On the 10th and 11th of December 2014, in Auckland, New Zealand, it was held the first bi-regional policy dialogue platform. SPI participated in this event together with more than 80 policy-makers, and scientists of the Pacific (Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polinesia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga) and Europe (Austria, France, Germany, Malta, Portugal and United Kingdom) with the purpose to reflect on how to develop a regional strategic framework on STI, and how this could contribute to enhancing the global partnership between the Pacific region and the EU.
The outcomes of six thematic Think Tanks that were held this year in the fields of health, food security, climate change and natural resources, in the framework of the project, were delivered and contributed to policy recommendations for science, development and innovation.
A set of priority actions were defined that will strengthen the EU-Pacific global partnership, through the optimization of cooperation opportunities.
The outcomes of this first bi-regional dialogue platform (to be posted on www.pacenet.eu) will contribute to draw the following steps to be implemented for the constitution of a long term institutionalized dialogue in STI between Europe and Pacific. The future platforms in Brussels (Belgium) in June 2015 and in Suva (Fiji) in mid-2016 will constitute two important milestones for this bi-regional dialogue.