About the Project

Russia, as the EU's largest direct neighbouring country and as a global player on the political and economic stage is in many respects considered as one of the main strategic international partners of the EU. Russia has also been the most successful non-associated third country in the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6). The BILAT-RUS project focuses on enhancing the bilateral S&T partnership between the Russian Federation and the EU Member States, Candidate Countries and other Associated countries.

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The project BILAT-RUS aims at contributing to the sustainable implementation of the Common Space on Research, Education and Culture between the EU and Russia and at further strengthening the participation of Russia in Community programmes - most prominently the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7).

The project will ensure coherence and coordination of the various (thematic) activities under the umbrella of the EU-Russian S&T agreement and will contribute to a stronger coordination of bilateral activities with Russia at Community and Member State level. According to the direction to be taken for the Common Space on Research, it will provide assistance to optimise the framework for collaborative efforts, to specify fields of cooperation in joint priority research domains and to utilise information and knowledge more effectively. Moreover, it will help to develop and implement measures aimed at strengthening the systematic and structural nature of EU-Russia S&T cooperation as well as devising effective machinery for the establishment of partner links.

Objectives

The major objectives of BILAT-RUS are:

• to facilitate coherent information dissemination and awareness raising.
  This refers to effective and sustainable information gathering and dissemination on S&T in Russia, on EU and Russian S&T programmes, on ongoing cooperation programmes and activities. A database on S&T research institutes in Russia will be set-up for this purpose and examples of particular good cooperation practice (case studies) will be collected and analysed. Moreover, the establishment of a web-portal with information on EU-Russian cooperation in S&T is envisaged to ensure a high level of information dissemination and awareness raising. The capacities of the Russian NCPs will be further increased to provide targeted advice for Russian applicants.

• to contribute to the optimisation of the framework and the instruments for enhanced future EU-Russian cooperation across all S&T themes.
  Existing instruments, rules, regulations and agreements at bilateral (Member States and Russia) and Community level (EU and Russia) will be identified and compiled in an inventory. Examples of good practice and major barriers to successful cooperation will also be collected and analysed. Furthermore, options for optimising the common legal and organisational frame based on efficient instruments will be gathered for future discussion by policy stakeholders from EU Member States, the European Commission and Russia. Finally, suggestions for practical and efficient joint funding mechanisms will be collected in cooperation with Russian funding institutions.

• to create a knowledge base for emerging horizontal issues of sustainable cooperation.
  The focus will be put on mobility. Information will be gathered and analysed and options for joint EU-Russian action will be explored (e.g. the setting-up of new joint thematic EU-Russian Working Groups).

• to meet the short and medium term needs of existing and upcoming joint thematic EU-Russian Working Groups on S&T cooperation.
  This includes the identification and analysis of rules, procedures and support mechanisms for the Working Groups based on good practice and the existing terms of reference. In a dialogue process with EU and Russian stakeholders of the Working Groups the work will be organised in order to respond to the concrete needs of each Working Group. It is offered to provide a knowledge base to support effective decisionmaking of Working Groups, to define relevant S&T sup-topics of particular mutual benefit, to disseminate information on the activities, results and recommendations of the respective Working Groups.

Project structure

The project  concept of BILAT-RUS builds on the following main pillars:

• setting up a dialogue and collaborating with the major stakeholders in Russia and the EU, responsible for setting the frame for S&T cooperation (Russia: Ministry of Education and Science, Federal Agency for Science and Innova-tions, FP7 National Contact Points (NCPs) 5; EU: Member State Ministries and NCPs, Commission Services; EU-Russia Policy Dialogue Platform to be set-up through the Inco-Net EECA).

• building on and complementing previous, ongoing and future coordination and support activities aiming at enhancing the cooperation between the EU and the Russian Federation.

• making optimum use of synergies with ongoing activities (Inco-Net EECA, SCOPE-EAST, etc.).

• assuring coherence and consistency across the priority fields of cooperation.

• adding particular value through addressing the optimisation of the framework for cooperation and horizontal issues.

• increasing concrete joint S&T activities on project level.

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 we could mention:

• A website with information on the project will be established.

• An EU-Russian S&T web-portal including among various other information an internet guide and a database on Russian S&T will be set up.

• An information leaflet with short information on the project will be created to be distributed at events and to relevant stakeholders.

• Press releases and e-newsletters will inform about the main project events, intermediate and final results and other relevant news on EU-Russian S&T cooperation.

• Information days will also be organised.

• Several analytical reports will be prepared.

• Direct assistance to the S&T Policy Dialogue Platform with Russia to be held in the scope of IncoNet EECA will target political decision-makers and offi-cials from Member States, the European Commission and Russia.

BILAT-RUS consists of four work packages (WP):

• WP 1 (Information dissemination and awareness raising).
  WP 1 will facilitate coherent information gathering and dissemination on S&T in Russia, on relevant S&T cooperation programmes to foster cooperation be-tween the EU and Russia (emphasis on FP7) and on ongoing S&T projects. Its final objective is to promote Russian S&T partners, their activities and oppor-tunities for enhanced cooperation and good cooperation practice through de-livering and spreading concise, up-to-date and relevant information- where needed - targeted advice to Russian NCPs.

• WP 2 (Optimising the framework an instruments for enhanced future co-operation in S&T).
  WP 2 focuses on the analysis of existing instruments and - if appropriate - the development of proposals for an optimisation of instruments for enhanced fu-ture EU-Russian cooperation across all S&T related themes. The main objec-tive is to ensure a smooth future cooperation process in S&T research be-tween Member States, the EU and Russia in all respects building on Commu-nity instruments, Member State and Russian instruments.

• WP 3 (EU-Russian Working Groups).
  WP 3 aims at addressing the short and medium term needs of the existing joint thematic EU-Russian Working Groups (Food/Agriculture/Biotechnology, Health, Nanotechnology, Energy and Mobility). The main objective is to sup-port EU-Russian cooperation in practical terms by offering custom-made as-sistance to the joint thematic EU-Russian Working Groups.

• WP 4 (Management of the consortium and links).
  The objectives of WP 4 are to organise and coordinate project activities, to as-sure an effective information flow, to provide a smooth interface between the individual work packages and to ensure the proper implementation of the work packages and corresponding tasks. Further objectives are to execute the overall legal, financial and administrative management, to provide the optimum implementation of the contract and to enhance the cooperation with other rele-vant ongoing coordination and support activities addressing EU-Russia S&T cooperation.

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