This workshop is an accompanying event to Bled Forum on Europe Conference "Foresight and Knowledge Based Governance Responses to Climate Change" www.bled-forum.org.

The Workprogramme for the INCO-NETs states that INCO-NET projects have to consider:

“The exchange of views with third country policy makers to lay down common objectives on global issues and face jointly the challenges and opportunities of the European Research Area (ERA) and its partners. Such discussions should focus on interdisciplinary issues with a real need for coordination of S&T policies and new rules that arise from the globalisation of research and S&T cooperation. These issues could usefully be linked to the seven new thematic programmes of External Relations.”

It is obvious that coordination among all INCO-NETs (and other stakeholders) with regard to global issues is needed as their very nature implies that "global issues/challenges" require globally coordinated reponses.

In order to avoid these aspects to be dealt with by each individual INCO-NET in a fragmented, marginalised and un-coordinated way, coordination efforts and provision of additional (information exchange) structures to coordinate this specific aspect among INCO-NETs will be very important.

Proposed first steps of coordination among INCO-NETs with regard to Global issues:
The Centre for Social Innovation is involved in “global issues” task groups of four INCO-NET projects (Western Balkans (WBC-INCO.NET), Eastern Europe/ Central Asia (IncoNet EECA), Latin America (EULARINET), Southeast Asia (SEA-EU-NET)).

Therefore we take the initiative to suggest some concrete steps for coordination of INCO-NET activities with regard to global issues which could in the long run lead to the development of a comprehensive information and knowledge infrastructure for knowledge based implementation of "MDG 8 - Develop a global partnership for developmen" which shall help also for coordination of European STI INCO policies on global issues with EU’s programmes of external relations.

The first proposed inter-INCO-NETActivity on "Global Issues" is a
INCO-Net Global Issues Workshop which shall take place on Wednesday March 5, 2008 09.00 – 17.00 CET in Bled/Slovenia.

In addition to a general exchange of information among INCO-NETs about planned activities with regard to global issues this workshop is intended to get a shared vision on development of a "database/information system on science policies and programmes on global issues". Such an information infrastructure shall help to advance biregional and global coordination of STI policies with regard to global issues (Climate protection, Biodiversity, Energy and Water scarcity etc.) as well as it will enhance strengthening the coordination of S&T cooperation and the complementarities with activities carried out by means of other Community policy instruments (e.g. achieving "Policy coherence for development (PCD)" in line with "The European Consensus on Development" of 2005).

Furthermore this workshop aims also at coordination of the INCO-NET Global Issues Activities with DG Research’s activities (for instance by building on the outcomes of the Workshop "Responding to Global Challenges: the role of Europe and of International Science and Technology Cooperation" http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/index.cfm?lg=en&pg=wkshp_4-5_10_2007 and at coordination with ERA-Watch (http://cordis.europa.eu/erawatch/ ERAWATCH provides information on national research policies, structures, programmes and organisations) which shall allow to develop an ERA-Watch compatible information system.

Expected Outcome of the Workshop:

* Consensus on definitions/ delimination of terms: e.g. global versus regional, project versus programme,
* identification of current and future potential users of the Global Issues STI policies/programmes information system and discussion of their information needs
* getting a glimpse of status quo regarding existing information systems (especially ERA-Watch on the programme/policies level and EuroCRIS on project level) and
* outline of a common system of categorisation and documentation of research programmes, policies and research infrastructures (?) of International Cooperation Partner Countries of EU and EU member states on some selected global issues ( focus on complementarity and compatibility (perspective of integration of different systems in the long run should be kept in mind))
* discussion and at least partial consensus on the niche/the scope of the project (What are the borders of the INCO net Global Issues Information system(s), which can only be some kind of feasible pilot action in this field in light of limited funding and limited coverage of the involved INCOnets)

Participants/speakers from following institutions/projects are expected to attend the WS:

* Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Republic of Slovenia (EU Council presidency)
* Directorate D - International cooperation, European Commission DG Research
* Centre for Social Innovation, ZSI (WBC-INCO.NET)
* International Bureau of the BMBF at the German Aerospace CentreDLR
* Academy of Sciences of Moldova (IncoNet EECA)
* Demos (SEA-EU-NET)
* EuroCRIS – European Current Research Information System
* IPTS, Seville (ERA-Watch)
* IPCC (with regard to Global Issue “Climate Change“)
* European Environment Agency (exeriences with regard to the Clearing House Mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity)
* Slovenian Research Agency
* Coordinators of INCO-NET projects or their representatives
* Other people interested in the topic who think that they could in one way or another contribute to the Global Issues tasks of INCO-NET projects or to the development of related complementary and follow-up projects.

Contact for this workshop:
Miroslav Polzer polzer@zsi.at

Additional Information

Participants of the INCO-Net Global Issues Workshop are kindly invited to participate also in the Bled Forum on Europe Foresight conference "Foresight and Knowledge Based Governance Responses to Climate Change" (see www.bled-forum.org for details).

For Participants of the INCO-Net Global Issues Workshop there is no registration fee to be paid for participation at the Bled Forum on Europe Foresight Conference and in case assistance with regard to costs of accommodation is needed, please contact the organisers (polzer@zsi.at) as there will be available some funds for such cases in order to make it possible for as many Participants of the INCO-Net Global Issues Workshop too attend the BF 2008 conference as possible.

The participation in the Bled Forum conference will be very valuable for INCO-net project partners especially also with regard to the fact that top-level foresight experts from IPTS. WFUNA Millennium project etc. will give their presentations and this knowledge with regard to foresight might be useful for implementing the "vision-building" component which is essential to all INCO-NET projects.

Venue:
Hotel Golf, Bled/Slovenia
www.hotel-golf-bled.com

Organisers:
Centre for Social Innovation, Vienna – Ljubljana & INCO-NET project partners