The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) coordinates the delivery of 3 training courses of 2 hours each within the framework of the “FORWARD (Fostering Research excellence in the Outermost Regions)” project. FORWARD aims to increase the participation in European projects of the entities established in the ORs.
The three training courses will take place online on February 17, 18 and 19, 2021 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (WET – estimated time) by “La Palma Research Centre” and will be held in Spanish.
Registration, which includes the three training courses, is free and it should be done through the form available here. It will be opened until 12 February 2021 and be aware that the number of participants is limited.
Training program:
1.Funding Opportunities for Advanced TRLs (TRL6-9) – 17 February (3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m)
- Types of projects (FP, FEDER, Interreg, etc)
- “EITs – European Innovation Institutes” and their opportunities by sectors
- Common mistakes and lessons learned
- Success story – invited coordinator
2. Preparing Proposals for European Projects – 18 February (3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m)
- Horizon 2020 vs. Horizon Europe
- Parts of a proposal and partnerships
- Common mistakes and lessons learned
- Success story – invited coordinator
3. European project management – 19 February (3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m)
- What does it mean to win a European project?
- Types of partner (partner, coordinator, linked-third-parties)
- Reports and time management template
- Common mistakes and lessons learned
- Success story – invited coordinator
The Regional Ministry of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, managed by Elena Máñez, has convened, through the Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation and the Information Society (ACIISI), agents from the quadruple helix (R&D&I centres, universities, companies, public administrations and civil society), on December 4th at the Fuerteventura Technology Park, to hold a new edition of the “Canarias en el Horizonte” meeting.
The meeting will be held both in person and online so that everyone, institutions, entities and organisations from the training, social, economic, research, technological and entrepreneurial sectors can participate in order to advance the new R&D&I strategy and the digital transformation in the Canary Islands.
In this new edition of the meeting “Canarias en el Horizonte”, the ACIISI will present the results obtained from the implementation of the Canary Islands Intelligent Specialisation Strategy (RIS3) and the associated actions for the period 2014-2020.
Speakers at the event will include representatives from the EU, the Ministry of Science and Innovation, other Outermost Regions and regional authorities with whom they will discuss proposals for improvement, adaptation of priorities and areas of specialisation in the preparation of the new R&D&I strategy for the period 2021-2027.
At the same time, and in accordance with the governance framework established in RIS3, the Canary Islands RIS3 Steering Committee has been convened.
The meeting “The Canary Islands on the Horizon” is an initiative of the Government of the Canary Islands organized by the Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (ACIISI) as a management center responsible for carrying out the responsibilities related to public policies and programs in research, technological development, business innovation and deployment of the information society.
The aim of this second meeting “The Canary Islands on the Horizon” is to bring together all the agents of the quadruple regional helix (research, companies, administrations and society) in order to share the evaluation of the results of the Intelligent Specialization Strategy of the Canary Islands (RIS3) for the period 2014-2020, as well as to discuss proposals for improvement, adaptation of the priorities and fields of specialization in the preparation of the new S3 for the period 2021-2017.
Likewise, given our status as an outermost region, representatives of all the ORs have been invited to participate in this event, with which we will be able to discuss and propose new regulations and joint policies that will strengthen support for R+D+I ecosystems in the ORs in a differentiated manner within the new multiannual financial framework.
This second meeting will take place on December 4, 2020 from 9:00 to 12:30 at the Fuerteventura Technology Park, with live transmission over the Internet.
Resources of interest:
– Programme of the conference / Event programme (pdf, 1,5 MB) https://www3.gobiernodecanarias.org/aciisi/ris3/jornadas-canarias-horizonte
– Registration form (English version): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdUR7M3OmQdiiU6yYmUk9TZloY7J2OThG98hqzbZ8RPuubbyg/viewform
– Registration for the event (Spanish version) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdneJYEiFyy6gDpYyqszAFKXzaHbntX9njhMiUFBuen4UGqnA/viewform
Satisfaction survey in Spanish : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd9JTpI3nNS8NHztVtzvP8Imj0lNQowq2CQ2ApNtzNr29uvgg/viewform
Satisfaction survey in English: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdUw18pfSCscCr9gsJT8cd3X7x6uxapZSTndYRDzPEhGxo1Ng/viewform
Thematic Working Groups (TWGs)
FORWARD is a European project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme (2019-2021), boosting Research Excellence & Innovation Capacity in Outermost Regions. The project overall objectives are:
- Improve ORs’ excellence in research and their innovation potential.
- Improve their participation in EU research and innovation funded projects.
- Link research activities with territorial development.
According to FORWARD analysis, the lack of critical mass and connectivity among ORs and between ORs and continental Europe are some of the main obstacles ORs faces to access EU framework programme. The aim of work package 3 (Co-creation and implementation of thematic working plans) is to reinforce the actual and reveal the potential competitive advantages of Outermost Regions in their respective research and innovation fields of expertise, and the identification of common interests.
Who are the participants of the TWGs ?
The Thematic Working Groups will bring experts from OR and various European regions/countries and third countries. They have to define and implement thematic action plans with the feedbacks of the ORs Research and Innovation community.
Forward TWGs : which thematics ?
There are 8 thematic working groups.
| TWG1: | Health, applied Medical Technologies, Diagnostics and Therapies. |
| TWG2: | Social sciences and social innovation. |
| TWG3: | Earth system, space & universe sciences. |
| TWG4: | Information and Communications Technology. |
| TWG5: | Climate change and Energy transition. |
| TWG6: | Agriculture, applied life sciences, biotechnology, and bio-systems engineering. |
| TWG7: | Biodiversity conservation and restoration. |
| TWG8: | Marine sciences & technologies. |
How are the TWGs built ?
They are built on the :
- diagnosis of OR’s research and innovation ecosystem which allowed the identification of common RIS3 domains ;
- ranking of the different fields of expertise (at least 2 ORs + Framework Program and other EU funds) ;
- potential field of cooperation between ORs ;
- alignment with Horizon Europe pillars and cluster ;
- sustainable development goals of the United Nations.
What are the TWGs general objectives ?
These Thematic Working Groups are meant to :
- identify critical research fields in the OR ;
- establish networks between OR ;
- ensure its sustainability after the project
How and why TWG exchange ?
The first transregional meeting will take place online on september 17 during a Kick-off meeting to ensure a good coordination of these TWG, share the same methodology and share questions. Three meetings are scheduled :
1 – Initial training : this initial training will launch the TWG and manage their action plan design in an efficient and collaborative manner.
2 – A second transregional meeting will take place between TWG sub-coordinators to exchange on the work progress, good practices and difficulties.
3 – The last meeting will present the action plans and prospective approach.
This meeting was organized by Territorial Collectivity of French Guiana at Guyane Développement Innovation agency on January 27th.
A real good step to analyze the Research ecosystem in French Guiana; Problems and adapted solutions were proposed to improve French Guiana participation to H2020 calls.
The GSTC 2019 Global Sustainable Tourism Conference “Navigating the Way Forward” that took place on December 4th-7th in Terceira Island, the Azores, brought together 250 delegates from 42 countries, along with hundreds of viewers that watched the live broadcasting of the conference.
The opening ceremony celebrated the Azores as the first archipelago to be certified as a sustainable destination by EarthCheck. “It is with great proud that today we can say that the Azores are certified as a sustainable tourist destination,” said Ms. Marta Guerreiro , Regional Secretary of Energy, Environment and Tourism (in the photo below). “We are the first and only archipelago in the world to have this certification. We are the only region in Portugal with this certification. It was 2 years of hard work, not always visible, and dedication to fulfill a commitment to certify the Azores as a sustainable tourist destination.”
The GSTC Annual Congress is one of the largest international events on sustainable development and brings together many countries at a time of sharing, debate and reflection, not only on this issue at international level, but especially at regional and national level and in this case, taking into account the certification process of the Azores as a Sustainable Tourist Destination, a distinction granted by the certification entity EarthCheck.
The Conference themes were: (A) Sustainable Destination Management; (B) Market Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Products; and (C) Tourism Response to Climate Change.
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council is an independent and neutral non-governmental organization that brings together United Nations agencies, NGOs, national and regional governments, DMCs, hotels, tour operators, people and communities striving to achieve sustainable tourism best practices.
The Azores was host of the MarSP Final Conference this 6th December, in São Miguel island – Azores, with the organization of the Regional Fund for Science and Technology (FRCT),one of MARSP partners.
The final conference aims to share the key outcomes and milestones while providing an overall approach of Maritime Spatial Planning at a Regional, European and International scale.
MARSP has 9 partners, having FRCT as the project coordinator. From those partners there are other 3 that are from Outermost regions, as the Regional Directorate for Sea Affairs (Azores – Portugal), the Regional Secretariat of the Environment – Regional Directorate of Spatial Planning (Madeira- Portugal) and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canárias – Espanha).
The MarSP partners presented the Macaronesia’s currents conditions and constraints, as well as the potential marine uses, MSP Roadmaps and implementation guidelines, MSP Platforms, tools for regional Cross-border cooperation and even a special focus on the MarSP Stakeholder Engagement Processes.
The Regional Secretary of the Sea, Science and Technology in Azores, Gui Menezes (in the photo below), who spoke at the opening session of the final conference of the ‘MarSP’ project, stressed that in recent years “the Region has compiled geographic information about marine space and developed a Geographic Information System applied to the sea”, as well as “exploratory technical work on coherent and consistent maritime spatial planning methodologies”.
All planners, researchers and communicators were invited to share insights and initiatives on MSP related issues. This conference was also a chance to promote projects, find new partners and get together MSP experts and stakeholders.
The Ponta Delgada Campus of the University of the Azores receives, from October 14 to 18, the 5th edition of the HoraProg@UAc.
The event takes place annually at the UAc, since 2015, is included in the European Commission’s initiative codeweek.eu and is intended for students and teachers of all teaching cycles, including higher education.
In the previous edition, more than 1,200 students from 19 schools from four municipalities on São Miguel Island participated in the HoraProg@UAc.
Over the five days, seven workshops are prepared: AppInventor, Arduino, Python, Lego Mindstorm Robots, Blender, Networks and Communications and Scratch that take place in five sessions from 09:00 to 4:00 pm.
The organization of HoraProg@UAc 2019 is in charge of the Center for Research and Development in e-Health (NIDeS) and the UAc Informr’s Student Center (NESTI) and has the support of the Regional Government of the Azores, the Ponta Delgada City Council, GlobalEDA, CIVILA, ExpoLab, PROBOT and CerealGames.
The lecture “Tools and practices in the development and publication of Application Programming Interface (APIs) with PHP” is organized in the scope of the “Innovation & Development” colloquium promoted by the American Corner of the University of the Azores (UAc), and it took place on November 8, at 2:30 p.m., at the UAc.
The lecture is open to the community and aims at professionals, researchers and students who are interested in exploring the tools and practices used in the development of APIs implemented with the PHP programming language.
The speaker, Mestre Tito Costa, alumnus of the Faculty of Science sums and Technology of UAc – IT area, currently serves as Senior Software Engineer at Speakap (https://www.speakap.com), in Amsterdam, and has performed major roles in several companies in Portugal, in United Kingdom and in the Netherlands.
This lecture is part of a set of colloquias, which will take place on November 7 and 8, involving students, teachers and researchers. With these actions, we intend to strengthen relations and promote scientific networks with top professionals and researchers, whose initial training was acquired at the University of the Azores.