The ECOPAS Work Programme
Built on seven interrelated and complementary Work Packages, ECOPAS was designed to define and strengthen the potential of European research in the Pacific by creating a platform and portal for knowledge exchanges, a long-term plan for capacity building, and a strategic plan for Pacific state and non-state involvement. ECOPAS organised a long series of interrelated events in Europe and the Pacific, including a spectacular performance by artists from the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies at the University of the South Pacific: “Moana: The Rising of the Sea”, which toured internationally in 2015. The conference “Restoring the Human to Climate Change” was held in December 2013 at the University of the South Pacific main campus in Suva, Fiji. ECOPAS also published policy briefs, organised round tables in Brussels of diplomats, scientists and EU officials, advised the European Commission and European Parliament on the multitude of Pacific affairs, acted as research liaison between Europe and Pacific diplomats at the United Nations, and provided field studies as well as reviews and reports on climate change, sustainable development, gender, and other key issues. Two major final outcomes of the project were a major Pacific conference in Brussels from 24 – 27 June 2015, and a long-term agenda for Pacific research that was submitted to the European Commission at the end of the ECOPAS project period.
WP1: Management and Project Coordination. Managed by Participant 1, the Bergen Pacific Studies Research Group (BPS) / University of Bergen, NORWAY. Work Package Leader: Professor Edvard Hviding.
WP2: Resource Sharing and Database Building. Managed by Participant 2, Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l’Océanie (CREDO) / Aix-Marseille University, FRANCE. Work Package Leader: Dr. Laurent Dousset.
WP3: Knowledge Exchange: Research Policy Interfaces for the Pacific Context. Managed by Participant 3, Centre for Pacific Studies (CPS) / University of St. Andrews, UNITED KINGDOM. Work Package Leader: Dr. Tony Crook.
WP4: Pacific Contexts: Cooperation and Capacity Building. Managed by Participant 4, the University of the South Pacific (USP), FIJI. Work Package Leader: Dr. Joeli Veitayaki.
WP5: Strategies for Pacific State and non-State Involvement. Managed by Participant 5, National Research Institute (NRI), PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Work Package Leader: Dr. Justin Ondopa.
WP6: European Research Networks and Major Thematic Conference. Managed by Participant 6, Centre for Pacific and Asian Studies (CPAS) / Radboud University Nijmegen / NETHERLANDS. Work Package Leader: Professor Toon Van Meijl.
WP7: Research Agenda for Policy Making. Managed by Participant 1, Bergen Pacific Studies Research Group (BPS) / University of Bergen, NORWAY. Work Package Leader: Professor Edvard Hviding.