The European Commission has set out a new strategy for developing international cooperation in research and innovation with a particular focus on global challenges such as climate change, food security and fighting diseases.The new strategy will be mainly implemented through Horizon 2020, the EU’s funding program for research and innovation from 2014, as well as through joint initiatives with EU Member States. Multi-annual programs will be established for cooperating with key partner countries, including the United States. The strategy also calls for improving the policy dialogue with the EU’s partners, and sets out to improve information gathering as part of a proposed Research and Innovation Observatory.The European Union Ambassador to the United States, João Vale de Almeida, stressed that the new strategy is particularly important for science cooperation between the EU and the United States. “Our economic, research and innovation relationship is of vital importance and this strategy will further strengthen transatlantic cooperation,” he said. “We have some of the best researchers in the world on both sides of the Atlantic and it makes perfect sense to bring them together to tackle the common challenges that we face.”
