Science diplomacy in the Global Approach to Research and Innovation
Science Diplomacy is part of the EU’s priority of leveraging our power and partnerships for a global Europe. The Global Approach to Research and Innovation, the EU’s strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation, advocates that a stronger focus on science and technology in the EU’s foreign and security policies in terms of science diplomacy would help the EU to project soft power and pursue our economic interests and fundamental values more effectively, meeting demand and interest from partner countries and playing to the EU’s strengths as a research and innovation powerhouse.
In its Conclusions on the Global Approach to Research and Innovation, the Council highlighted the importance of integrating the Global Approach in research and innovation in the EU's external action and called on the Commission and the European External Action Service to develop a European Science Diplomacy Agenda.
In addition, an increasing number of recent EU policy documents in the foreign and security policy domain have made explicit or implicit reference to Science Diplomacy and the need for foreign policy to be based on the best possible evidence.
Examples include:
- Joint Communication on strengthening the EU’s contribution to rules-based multilateralism
- Joint Communication on a stronger EU engagement for a peaceful, sustainable and prosperous Arctic
- Council conclusions on Climate and Energy Diplomacy
- Council Conclusions on EU Digital Diplomacy (July 2022, June 2023)
- Council Conclusions on Green Diplomacy
Horizon 2020 projects
The Horizon 2020 programme funded 3 dedicated research projects on science diplomacy:
- Using Science for/in Diplomacy for Addressing Global Challenges (S4D4C)
- Inventing a Shared Science Diplomacy for Europe (InsSciDE)
- European Leadership in Cultural, Science and Innovation Diplomacy (EL-CSID)
These projects enhanced our understanding of European science diplomacy, explored options and developed training material as well as position papers such as the Madrid Declaration on Science Diplomacy. This has led to the establishment of the EU Science Diplomacy Alliance, gathering some of the most important academic players in the field.
Further input was delivered by the Science Diplomacy Task Force of the Strategic Forum for International Scientific and Technological Cooperation (SFIC), which in early 2020 prepared an Input Paper proposing to “promote a clearer and more strategic role of EU Science Diplomacy”, and suggesting among other things, the development of an EU Science Diplomacy Platform and Roadmap.
Developing a European Framework for Science Diplomacy
The first Biennial report on the implementation of the Global Approach to research and innovation acknowledged that science diplomacy efforts in the EU remain largely uncoordinated, lacking synergies and an EU-wide approach. Such shortcomings create vulnerabilities in a rapidly changing geopolitical, scientific and technological environment, with other international actors using science diplomacy in a much more targeted manner.
The need to act was underlined by EU Research Ministers at their meeting in Santander, Spain, on 28 July 2023, when science diplomacy was discussed for the first time at ministerial level.
Supported by the ERA Forum Sub-Group on the Global Approach and a Steering Team consisting of the main stakeholder communities, the Commission is currently developing a European Framework for Science Diplomacy.
Four work strands emerged from discussions held with different groups of stakeholders:
- How to use science diplomacy strategically to tackle geopolitical challenges in a fragmented, multipolar world
- How to make European diplomacy more strategic, effective, and resilient through scientific evidence and foresight
- How to strengthen science diplomacy in EU and Member State diplomatic missions and foster the EU’s global science diplomacy outreach
- How to build capacity for European science diplomacy
These issues were discussed at the first European Science Diplomacy Conference that was held on 18-19 December 2023 in Madrid, in cooperation with the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The conference gathered more than 350 stakeholders present and online from across the science and diplomacy fields. See the report from the conference and main outcome document.
Following an open call for expressions of interest, to which almost 600 experts applied, the Commission established 5 Science Diplomacy Working Groups – each one co-chaired by a scientist and a diplomat – which tackled the above-mentioned four work strands as well as a cross-cutting one on definition, principles, and EU added value of European science diplomacy. The Working Groups developed concrete recommendations for strategic, operational and enabling instruments, which are reflected in the expert report “A European Framework for Science Diplomacy”, published in January 2025. This report will inform the next steps to be taken at EU level.
This report presents the results of five EU Science Diplomacy Working Groups that were established by the European Commission in order to develop recommendations for a European Framework for Science Diplomacy. The working groups consisted of 130 science and diplomacy experts from across Europe, with each group being co-chaired by a scientist and a diplomat. The recommendations are intended to inform future policy action.
The report “A European Framework for Science Diplomacy” delivers on this task and is the result of a European-wide cocreation process, which brought together 130 experts from the worlds of science and diplomacy under the guidance of a Steering Team.
Latest
The Commission published an expert report; co-authored by 130 science diplomacy experts, including recommendations to strengthen strategic links between research and innovation with foreign and security policies.
The Commission, the Union for the Mediterranean and the Arab League organised together a High-Level Meeting on Science Diplomacy on 2 October 2024 in Cairo.