The alignment document will include a European analysis on the ongoing alignment efforts of JPI Urban Europe and the well-established collaboration of the JPI Urban Europe funding agencies and learning from the development of ERA-NET programs ENSCC and ENSUF. The current joint calls from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the aligned research topics are also included in this paper. The final version of this paper (2019) will finally analyze the results and build on the ongoing alignment efforts of JPI Urban Europe and the well-established collaboration of the JPI Urban Europe funding agencies.
02 GLOBAL DRIVERS FOR URBAN POLICIES
This chapter aims to describe and summarize the policy alignment process of STI cooperation in sustainable urbanization based on the existing global drivers for urban policies, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a background for international research and technology cooperation activities to implement measures to achieve the SDGs.
UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Sustainable Cities and Communities´
Most of the SDG indicators are themselves directly linked to urban policies that have a clear impact on cities and settlements. It was in the 1980s, when severe drought and heat and large fires in parts of the world had pushed the greenhouse effect into focus, and when the Brundtland report 'Our Common Future' first introduced the definition of 'sustainable development'. Understanding the main trends in urbanization and tackling future global challenges will be crucial to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The alignment of the New Urban Agenda includes a globally shared vision, principles and commitments, a joint call to actions, effective implementation, different means of implementation, and a follow-up and review process. It can be observed that the entire alignment process of the New Urban Agenda can be reflected by the earlier described five steps of an alignment process. The implementation of the New Urban Agenda contributes to the implementation and localization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in an integrated manner, and to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, including SDG 11 to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe to make, resilient and sustainable' (UN Habitat III, 2016).
Urbanization is one of the twenty-first century's most transformative trends, responsible for significant environmental impact. By 2050, 2.5 billion people will move to urban areas, with nearly 90 percent of the increase in Asia and Africa.
EU-China STI cooperation to implement measures for achieving SDGs
The implementation of the EU-China agreement is overseen by a joint steering committee, which last met in Brussels in 2017. TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA (H TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA, a European research and innovation action funded under Horizon 2020, addresses the key challenge of how best to design and transform cities into intelligent, socially inclusive and sustainable environments (TRANS -URBAN-EU-CHINA, 2019. An important outcome of the URBAN-EU-CHINA project is this alignment document, which will focus on the alignment of bilateral financing and cooperation frameworks between Europe and China.
The report on cooperation plans and guidelines URBAN-EU CHINA describes the results of joint activities between European and Chinese cities. URBAN-EU-CHINA (2019) Cooperation Plans and Guidelines (version 2), a story of cooperation between European and Chinese cities. The following five insights and recommendations under the five steps for a successful EU-China.
EU-CHINA developed eight components, including important issues, as guidelines for a successful adaptation of EU-China city-to-city cooperation. WHAT do we use to implement a successful adjustment of city-to-city cooperation between the EU and China. The strategic R&I agenda for cooperation between the EU and China on sustainable urbanization fosters mutual research cooperation areas and topics for the EU-China.
Today, EU-China relations cover regular summits and ministerial meetings as well as more than 60 sectoral talks.
The EU China Roadmap
Greater emphasis will be placed on fundamental research and the development of key technologies to drive innovation. Following these commitments, the European Commission and MoST have put together a package of measures to promote cooperation between stakeholders in the field of research and innovation from the EU and China. The 19th EU-China summit in June 2017 in Brussels offered the leaders of the EU and China the opportunity to reaffirm the importance of cooperation in the field of research and innovation as a driver of economic and social development and a key element of EU-China relations.
Two documents related to research and innovation were signed at the Summit, in particular: i) a Joint Declaration on key initiatives and co-financing mechanisms. A breakthrough agreement was reached at the 2015 Summit and the ICD to establish a Co-financing Mechanism (CFM) for research and innovation cooperation. Creating the right framework conditions is essential for EU-China cooperation on STIs and to make the EU and China attractive global research and innovation actors.
Funding for research and innovation in China is abundant, and the recent reform of China's STI funding system promises more transparency, quality, and openness to international collaboration. 40 years of convergence, negotiations and agreements (STI cooperation) between the European Union and China confirm the importance of Sino-European cooperation in the field of research and innovation.
Join Programming Initiative Urban Europe
A series of recommendations were made on common priority areas and expected benefits of cooperation, to design future EU-China research and innovation cooperation actions on sustainable urbanization. Hangzhou focuses on forecasting scenarios to develop a shared understanding of common short-term challenges between the EU and China and make long-term recommendations on future science, technology and innovation (STI) cooperation between the EU and China in the field of climate change. The main suggestion to policy makers was to open the EU-China Research and Innovation Cooperation Co-Funding Mechanism (CFM) between the EU and MOST for joint STI projects from H2020.
Based on the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) of JPI Urban Europe and the 13th Five Year Plan of NSFC, the main research area for this pilot call was 'Sustainable urbanization in the context of economic transformation and climate change'. The aim of the pilot call in 2018 was to match and strengthen Chinese and European research and innovation communities of sustainable urbanization and to evaluate a possible framework for cooperation and implementation for future joint calls. JPI Urban Europe's Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) is a best practice example of successful alignment to develop and implement a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda within Europe.
The learning and results of joint research and innovation projects between JPI UE and NSFC will also nurture and support the development of a long-term plan for future joint tenders and cooperation activities with China. The coordination of Sino-foreign research and innovation programs has gained increasing importance, as co-financing mechanisms with the Chinese government have become one of the main sources of funding to support research and innovation projects with China.
Chinese research and innovation funding background
The emergence of the Sino-foreign co-financing model has occurred quite recently after many international R&I agencies withdrew direct funding for Chinese participants in response to the huge financial investments made by the Chinese government over the last decade to support research and innovation within the EU. accelerate. the country, so there is a steep learning curve for funding agencies on both sides to learn how best to collaborate and develop mutually beneficial R&I strategies. Following the 2017 reform of China's research and innovation funding system, the funding frameworks used specifically to support international cooperation have been simplified and become more standardized. Under the Ministry of Science and Technology, international cooperation funds fall under two pillars: (1) National Key Projects for Research and Development 'Intergovernmental Cooperation in International Science and Technology Innovation' which includes a range of bilateral and multilateral programs including the EU Horizon 2020 co-funding mechanism and (2) within a specific section of the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
Although the Chinese funding structures for international cooperation programs have become more streamlined, they are not identical, and there are key differences in how these Sino-foreign calls are developed, assessed and monitored, and this is an ongoing learning process for all funding agencies involved and is negotiated on a case-by-case basis (DRAGON-STAR Plus (2018b)). These eligibility conditions are peculiar to the China system, so international consortia participating in Sino-foreign calls may not be 'balanced' in terms of the profiles of the researchers, institutes and the contribution of SMEs (which are of particular relevance to urbanization -can be focused) research). This issue is not specific to Sino-foreign R&I cooperation, but there are key challenges in terms of the level of detail expected in Chinese proposals compared to many of those in the west and the level of risk allowed.
The overall course of China's opening up and reform over the past decade has led to a new restructured and unified research and innovation funding system that provides programs that can compete with the world's leading institutions. Looking at the long list of reciprocal funding programs for joint Sino-European research and innovation projects at the multilateral or bilateral level (Annexes 1-3), we can be sure that Sino-European research and innovation that tackles global challenges, including sustainable urbanization, soon becomes more the rule than the exception.
Open Science (2018) China enforces open access, promotes institutional repositories, and demonstrates commitment to open science. Available at: https://openscience.com/china-mandates-open-access-promotes-institutional-repositories-and-demonstrates-commitment-to-open-science/. State Council (2014) Notice of the State Council of China on Deepening the Management Reform of Central Science and Technology Financial Projects (Programs, Funds) Available at: http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/.
TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA (2019) Knowledge base on the transformative capacity of Smart Cities and Eco Cities in China and Europe to close the planning implementation gap: innovation, good practice and success factors, Deliverable D2.1. Report prepared by The World in 2050 Initiative, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria, www.twi2050.org. UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (2018) Review of SDGs implementation: SDG 11 – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
URBAN-EU-CHINA (2019) Research & Innovation Agenda for EU-Kina Cooperation on Sustainable Urbanization, Deliverable D1. World Economic Forum (2018) Kinas premierminister Li Keqiangs tale fra #AMNC18, Annual Meeting of the New Champions.
