Collaborating as peers or targeted by science diplomacy? The participation of Latin American researchers in the European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation

ABSTRACT In this paper, we discuss whether Latin American researchers participate in the European Research and Innovation Framework Programme (FP) by joining European colleagues as peers, or by being targeted as part of a science diplomacy initiative. We analyse the participation of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico (LAC) in the 7th (2007–2013) and 8th (2014–2020) programs, based on CORDIS data and the Open Aire repository. We determine the scope of these countries’ participation and the variables that intervene. Results show that funding received by LAC organizations decreased significantly from the 7th to the 8th FP due to an increase in projects with no EU monetary contribution. Co-authoring with European partners or by domestic authors in publications issued from these projects by LAC researchers represented an average 12% of all publications in both FPs, and it was marginal in some projects and decisive in others, depending on the topic of research. We conclude that the participation of these countries due to EU science diplomacy actions was important in the 7th FP and less so in H2020 and that this involvement has become less dependent on their being targeted as a region, or by Spain’s brokerage as coordinator.