The Minister of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr Christoforos Fokaides and the Deputy Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency (EDA), Mr Rini Goos, addressed today the Cypriot security and defence stakeholders at a seminar targeting EU funding opportunities. The event in Nicosia was co-organised by EDA and the Ministry of Defence.
More than 100 representatives from the Ministry of Defence, National Guard, industry, universities, research and technology organisations, and business associations participated in the seminar which included know-how building and in-depth coaching sessions. Experts from national authorities involved in the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) deployment in Cyprus have also attended the seminar.
Minister Fokaides said at the opening, "The seminar organised today in Cyprus seals in the most vivid manner the excellent collaboration of the European Defence Agency and the Cyprus Ministry of Defence. A collaboration which unfolds benefits for the Cypriot academia, SME’s, and the broader public and private sector. The pre-selection of the two projects recently submitted from Cyprus, out of 142 in total, serves as a solid proof which can only make us optimistic about future prospects. We want to facilitate Cypriot stakeholders to seize cooperative opportunities, to explore synergies, to open new avenues for SME’s creating new jobs.
The seminar showed how to access the various funding and other instruments within main European Union funding programmes running until 2020, including ESIF, COSME (EU Programme for COmpetitiveness of SMEs), Horizon 2020 and SESAR. A particular focus was dedicated to dual-use R&T funding and Enterprise Europe Network free-of-charge services. Ways to participate in EDA networks and groups of experts was addressed as well.
The seminar raised interest across all attending stakeholders, who established promising contacts in view of an effective follow-up aimed at accessing EU funding opportunities.
On the occasion of his presence in Cyprus, EDA Deputy Chief Executive Rini Goos participated in a round-table discussion with high-level officials coming from the Ministry of Defence, Armed Forces, police, and other ministries and also from academia and the research community of Cyprus. The main objective was to raise awareness on EDA’s mission as well as concrete lines of work. Taking account of the increasing blurred lines between internal and external security on the one hand and civil and defence technology on the other, different stakeholders in Cyprus exchanged views with Mr Goos on how to take advantage of EDA’s benefits through close cooperation with the Ministry of Defence in order to promote civil/military synergies when appropriate.
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