Training and awareness-raising in Cuba about the Horizonte 2020

In the week 20th to 24th November workshops were held about the framework program Horizonte 2020 in Science, Technology and Innovation of the European Commission.

It started with a working session with the National Contact Points (NCP) on the 20th to make known the tasks within the framework program, to provide support in the meetings and to promote the participation of researchers from different cities, a task which is generally performed on voluntary basis.

In the remaining days there were trainings in the cities La Habana, Holguín and Santa Clara, which were meant for the information and dissemination of the framework program.

In the opening ceremony, Juan Garay, representative of the European Commission in Cuba, and María Esther, specialist of the CTI direction CITMA (Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of Cuba), took the floor.

The Horizonte 2020 Program was presented as well as the participatory mechanisms, the tools to look for meetings and associates, different aspects that contribute to the motivation and the establishment of program ownership on the part of the participants.

Specific emphasis was placed on the new Working Programs of 2018-2020 of the Horizonte 2020 Program, especially on the topics Health, Sustainable Urbanization and Transport since the participation of the CELAC institutions is obligatory in those fields.

This initiative was driven by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of Cuba (CITMA) led by the director Armando Rodriguez Batista and the European Union with the support of the ALCUE NET in order to combine best practices of projects with the Cuban participation in European programs.

The access mechanisms and participation conditions for the Marie S.-Curie actions (MSCA) were also presented. Claudia Romano, Managing Director of the international Cooperation and Projects of the MEC, and Almudena Carrero of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), were in charge of the presentation.

Let`s hope that those workshops will strengthen and contribute to the national capacities of the science and technology organisms, the researchers and the companies in order to increase the Cuban participation in the Horizonte 2020 Program.