4.4.7 The European Union Science Diplomacy Alliance

The EU Science Diplomacy Alliance is a collaborative initiative launched by the Horizon 2020 science diplomacy projects S4D4C, InsSciDE and EL-CSID to sustain and grow the networks, impact and momentum consolidated by the three projects. The activities of the Alliance will aim to further develop, maintain, and organise joint research projects, capacity building and training activities (such as open online courses, summer schools, trainings, etc.) on the topic of science diplomacy.

The Coordinators of S4D4C, InsSciDE and EL-CSID together launched the Alliance at the Final Networking Conference of S4D4C on 19 March 2021, with the support of several founding members. The Alliance is grounded in the results and networks fostered by the three projects and aims at sustaining the dialogue on EU science diplomacy and cultivating new opportunities to progress theory and practice of science diplomacy in Europe.

The Alliance emerged as a result of the S4D4C policy brief: Nurturing the EU Science Diplomacy Community: The Launch of an EU Science Diplomacy Alliance for Addressing Global Challenges.  It will facilitate interactions and dialogue, training, institutional capacity building and coordination of grant-seeking or use of joint funding, if available. The Alliance serves as a hub for cooperative activities and voluntary coordination and relies upon the participating membership community and networks to highlight and select different areas and innovative activities to be pursued. It is hoped that a great variety of societal challenges may be addressed over time.

Objetives include:

• – Encourage project collaboration
• – Supporting information exchange and awareness raising
• – Training, education and institutional capacity building
• – Promoting and creating knowledge exchange and interaction interfaces
• – Connecting and nurturing a science, technology and innovation diplomacy community
• – Keeping track of European Union Science Diplomacy activities
• – Advising science diplomacy stakeholders

The activities of the Alliance will aim to further develop, maintain, and organise joint research projects, capacity building and training activities (such as open online courses, summer schools, training, etc.) on the topic of science diplomacy.

Coordination, planning and admission of new institutions take place in meetings convened twice a year by the chairing institution, which rotates between members every six months.

All EU SD Alliance can be found on the following link.