Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand are traditionally strong economic partners for Europe. The European-Pacific Partnership for ICT collaboration in research, development, and innovation (“EPIC” – www.epicproject.eu) aims to strengthen the ties between these regions through academic, industrial, and political partnerships. The initiative intends to help overcome the current lack of dedicated cooperation support actions and the relatively low visibility of Europe’s ICT RDI capabilities in the target countries.
Barriers to cooperation between the EU and those regions are particularly manifold on the researcher level. They range from unsuitable funding frameworks to immigration policy or simply the distance factor. To exploit mutually beneficial opportunities and to prepare new grounds for durable and sustainable cooperation, EPIC will support the direct interaction of researchers from the EU with their colleagues in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
As part of these efforts, EPIC is organizing short-term expert visits either from the EU to one of the partner countries in the Asia-Pacific region or vice-versa. The call for these expert visits has just been published and the project is looking for scientists, researchers and innovators from the EU or Australia, Singapore & New Zealand with concrete international ICT collaboration ideas and potential partners in mind. These experts receive a lump sum for travel and accommodation.
More details can be found in the call document on the project’s website: https://www.epicproject.eu/index.php?id=66