Representatives from government, research sector and business arena meet in Brussels to promote EU-US collaboration
<p>The meeting was held under the framework of the European BILAT USA 2.0 project, in which Biocat is a partner</p>
Roughly one hundred people from research centers, businesses and governmental bodies in Europe and the United States met in Brussels on 14 January to share best practices and promote integration on innovation in the European Union and the United States. The meeting was held under the framework of the conference on innovation entitled How to integrate the innovation dimension in the EU-U.S. S&T Agreement, organized by the European BILAT USA 2.0 project –of which Biocat is a partner. The event also included a policy workshop entitled Towards enhanced EU-US innovation collaboration through policy measures with more than 100 participants
Towards enhanced EU-US innovation collaboration through policy measures
With the aim of providing policy-makers with feedback from businesses, companies from the European Union and the United States discussed several different topics at the policy workshop, with particular emphasis on participation in Horizon 2020 projects. This workshop aims to generate a series of recommendations for policy makers regarding the development of new policies and mechanisms to boost research and technology growth in the EU and United States, as well as innovation collaboration and development in companies.
The main recommendations were: to reaffirm the commitment of the EU and USA with regard to research, technology development and innovation (RTDI), as well as raising awareness of the benefits of this type of collaborations; to provide better tools, information and guidance to help organizations from the EU and USA in identifying transatlantic RTDI partners; to develop and promote funding opportunities for companies through RTDI programs; to simplify and align administrative RTDI processes in order to cut administrative red tape; to specify and clarify requirements and rights in terms of intellectual property, as well as the regulatory differences between the two markets; and finally, to create a transatlantic chamber of innovation.
How to integrate the innovation dimension in the EU-U.S. S&T Agreement
The conference featured several panel discussions with success stories and examples of EU-USA partnership in research, technology and innovation, as well as the policies to promote education, entrepreneurship and dissemination of research results and to build bridges and tools to foster EU-USA collaboration. The session highlighted the importance of defining shared principles in the new Science & Technology Cooperation Agreement and of establishing agreements regarding intellectual property rights, as well as the transcendental importance of figures like EU-US connectors and mediators. The session also highlighted the importance of making regulations and administrative bureaucracy more flexible in order to ease development of joint projects.
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