International Affairs - Relations Internationales - EPFL

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Progress-Report_DEF.qxd:Layout 1 5.6.2007 3:00 Page 46 B Cooperation@epfl 46 5.5 Seed Money Funding Program 50 In order to encourage EPFL researchers to promote and reinforce scientific cooperation with partners in emerging and developing countries, Cooperation@epfl has launched an annual call for Seed Money projects. These are open to all the research and teaching units at all of the EPFL schools. The Seed Money Program follows the main criteria of scientific excellence, sustainable development and long-term scientific research partnerships, and represents a very open, and therefore, highly competitive funding mechanism, which will promote the design and launch of new scientific cooperation projects with partners in emerging and developing countries during the initial phase and it is aimed at getting subsequent funding from other appropriate backers. Cooperation@epfl launched the first Seed Money Call at the end of 2005 with a total budget of SFr. 100,000, which came entirely from EPFL funds. A total of 15 proposals were submitted from the different EPFL Schools. A total of 8 proposals were selected for total or partial funding. A new call has been launched for 2007 with the selection of 9 new projects. 5.6 MAS in Development, Technologies and Society (MAS DTS) 51 VPRI This 26-week full-time training course targets engineers, architects and qualified graduates in other disciplines from university level educational institutions in all countries. Participants should be committed to improving people’s living conditions and to sustainable development in different regions of the world, and should have an interest in problems linked to the integration of technology and sustainable development. The next session of the MAS DTS is organized jointly with the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2iE – Groupe EIER-ETSHER) and takes place in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso between 16 October 2006 and 27 April 2007 52 . The MAS DTS is based on the past experience of postgraduate courses in development acquired by the EPFL and 2IE since 1978, with the financial support of SDC. 50 Prof. J.-C. Bolay, M. Schmid, Dr G. Schachermayr. 51 Prof J.-C. Bolay, Y. Changkakoti, Dr A. Repetti, C. Waridel. 52 http://cooperation.epfl.ch/mdts.html Development of a coupled solar-biological system for the disinfection and elimination of organic contaminants in drinking and waste waters in rural areas of Colombia; carried out by EPFL in partnership with Universidad del Valle (UNIVALLE) in Cali, Colombia (2005). 5.7 Cooperation and Development Conference 2006 53 The theme of our annual conference in 2006 was “Scientific cooperation research: a chance for development?”. Its aim was to support the idea that scientific collaboration between the North and South leads to positive changes for development. Collaborations enable institutions from industrialized as well as developing or emerging economies to address fundamental societal issues, while promoting high-level research and education in order to foster appropriate scientific, technological and organizational innovation. The conference underlined the potential and the need for scientific cooperation, by blending together talks on specific cooperation issues given by eminent members of our newly created ISAB-COOP with specific examples of research projects, which have been launched at the EPFL by the Swiss Cooperation Agency (SDC) and the EPFL research fund. 53 Prof J.-C. Bolay, Dr G. Tejada, Y. Changkakoti. VPRI 47
Progress-Report_DEF.qxd:Layout 1 5.6.2007 3:00 Page 48 B Cooperation@epfl 48 Field work in the framework of the MAS in Development, Technologies and Society (MAS DTS) co-organised by the EPFL and the Institut International d’Ingénierie en Eau et Environnement in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (2005). 6. Strategic Axes and Guidelines for the Future VPRI During the first year of the new phase of Cooperation@epfl’s activities it was perceived that a strong positioning strategy should be based on three main synergic strategic axes: 1. A solid financial structure based on the mobilisation of new financial support; 2. A recognized image and position based on an efficient internal structure and the most appropriate identity; 3. A sustainable spread of the inspiration of effective North-South scientific cooperation for development through accurate internal and external networking. The implementation of this strategy will be based on three different categories of activities and services that Cooperation@epfl shall accomplish: 1. Research and education: Cooperation@epfl develops its own research through partnerships with its peers in emerging and developing countries; it carries out continuous training modules on the relations between technology, society and development; it strives to coordinate interdisciplinary projects by associating several laboratories within EPFL. 2. Scientific services and institutional partnerships: Cooperation@epfl conducts consultancy, monitoring and evaluation activities on cooperation projects; it represents the EPFL’s policy of cooperation with external partners. 3. Communication and information: Cooperation@epfl works to raise awareness, to inform and to give advice to the various units within EPFL; it provides information to the public, the media and development agencies about its activities in the field of scientific cooperation. With regard to the geographic focus, because of the institutional partnerships that have already been established, the historic collaboration links and prospective opportunities, Cooperation@epfl activities will concentrate on the following key regions for scientific cooperation: Latin America, South and Southeast Asia and West Africa, and priority will be given to the following countries: India, Burkina Faso, Colombia and Vietnam. Further key regions and countries will be considered depending on opportunities and on the basis of two main criteria: an excellent scientific level in academic and/or research institutions and the interest and priority given to development problems. 7. Cooperation@epfl’s Budget and Future Objectives The annual global amount invested in cooperation projects and/or activities at the EPFL is estimated to be about SFr. 6 million, of which approximately SFr. 2.5 to SFr. 3 million is managed by Cooperation@epfl. However, Cooperation@epfl itself is run on a limited functional budget, which was set at SFr. 300,000 for 2006. Most of this 2006 functional budget was used to cover organisation, management costs and travel expenses for the MAS DTS, the launching of the promotion for the Inter- School Projects, the establishment of a stable long-term operational Seed Money Funding Programme as well as the setting up of an International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB-COOP). An additional budget of around SFr. 400,000 corresponded to the salaries of Cooperation@epfl team members. VPRI 49
Page 1 and 2: Progress-Report_DEF.qxd:Layout 1 5.
Page 23: Progress-Report_DEF.qxd:Layout 1 5.

International Affairs - Relations Internationales - EPFL

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?