EU announces new partnership with 19 ASEAN research institutions. (Photo: eeas.europa.eu)Jakarta (VNA) – Nineteen ASEAN research institutions will benefit from new research grants provided by European Union (EU), the EU Mission to ASEAN has announced.
They are among 74 winning consortia globally under the European Commission’s 2020 call for proposals of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (MSCA-RISE). A total of 408 proposals had been received.
The 80-million-EUR initiative will promote international and cross-sector collaboration through exchanging innovative research and staff, and sharing knowledge and ideas from research to market and vice-versa.
The MSCA-RISE results reconfirms the strong EU commitment to mobility of researchers even more important in times of COVID-19.
“Global mobility for researchers is even more important in times of COVID-19,” said Igor Driesmans, EU Ambassador to ASEAN. “In the past months, we have seen the relentless involvement of researchers from all over the world to the fight against COVID-19. ASEAN research institutes were in regular contact with their EU counterparts.”
“The pandemic might have stopped physical exchanges but clearly not the willingness to work together,” he said, adding that research cooperation between the EU and ASEAN is a crucial pillar of the bilateral relationship.
Thanks to MCSA-RISE, 823 organisations, including 117 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 137 countries, will exchange over 4,000 staff members to engage in research and innovation activities across scientific disciplines and sectors. Researchers at doctoral level, post-doctoral fellows, technicians, managerial and administrative staff will all be involved as part of these exchanges./.
VNA
