Continuing on this research line, the learning and skills JRC-IPTS research team is working on European Commission's recent Communication on Rethinking Education, and the initiative “Opening-up Education”. Through the Open Educational Resources in Europe project (OEREU), JRC is to provide empirical evidence to policy makers in order to guide policies on the field of Open Education. As the Communication acknowledges, Openness has the potential to widen access to education and to improve cost-efficiency and quality of teaching and learning. Open Educational Resources (OER) are however currently underexploited. The OEREU project is managing a call for visionary papers, several workshops, and an online debate around a dedicated blog, to come up with visions and scenarios on how Open Education in 2030 in Europe might be for Lifelong Learning, School Education, and Higher Education. It is an opportunity for the Educational community to be involved in a European expert network that could have a direct impact on European Policies, especially now when MOOC's (Massive Open Online Courses) have become a hot topic for debate.

Further reading:

• JRC-IPTS Learning and skills Research team website
• Call for papers and collaborative space for the Open Education in Europe Project
• The European Journal of Education, Vol 48, No. 1, March 2013, on ICT and Education: taking stock of progress and looking at the future.

Under the title: 'The Chinese are coming! Is there a future for European ICT?' a panel of three speakers will review the reality and myths of Asia's ICT upswing and the European ICT sector state of play. Marc Bogdanowicz, IPTS-JRC Scientific officer, Jean-Paul Simon, JPS consultant and Antonio Corral, Noxium's managing director, will address these and many other questions: is European R&D and innovation competitive? What kind of ICT company makes sense in Europe?

The [SIC] open days (debates on the latest developments of Knowledge and Information Society) are organised by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the European Commission´s Joint Research Centre, the Directorate General of Telecommunications and Information Society, of the Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment, Government of Andalusia, and the headquarters of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) in Seville.

More information

http://www.debatesic.es/

Come or not, you may also join the debate on Twitter under the general hashtag #debateSIC or this session's #madeinchina;

Date & Time

Tuesday April 9, at 19.00h at UOC headquarters in Seville (c/ Torneo, 32)
Streaming will also be available @ http://www.debatesic.es/

Based on the abstracts received from the Open Call for Papers, it will focus on the institutional aspects of patent systems, the methodological aspects of collecting and analysing data and the research outputs of patent analysis.

Related links

• Patent Intelligence for policy, JRC-IPTS, Information Society Unit

Related documents

• Call for Papers

The 2011 Arab spring provides a unique opportunity to rethink economic relations between the European Union (EU) and North-African countries (NACs). A new set of analytical analysis is required in order to contribute to the design of thriving deep and comprehensive free trade areas (DCFTAs). This project conducted by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (Institute for Prospective and Technological Studies, IPTS) aims at providing regional and national impact analysis of possible DCFTAs between the EU and respectively Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.

The purpose of this workshop is to present and discuss the results among regional and global actors. As a major Mediterranean trade actor, impacts in Turkey are also proposed. Four scenarios are modelled and analysed:

• Trade liberalisation scenario which shows the potential impacts of agri-food trade liberalisation between North African and EU countries in the context of DCFTAs negotiations - impact of non-tariff measures is a sub-scenario;
• Domestic consumer protection scenario which addresses trade distortions and rising world food prices;
• Public and private investment scenario which captures the effects of FDIs and capital flow increase in NACs;
• Food waste scenario which focuses on the improvement of food chain efficiency, i.e. reducing losses in NACs agricultural production, post-harvest handling and storage.

Morning session will be dedicated to the presentation and discussion of modelling results at regional and national levels by the project partners.

A panel discussion on strategies for promoting growth in the Euro-Med area with key regional actors will take place during the afternoon with confirmed experts from AfDB, EBRD, FAO and OECD.

Agenda

• Download the draft agenda

Contact

• pierre.boulanger@ec.europa.eu

Under the title "Are we Internet users irresponsible, myopic or naïve?" Claudio Feijoo, a techno-economic prospective expert and professor at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), will offer a conference and lead the debate: Should companies exploit and use our data to offer innovative services?

The [SIC] open days (debates on latest tendencies of Knowledge and Information Society) are organised by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the European Commission´s Joint Research Centre, the Directorate General of Telecommunications and Information Society of the Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment Government of Andalusia and the headquarters of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) in Seville.

More info

• http://www.debatesic.es/

Date & Time: Tuesday March 12, at 19.00 h at UOC headquarters in Seville (c/ Torneo, 32)

Streaming will also be available @ www.debatesic.es

More info

• IRI website: CONCORDi-2013 conference

The event will bring together internationally reputed experts in the domain of regional economic modelling, economic analysis and regional policy making.

The aim of the workshop is to identify the state of the art in economic modelling and in the data provision at the regional level in order to support economic analysis, evaluation and policy design / assessment for the next multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020.

The event will take place next 14 February 2013.

We aim at keeping the maximum number of participants to 50 so we advice you to register as soon as possible. Deadline for registration: 7 February 2013.

If you are interested in participating please register by sending an email to: rosy.rueda@ec.europa.eu.

For additional information about the event please contact Andrea Conte at: andrea.conte@ec.europa.eu

More information

Draft Agenda (last update: 18/01)

The event, also co-organised by Spanish Ministry of the Finance and Public Administations and Junta of Andalusia (Regional Government), will bring together internationally reputed experts who will be also assisting in the development of such strategies in Spain. More than 300 people have confirmed attendance.

"Smart specialisation" is a strategic approach to economic development through targeted support for research and innovation. It was announced in the "Innovation Union flagship initiative of the Europe 2020 Strategy as the key action of Cohesion Policy in the field of innovation. The development of "research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation" was proposed as a pre-condition for countries and regions availing of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). The aim is to ensure more effective and efficient innovation policy strategies at national and regional level to maximise the impact of EU investment.

More information

• Factsheet on Research Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation
• Smart specialisation Platform

The Conference aims at presenting the results of the IPTS "Media and Content Industries" studies and put them within the context of EU policies.

The conference is free of charge, but registration is required.

For more information see here