ETC project: a gateway for European - Tunisian collaboration
The ETC project European Tunisian Cooperation Project (www.etcproject.eu) is the gateway to Tunisian cooperation. ETC Tunisia will focus on fostering and boosting the involvement of the Tunisian research centres into the European Research Area by building a network, consisting of Tunisian research centres, Universities and SMEs. The project has been designed to improve the process of providing information on programs and funding and to promote cooperation between Europe and specific third countries.
ETC project opportunities ETC project in fact will be a user friendly tools for: - Tunisian RTD actors, so as to come in contact with European Research Area, its main players and opportunities. - as well as for European RTD actors, so as to increase S&T cooperation beyond European Union boundaries, as well as to strenghten relationships with Tunisian research centres and with thematic contact points. In addition, ETC offers an easy way to match demand and offer of skills and know-how, so as to allow Tunisian researchers to find the most suitable European partner for setting up new RTD projects in diferent scientific fields. The ETC newsletter is the faster way to be regularly updated on the FP7 calls. Finally, ETC webiste (http://www.etcproject.eu/) is linked with the cordis website and it offers an easy-to-handle way to be updated on the 7 framework programme.
Who are ETC partners? The ETC project consortium is composed by: Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research (Tunisia) Innova B.I.C. S.p.A. (Italy) JO Consulting S.r.l. (Italy) European Business & Innovation Centre Network (Belgium) Institution of Agricultural Research and Higher Education IRESA (Tunisia)
ETC main activities The ETC project consortium is going to organize some: annual conferences to present 7FP s objectives, themes, opportunities six-monthly information days on new calls for proposal of FP7 on line training activities offline workshops in order to train Focal and Thematic Contact points on FP7aims and ruleses desk analysis research
Online activities As concerns ETC project online activities: E-learning training: Some e-learning tools on project cycle management and FP7 project redaction. This is an on-line repository of learning object which can be accessed by registered users at any personal convenience. Trainees can also test their new competence by on-line exercises. Hence it is possible to find online the first Project Management training course Web Seminars: All dissemination events and networking activities (conference, and workshops) will be recorded and web-streamed in order to be accessed by users which are not able to travel or to take part. Forum: EU and Tunisian researchers are invited to partipate and discuss together on RTD trends, ideas, common interest topics in the on-line forum, which can be also used as helpful tool for partner search and project initiatives start-up. Newsletter: a news letter on the main call and topic related to Tunisia will be published and send by e-mail to all the registered people
Offline activities As concerns ETC project offline activities: Conferences: Organizing annual conferences to present 7FP s objectives, themes, opportunities so as to foster collaborations as well as to involve all the Tunisian organizations into European Research Area. Training Workshops: Organizing workshops devoted to Tunisian Focal and Thematic Contact points so as to train them on FP7aims and rules. Information days: Six-monthly information days on new calls for proposal and related S&T thematic activities of FP7, so as to deal with in depth issue of common interest.
The desk analysis research The ETC project consortium is going to organize a desk analysis in order to identify: The state of the art, on Tunisian S&T context and the level of participation at European RTD programmes. This task will be the starting point to address future cooperation towards common scientific and technological issues. In addition we are going to carry out the scouting of national and thematic research priorities A Best practice collection, To strengthen research collaborations and enhancing the existing ones between European Union and Tunisia. The best and successful practices will be collected in order to highlight the key factors able to increase the number of successful partnerships. A Forecasting analysis, with the aim of producing an appropriate information base for supporting decision making on scientific and technological fields within ten years. The scouting of European research groups active on framework programme so as to support Tunisian research groups to find suitable partners for developing jointly RTD projects. The goal is to provide the Tunisian researchers with information on the existing excellence within the European Union in the most relevant S&T fields for stimulating new relationships.
ETC structure
The ETC project website
The thematic contact poitn area
The partner search facilities
The library