Finnish Research, Higher Education and Innovation Cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean: Roadblocks and recommendations for future action

This policy brief on Finnish science, higher education and innovation cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region aims to: 1) Assess the Finnish policy and funding landscape concerning cooperation with the LAC region; 2) Identify the barriers and opportunities related to cooperation with the LAC region from the perspective of the Finnish academic community and highlight themes of collaboration deemed of special importance; and 3) Provide recommendations for the strengthening of Finnish cooperation with the LAC region. While education, research, technology and innovation have been mentioned as potential areas in which mutually beneficial cooperation between Finland and the LAC region has special growth potential, collaboration efforts have often been subject to a lack of both strategy and funding. In recent years, the policy focus has shifted strongly to trade relations, including education export, and the overall premise and funding for international research, higher education and innovation collaboration have substantially deteriorated. The main challenges for Finnish higher education and research institutions to operationalize and pursue long-term cooperation with partners from LAC are lack of policy continuity, coherence and lack of resources, as well as weak articulation and communication between activities in different sectors and institutions. The main recommendation of this policy brief is to develop a more holistic strategy concerning LAC cooperation, with coherent support mechanisms to enable the translation of existing plans and agreements into concrete action.