Science and innovation for development : a study into the contribution and complementarity of EU international research and innovation cooperation with developing countries in FP7 (2007-2013) : final report

This publication looks at the contribution and complementarity of EU international research and innovation cooperation with developing countries in the seventh EU Framework Programme on Research (FP7) (2007 -2013). The study covers Africa, South America and South-East Asia, with a specific focus on Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Vietnam, Thailand and India. The authors find that FP7 activities involving partners from developing countries are very relevant to achieving EU development objectives, both geographically and thematically. FP7 has made a good start in building up a global European research and innovation community-of-practice, an important pre-condition for the EU to effectively deal with the global challenges included in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. In terms of results, the majority of FP7 projects have fed or are expected to feed into national development or research policies or are taken up by local businesses, particularly in middle-income countries and emerging economies. Other projects have contributed or are expected to contribute to networking, capacity-building and policy-dialogue. The study makes ample reference to funded projects to show-case these results. The effectiveness of these contributions to achieving countries' development objectives is however heavily conditioned by the strength and functioning of the national innovation system in the countries where FP7 partners operate. Evidence of synergies between FP7 and other support activities for research and innovation was mostly found in middle income countries and emerging economies, such as in Egypt, South Africa or Peru and to a lesser extent in low income and least developed countries. The authors list 12 ideas at the end of the study that could potentially help to address this in the future. This study complements the strategic evaluation undertaken by DG International Cooperation and Development on its support to Research and Innovation for development in partner countries (2007-2013).