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09.07.2008

Cooperation with the Mediterranean region and Africa

Germany's main bilateral cooperation partners in this region in the fields of science and research are Israel, Jordan, Egypt and South Africa. Germany also has scientific and technological cooperation (STC) agreements with Tunisia and Morocco, but cooperation with these countries mainly takes place within the framework of the EU's Mediterranean partnership MoCo (Monitoring Committee for the Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation).

During Germany's EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2007, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Egyptian Ministry for Higher Education and Scientific Research jointly organized the first Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Higher Education and Scientific Research, which took place in Cairo. On this occasion, a joint declaration (the Cairo Declaration) was signed, entitled 'Towards the Creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Higher Education and Research Area'. In this document, the Euromed ministers reiterated their commitment to implementing the relevant goals of the five-year work programme that was agreed at the Barcelona Summit and the Association Agreement as well as the action plans of the European Neighbourhood Policy. Higher education, research and innovation are identified as priority areas of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership.
One of the ways in which the agreement is being implemented is the INCO-Net MIRA (Mediterranean Innovation and Research Coordination Action), an EU-financed project that has been approved for a period of four years. With the help of the International Bureau, the BMBF will participate in this project starting in 2008, thus contributing to the intensification of regional cooperation.

African countries are making great efforts to use their universities, scientific organizations and technology institutions as instruments for forward-looking economic and social development. To this end, the African Union has developed the Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action as part of the NEPAD Initiative (New Partnership for Africa's Development). It forms a basis for setting up centres of excellence, developing trans-national regional networks in the areas of science and research, and integrating the African scientific community in international scientific relations.

In order to support this ambitious African Union initiative, the BMBF, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations University, and the African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology jointly organized a G8/AMCOST expert meeting during Germany's G8 Presidency, which took place in Berlin on 18 and 19 October 2007. One of the aims of the meeting was to take stock of the current situation of science and research in Africa as well as of North-South cooperation. The conference also had the purpose of identifying priority fields of cooperation in the realization of the African Consolidated Plan of Action. Another goal was to improve the collaboration between G8 Members in this area and to develop innovative cooperation models for the science and research communities as well as for cooperation with private initiatives and companies.

Improving research policy cooperation between European and African countries is one of the main objectives of the INCO-Net CAAST-Net. It promotes a regular research policy dialogue, with the aim of raising cooperation in this area to a new level and developing and implementing the joint EU-Africa strategy, particularly in science and technology. The CAAST-Net project, which includes the participation of the International Bureau (on behalf of the BMBF) as well as 17 other European and African partners, will run for 4 years and will receive approximately €3 million in funding under the 7th EU Research Framework Programme.