The overall goal of the proposed Cofund is to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA) in maritime and marine technologies and Blue Growth. The realisation of a European research and innovation agenda needs a broad and systematic cooperation in all areas of waterborne transport, offshore activity, marine resources, maritime security, biotechnologies, desalination, offshore oil & gas, fisheries, aquaculture etc. covering all relevant maritime and marine sectors and regions for a sustainable development of the maritime sector. Research and innovation activities in these fields cannot be tackled either at national levels alone, or solely by a single sector. Coordinated actions are required for the maritime industry to strengthen Europe’s position in this important and complex economic field in a global market. The proposing consortium will organise and co-fund, together with the EU, a joint call for trans-national research projects on different thematic areas of Blue Growth. Furthermore, additional joint activities that go beyond this co-funded call are planned, in order to contribute to the national priorities as well as to the Strategic Research Agenda of JPI Oceans and WATERBORNE. With the cooperation of ERA-NET MARTEC and JPI Oceans, a broader variety of topics with a larger amount of funding will be available for the trans-national projects. Moreover, the focus of development in MarTERA is given to technologies (instead of sectors) due to their potentially large impact to a wide range of application fields. The proposal responds to the topic ERA-NET Cofund on marine technologies of the work programme 2016-2017 of the societal challenge 2 (Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bio-economy) under Horizon 2020. Thereby it also contributes to the overall EU objective of building the ERA through enhanced cooperation and coordination of national research programmes.

EULAC Focus addresses the whole set of topics included in the Call. It delivers a significant contribution to the improvement of EU–CELAC relations through a better understanding of the three dimensions selected by the call: cultural, scientific and social. The main objective is that of “giving focus” to these three dimensions of EU–CELAC relations, with a view to determining synergies and cross-fertilization, as well as identifying asymmetries in bi-lateral and bi-regional relations. Research is focused on areas crucial to explain the current state of relations between EU and LAC, and will be pursued at two levels: a) research activities; b) strategic set of recommendations. In order to guarantee high impact, the research is pursued in six interdisciplinary WPs, organized “matricially”. Three are “horizontal ”: Cross-cutting pathways, Towards a common vision for EU–CELAC and Dissemination and outreach. The other three are “thematic/vertical”: Cultural, Scientific and Social Dimension, and not only intersect the horizontal WPs but also interact between them. To achieve the objectives, the project is organized by the multidisciplinary and well balanced consortium of19 members from 15 counties. The consortium represents a unique group of highly competent and experienced institutions, composed specifically for the purpose of this project,comprising, in both regions, Gov Research Agencies, Research institutes, Universities, University Association, and two International European – LA Organizations active in analytical and policy oriented research and dissemination. EULAC Focus builds upon the outcomes of prior mapping conducted at the bi-regional level and will facilitate access to end-users, as well as feeding into the work of the EU-LAC Foundation and informing bi-regional networking activities of the JIRI and T-AP’s work. The number of partners has been carefully defined to ensure project goals and proper diversity, while allowing for efficient project management.