AGENCIA NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACION Y DESARROLLO

In order to strengthen the global efforts on Personalized Medicine (PerMed) and the cooperation of the EU-CELAC countries to them, a unique Bi-regional consortium of governmental and funding organisations is shaped with the support of leading stakeholders as associated partners. This project has the ambition to engage CELAC countries in the International Consortium on Personalized Medicine (ICPerMed) and in the ERANet ERAPerMed with the aim at advancing in the implementation of the Action Plan of ICPerMed based in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, drafted by PerMed2020. Research on PerMed is a top priority for the EU as a strategy aimed at delivering personalised health and care solutions to benefit citizens. Results of R&I actions will generate and translate knowledge on disease aetiology and technological innovation into personalised health and care solutions. Areas of application include chronic, rare and communicable diseases. Research under this priority will also attempt to develop an outstanding economic impact due to the potential of PerMed to transform health systems. The collaboration of diverse actors from different world regions, disciplines and health-care systems are needed to implement in a holistic way new feasible and cost-effective PerMed approaches. Involvement in ICPerMed of RFOs and policy-making bodies from EU and from other regions, is the best way to push forward the impact of new findings and knowledge in the area. This CSA will be the vehicle for: i) Mapping existing programmes, capacities and expertise and gaps in CELAC countries; ii) Facilitating the incorporation of CELAC countries in ICPerMed and in the ERAPerMed; iii) Fostering the participation of CELAC countries in research mobility and transnational projects on PerMed, and a platform for EU‐CELAC collaboration on clinical trials PerMed focused; iv) Cross-border learning from R&I and ELSA for implementing innovations between research capacities based in EU and CELAC.

EU-LAC ResInfra will identify a number of Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Research Infrastructures (RIs) that may be considered eligible for the construction of a bi-regional collaboration. This will be carried out through the definition of minimal key requirements these RIs would need to develop in the coming years. To this aim, the Project will build on the prioritisation results of the EU-CELAC Senior Official Meeting on Science and Technology (SOM) Working Group (WG) on Research Infrastructures (RI) and, more specifically, will take as a reference the mapping exercises developed in previous EU funded projects. In addition, EU-LAC ResInfra will develop a map of National and Regional Research Infrastructure policies, and their corresponding strategies and plans, including funding mechanisms that might be used to support the construction and operation of future EU-LAC RIs. Furthermore, EU-LAC ResInfra will use all the results and information obtained for drafting a Sustainability Plan, which will be presented to the EU-CELAC WG RI for discussion and endorsement. The Plan will include specific actions to support the bi-regional collaboration in a mid-term perspective. The objectives are to design specific variable geometry instruments for co-funding RIs of common interest, and to design measures that pursue the strengthening of the bi-regional RI cooperation, seeking to maximise the impact of the RI collaboration in the construction of the EU-CELAC Common Research Area. Finally, the Project aims to show the feasibility of the EU-LAC RI collaboration through existing examples, thanks to the development of four Pilots in different scientific domains that are linked to some existing Research Infrastructures: INSTRUCT-ERIC, LIFEWATCH-ERIC, E-RIHS and RICAP.

Building on the experience of ERA-MIN FP7 funded project, the objective of the ERA-NET Cofund on Raw Materials (ERA-MIN 2) is to strengthen the coordination of national and regional research programmes in the field of non-energy non-agricultural raw materials by implementing one joint call for proposals resulting in grants to third parties with EU co-funding. In line with the integrated strategy proposed in the EU Raw Materials Initiative and the Strategic Implementation Plan of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials, the ERA-MIN 2 Call topics will address the three segments of the non‐energy non-agricultural raw materials: metallic, industrial and construction minerals and will cover the whole value chain: exploration, extraction, processing/refining, as well as recycling and substitution of critical raw materials. ERA-MIN 2 supports the objectives of the EIP on Raw Materials, particularly in the area of research and innovation co-ordination; improve synergy, co-ordination and coherence between regional, national and EU funding in the relevant research fields through international collaboration; reduce fragmentation of raw materials research and innovation efforts across Europe; improve use of human and financial resources in the area of raw materials research and innovation. As measures to maximise impact, ERA-MIN 2 will cooperate with the existing initiatives, projects and associations, by establishing an effective communication aiming to assure that all dissemination activities, including the promotion and follow up of project results, will reach out to a wider audience of stakeholders, therefore strengthening the raw material community. To further increase its impact and to better fulfil the overarching objectives, ERA-MIN-2 will develop and implement at least two additional joint calls without EU co-funding, in topics of common interest and based on the updated Roadmap provided by CSA VERAM.