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Seventh Framework Programme European Union

Project funded under FP7
Contract number: 217190
Programme: Cooperation
Instrument: CSA (Support)

The EULAKS Foresight Workshop - a restrospection...

Date:
01/12/2008

 

Looking back at the first big public event of the EULAKS project, the Workshop on "Co-operation in Foresight between Europe and Latin America" held on October 22-23, 2008 at the FLACSO institute in Mexico City, it appears that all pursued goals of the Workshop have been achieved and that a fruitful discussion with big potential for continuation has been developed.

The assistance of directors of research centres, coordinators of regional S&T councils, and officials of the public sector and international organizations forwarded the dissemination and importance in knowing and applying the Foresight methodology on systematizing information and developing actions that promote the growth of the productive sectors and regions. 

The overall objective of the Workshop was to analyze the international experience (European Union and Latin America) with the intent to systematize the information about realized studies in Technology Foresight applied in the design of ST&I policies. It was also intended to identify the opportunities that Latin American countries have to benefit from the results of these international experiences and to use them for the stimulation of growth and social participation in the region. Additionally necessary conditions to secure the continuation of the institutional cooperation and the involvement of new social actors were meant to be detected.

The first day of the event, attended by sixty three people, was opened by some welcoming words of the Director-General of FLACSO-Mexico, Giovanna Valenti, the Ambassador Director-General of International Relations of the Secretary for Public Education (SEP), Carlos García de Alba Zepeda, the Cooperation Officer of the European Union, Marie Paule Neuville, the Director-General of Bilateral Cooperation SRE-DGCTC, Cristina Ruiz, and the Director for the Promotion of the S&T Cooperation EU-Mexico, UEMEXCyT, Aurelie Pancera.

Subsequently national Foresight experiences from Venezuela, Mexico, and Colombia, as well as general questions on methodology, were presented and discussed.

On the second day an interactive working group was organized where the participants were divided in sub-groups and had the opportunity to choose problems and review them in the dimension that the development of the Foresight methodology would require. Afterwards the opportunities of the selected problems were discussed and evaluated in the reunion, as well as the viability of the exposed alternatives, the identified difficulties, and the efficiency of the proposed results.

The Workshop was enriched by the participation of experts like Yuli Villarroel from Venezuela who works with the project SELF-RULE, Javier Medina from UNIVALLE and COLCIENCIAS in Colombia, Rafael Popper representing the PREST institute in Manchester (UK), the Mexican Foresight researcher Guillermina Baena from the UNAM, and José Luis Solleiro from the CCADET-UNAM in Mexico.

Workpackage:
WP 2: Assessing and Building Research Capacities for the Knowledge Society in EU and LAC