| Project of the Month - January 2012

BILAT-UKR

Ukraine as one of the closest and largest neighbours of the EU has a high potential for scientific and technological development. The BILAT-UKR project, which will end in February 2012, focused on further enhancing the bilateral partnership between Ukraine and the EU based on the agreement by means of concrete initiatives in order to prepare the ground for Ukraine’s association to the 7th Framework Programme (FP7). The project's final conference on 31 January - 1 February 2024 will highlight the accomplishments of the project and offer an outlook on the future cooperation.

Link to project website

http://www.bilat-ukr.eu/

Project desciption

The project BILAT-UKR aims to contribute to the Commissions objective of the fuller integration of the Ukraine into the broader European Research Area. Also it constitutes part of the implementation of the EU-Ukrainian Action Plan, the main guiding tool of the European Neighbourhood Policy with the Ukraine, whose general objective is to share EU stability, security and prosperity with Ukraine. With regards to FP7, Ukraine shows an excellent potential but its potential was not fully realized. Therefore the project will ensure coherence and coordination of the various (thematic) activities under the umbrella of the EU-Ukrainian S&T agreement and will contribute to a stronger coordination of bilateral activities with Ukraine.

The main objectives of BILAT-UKR are:

  • to strengthen the S&T cooperation between the EU and Ukraine in particular through a stronger participation of Ukraine in FP7 and other Community programmes and initiatives and through a better link between activities on Member States and Community level.
  • to improve the framework for enhanced future and sustainable S&T cooperation between the EU and Ukraine and contribute to develop optimum instruments.
  •  to provide support for the working groups set up in Ukraine with the aim to organize a thorough thematic and high level policy dialogue between the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the European Commission.

These objectives will be achieved by:

  • information gathering and dissemination on S&T in Ukraine, EU and Ukraine S&T programmes, on ongoing cooperation programmes and activities building on existing information tools on Member States/Associated States, Community and Ukrainian level.
  • setting up an EU-Ukraine web-portal building on existing web-based tools on Community level, MS level and in Ukraine.
  •  raising the capacities of the consultancy services in Ukraine (National Contact Points-NCPs) and providing target advice through networking with experienced NCPs in Member States.
  • supporting Partner Search through building an inventory of existing web-based toolsfor EU-Ukraine S&T partner search, identifying good practice and providing an optimized tool.
  • an inventory of existing instruments, regulations, obstacles and best practices, both on bilateral (Member States and Ukraine) and Community level, with a particular
    emphasis on the needs for a legal frame.
  • involving policy stakeholders from EU-Member States, EU-Commission and Ukraineto come up with proposed solutions for a common frame, benefiting from and
    suggesting recommendations for the implementation of the ENP Action Plan.
  • contributing to the kick-off of the Working Groups, providing a knowledge base forsupporting their activities, results and recommendations to associate Ukraine to the
    specific programme “Cooperation” under FP7.
  • providing a knowledge base and develop an agenda in three areas: Mobility, S&T infrastructure and Innovation, in view of possible link of the international dimension
    of the Specific Programme “People” and “Capacities” to the respective Ukrainian instruments, facilities and strategies.


The project is embedded in a variety of other related EU-Ukraine joint activities and will make optimum use of synergies with ongoing activities, especially with IncoNet EECA. Furthermore a series of important dissemination activities will provide the necessary visibility to the project for both the scientific community and the policy makers and stakeholders. Among these activities are:

  • Assuring a wide public outreach of EU-Ukrainian S&T Cooperation through the EU-Ukrainian S&T web-portal including a searchable data base listing Ukrainian S&T institutes.
  • Information packages for different target groups on specific aspects of EU-Ukrainian cooperation including access to FP7.
  • Raising awareness of Ukrainian policy makers of the potential beneficial impact of S&T Cooperation with the EU and of respective policy needs.
  • Providing public information on the project by means of press releases and e-newsletters.

Contacts

Martine Bonin
Project Coordinator;
Deputy Director of InternationaI Relations/ CNRS - Europe of Research and International Cooperation Office
3 Rue Michel-Ange
75794 Paris-Cedex 16
Telephone: +33 1 44965153
Fax: +33 1 44964856 
martine.bonin@cnrs-dir.fr 
http://www.cnrs.fr/  

Nathalie Francès
European Project Manager/ CNRS - Europe of Research and International Cooperation Office
3 Rue Michel-Ange
75794 Paris-Cedex 16
Telephone: +33 1 44964011
Fax: +33 1 44964856 
nathalie.frances@cnrs-dir.fr 
http://www.cnrs.fr/