International Affairs - Relations Internationales - EPFL

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B Cooperation@epfl
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an active unit aimed at organising and promoting scientific cooperation for development
at the EPFL. 2005 saw the start of a new phase with the establishment
of innovative training and research targets for the following three years (2006-
2008). Cooperation@epfl is led by a scientific director, Prof. Jean-Claude Bolay,
who has a long history and solid experience in the field of scientific cooperation
for development. The director has been supported by two scientific collaborators
and an administrative assistant and together they formed a small core team. This
team grew in 2006 with the addition of a group of four scientists working on a
temporary basis. All of these scientists have experience in international cooperation
and they come from different backgrounds and disciplines 39 .
The major goal that the EPFL would like to achieve through Cooperation@epfl is
to produce internationally recognized research and education in close cooperation
with its scientific partners in the South in order to reach the Millennium
Development Goals for emerging and developing countries.
To achieve this, Cooperation@epfl has two main challenges:
to link scientific progress and research with the realities of the societies in the
South, by becoming a strategic platform for scientific cooperation for development,
offering opportunities for EPFL’s scientific laboratories, professors and researchers
to apply and adapt their knowledge and technologies to the real needs of emerging
and developing countries in a creative and innovative manner;
to promote and develop its own research and teaching expertise by setting up
an internal strategy in order to enable technologies for development through
the creation of interdisciplinary projects.
4. ISAB-COOP Team of Experts
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The International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB-COOP) was set up to strengthen
Cooperation@epfl’s performance and to help it face its new challenges. Its
39 For a list of the team members of Cooperation@epfl see:
http://cooperation.epfl.ch/page57582.html
main role is to offer advice and guidance with regard to defining a strategic orientation
for Cooperation@epfl that will help it achieve its objectives in the area
of scientific cooperation for development. ISAB-COOP is an independent and
multidisciplinary team of 13 experts and includes several prominent individuals 40 .
All of these are experts in scientific cooperation for development with experience
in one or several of EPFL’s key interest areas and strategies in this field.
The role of ISAB-COOP is to independently advise EPFL on how to develop its
research with the objective of resolving some of the most critical problems affecting
the world’s most endangered populations. With this aim in mind, ISAB-COOP
will review and guide Cooperation@epfl on scientific cooperation activities with
emerging and developing countries and it will provide support for the implementation
of a successful long-term Cooperation@epfl strategy. The critical viewpoints
offered by the ISAB-COOP experts backing Cooperation@epfl will provide
significant help to the EPFL in its pursuit of the right decisions for its scientific
cooperation for development policy and it will also help it fine-tune the execution
of this policy.
The first meeting of ISAB-COOP took place in November 2006 and allowed
Cooperation@epfl to provide a clearer definition of the objectives and tasks that
are to be developed through mid and long-term strategies.
First Meeting ISAB-COOP at EPFL in November 2006:
Dr. Ana Maria Cetto, Deputy Director General
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
and Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation
at the IAEA, Vienna, Austria; behind her) Prof. Marcel
Tanner, Director of the Swiss Tropical institute,
and Prof. and Chair of Epidemiology and Medical
Parasitology at the University of Basel.
40 Marcel Tanner (ISAB-COOP President), Nassrine Azimi, Ana Maria Cetto,
Rose Dieng-Kuntz, Claudio Fischer, Jacques Forster, Walter Fust, Eric Goles,
Georges Haddad, Hans R. Herren, Vijay Modi, Roland Schertenleib and Klaus Töpfer.
For further information on ISAB-COOP members see: http://cooperation.epfl.ch/isab.html
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