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EaP PLUS Final Conference

 The EaP PLUS Final Conference "EU - EaP: Looking beyond 2020" took place on 11 June 2019, in Brussels, and provided a forum to discuss the future of the EU-Eastern Partnership research and innovation cooperation.

Looking beyond 2020 in EU-EaP STI cooperation: Where does the journey lead to?

In order to take stock of the achievements of the EaP PLUS project (which is ending in September 2019) and to give prospects about the EU-Eastern Partnership cooperation in research and innovation in the upcoming Horizon Europe programme, the EaP PLUS consortium organised this final event in Brussels.

10th Anniversary of the EU's Eastern Partnership

The EaP PLUS final conference coincided with the overall celebrations for the 10th anniversary of the EU's Eastern Partnership instrument, which was launched at the EU-EaP Prague Summit back in 2009.

Further more it should be noted that the conference could be considered as part of this celebration since there is no other event foreseen for that in the field of STI.

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Dr. George Bonas (Managing Director of CeRISS), in his capacity as EaP PLUS Project Coordinator co-chaired the Conference and presented highlights from the project's implementation.

The presentation of Dr. Bonas is available online: EaP PLUS Project highlights. Supporting policy and researchers

(also available on EaP PLUS website).

The Agenda of the event is available here.

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Topics covered at the Conferenece

During the one-day event, the following topics were covered:

1. Achievements made within the EaP PLUS project, including examples from support to policy-making and researchers' level, from the EaP PLUS grant scheme and from support to clusters

2. EU initiatives towards the EaP, including StartUp Europe, EU4Innovation, MSCA, Erasmus, EIT, COST and Horizon Europe

3. Association to Horizon 2020: Challenges and benefits for the EaP countries

4. Prospectives for the future cooperation, including the recommendations produced by the EaP PLUS project

Almost 60 participants both from EU Member States and the EaP countries were jointly reflecting on the status quo of the EU's work with the region in the specific domain of research and innovation.

Regarding the future, representatives of the six EaP countries agreed that their individual countries must strive towards even more and closer cooperation both with the EU as such and the EU MS alone.

These efforts were positively acknowledged by the EC representatives at the event, which, at their end, are also aware of the work needed to be done by EU officials to adequatly respond to this will expressed.

About how the - from both partners - desired intensified cooperation between the two regions will be addressed in the upcoming Horizon Europe (with its lifespan from 2021-2017) remains to be seen.

Now, have a look on EaP PLUS project Video.

For further details about the EaP Final Conference visit the EaP PLUS website.