of INCO National Contact Points (NCP) and FP7 Contact Points in Third Countries (INCO NCP call).(9 July 2008)

Read More