Innovation Cooperation between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean

Since 2023 the relations between the EU and CELAC have been gathering new momentum, notably through the Joint Communication on a New Agenda for Relations between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean, adopted in June 2023 and through the first EU-CELAC Summit in eight years, held in July 2023.

In November 2023, DG Research and Innovation hosted a meeting of the senior officials of the EU-CELAC Joint Initiative on Research and Innovation. One of the outcomes of the November meeting was the agreement to revise the existing ‘EU-CELAC Strategic Roadmap for R&I’, which was originally prepared in 2020. This roadmap is structured around four pillars: Global challenges, research infrastructures, human development and Innovation. 

In this framework, a project called the EU-LAC Innovation Cooperation Initiative was launched this year with the aim to a) bring together innovators from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean to collaborate on solutions to shared challenges of sustainable development, and b) structure the presence of EU-affiliated innovators in the LAC region. 

As part of this initiative a network of startup incubators and accelerators from both continents was launched in Bogotá on the 26-27th of August.Bringing together for the first time a cohort of 10 EU- and 10 LAC-based incubators and accelerators the event created the foundations for cooperation and knowledge exchange, with a view to connecting and mobilising startups, entrepreneurs and innovators and create impactful partnerships that will be monitored and followed over the next few months.

This event was attended by public officials from Colombia and the EU Delegation to Colombia, local entrepreneurs and civil society representatives, and overall Colombia-based innovation ecosystem stakeholders and innovation networks. The event included a space for networking, reflection and discussion between experts and practitioners from the EU and LAC.

Contingent on progress made, event participants will be invited to a second networking event in the margins of the first EU-LAC S&T Ministerial meeting in 2025. 

More information

Meeting report

International cooperation with Latin America and Caribbean