Conclusions of the ICT Forum in Santiago de Chile - 3 November 2010

The first PRO-IDEAL PLUS ICT Forum to support the ICT policy dialogue between Chile and the EU was held in Santiago de Chile on 3 November 2010.

After introductory words of the representative of the EU embassy, Claudia Geyer, Klaus Pendl of the European Commission gave an overview on Chilean participation in EU projects and the opportunities that the ICT Programme offers. The intervention from Mr. Alfredo Barriga Cifuentes of the Chilean Ministry of the Economy, Development and Tourism highlighted Chile's Digital Agenda. Speakers from ICT organisations, the e-infrastructures project EVALSO as well as CONCYT and the European Commission's DG Research were complemented by contributions from the PRO-IDEAL PLUS partners. As preliminary conclusions, the following issues were identified:

Research+Development+Innovation are crucial for both the EU and Chile:

• SMEs are at the core of Chile's (and the EU's) economy and innovation
• Need for global action
• Challenge to collaborate between academia, industry and governments
• Up-grade intercontinental connectivity of e-infrastructures for ubiquitous access

Chilean challenges:

• Lack of R&D investment;
• Lack of success stories to prove benefit of ICT
• No connection between science and economic value creation

These findings should find their way into the Roadmap for future actions between the EU and Chile.

The full material of the workshop is available here.