The Internationalisation Unit (IU) aims to foster international collaboration amongst local and foreign researchers and stakeholders. To achieve this, the IU enables scientific-research expert stakeholders based in Malta to actively engage in transnational Research and Innovation (R&I) projects by developing, managing and/or facilitating their participation in various bilateral, regional and international funding programmes. The areas of research include Sustainable Agriculture, Water Management, the Agri-food Value Chain, Digital Technologies, Health, a Sustainable Blue Economy, a Clean Energy Transition and Smart Manufacturing, among other emerging technologies.

The diverse internationalisation portfolio of R&I funding programmes offers capacity-building and networking opportunities, as well as opportunities to undertake R&I projects. This portfolio is designed and implemented as a result of strong international collaboration with counterpart research funding entities and strategic alignment of national strategies and priorities amongst such entities. This allows for a greater impact of national R&I investments to address regional and global challenges.

This work is informed and guided by Malta’s participation, through Science Malta’s representation, in several internationalisation policy for a, at both international as well as regional levels. Science Malta actively participates in the ERA Forum sub-group on the Global Approach to R&I Cooperation, as well as in regional initiatives discussing R&I cooperation, including the AU-EU (African Union and EU) high-level Policy Dialogue, the EU-CELAC (EU and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) working group and the EU-KNOC 2.0 initiative (EU and China). Science Malta is also active in the Union for the Mediterranean regional platform on R&I, as well as the in the Western Mediterranean Forum, commonly referred to as the 5+5 Dialogue.