Lärosäten Syd, the network of Universities in South Sweden, have a joint office in Brussels since August 2018. The Brussels office’s role is to increase the profile of the universities at EU level, to improve the monitoring and influencing of EU policy programmes and to support the building of closer international partnerships. An overall goal is to support an increased participation in the EU Framework Programme.
The Brussels office is a complement to the services provided by the research support offices at home at the universities. In Brussels the focus is on the things that are best done from Brussels.
The Brussels office assists with:
- Monitoring EU research and innovation policy and programmes, in particular the EU framework programme Horizon 2020 and the upcoming Horizon Europe 2021-2027, as well as policy areas relevant to our research
- Influencing EU programme content and policy development through network engagement
- Targeted operational support on EU programme calls, such as background research and partnership search
- Identification of profiling opportunities for the universities and researchers
- Support with visiting programmes to Brussels in order to build capacity at home
- Support to management through horizon scanning
- Maintaining and building networks in Brussels, and support with participation
Regarding networks, Lärosäten Syd is engaged in two Brussels networks to increase our profile and facilitate European partnerships: the European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) and the Universities Informal Liaison Offices Network (UnILiON). Individual universities are also members of the European University Association, LERU, CESAER, SGroup among others.
Our office is situated in Nordic House, on the same floor as the regional representations of Skåne European Office and Småland Blekinge Halland South Sweden EU Office.
The Brussels representative is Rickard Eksten. Rickard has more than ten years’ experience from Brussels, from having worked with universities and innovation and environment/climate issues in an EU context.
Contact
Rickard Eksten, Brussels representative & Senior EU Policy Officer
Email: rickard.eksten@fsi.lu.se
Phone: +32 (0) 470 57 39 12
Address: Lärosäten Syd, c/o Skåne European Office, Rue du Luxembourg 3, 1000 Bruxelles