Meeting of Steering Platform on Research for Western Balkan Countries
Liblice, Czech Republic

28. May. 2009

SEE-ERA.NET Mobility Workshop
Timişoara, Romania

02. Apr. 2009

On April 2nd 2009, the National Authority for Scientific Research under the auspices of the European project SEE-ERA.NET is holding a Workshop dedicated to the mobility of young scientists within the Western Balkan Countries (WBCs) in Timişoara, Romania.

The target audience of the Workshop are representatives from major funding bodies from SEE-ERA.NET partner countries that are running or are planning to run Programmes dedicated to trans-national mobility of young scientists on national or regional level and bring together several experts with high expertise in the field of mobility willing to contribute to the SEE-ERA.NET Young Scientists Programme targeting WBCs and the SEE-ERA.NET consortium members.

The main objectives of the Workshop are to:
• promote the ReP-SEE (Regional Programme for co-operation in South Eastern Europe);
• analyze the fragmentation phenomenon in terms of objectives, evaluation methods and working conditions of the national and regional trans-national mobility Programmes, focusing on the WBCs;
• identify synergies in terms of trans-national mobility between the national and regional level actions in the SEE countries and those existent at European level;
• discuss the opportunity and the concept of a SEE-ERA.NET Young Scientist Programme as an option to develop the ReP-SEE Young Scientist Pillar.

In order to achieve these objectives we would like to:
• bring together several experts with high expertise in the field of mobility
• invite representatives from major funding bodies from the SEE-ERA.NET partner countries that are running or are planning to run Programmes dedicated to trans-national mobility of young scientists on national or regional level

The working language of the workshop will be English.

In order to be part of the workshop programme, the following needs to be submitted to the organizational team:
• registration form of the workshop participant
• the presentation(s) until the March 10, 2009
• for the speakers of the workshop, SEE-ERA.NET through ANCS will reimburse the accommodation and flight costs.
The deadline for acceptance of presentations and registration is March 10th, 2009.

Meeting of Steering Platform on Research for Western Balkan Countries, Paris, France

19. Dec. 2008

The next Steering Platform meeting will be held at the OECD Building at 2, Rue André Pascal in Paris, France on December 19, 2008.

The meeting will be co-chaired by the French Presidency (Ministry of Education and Research as well as Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the Serbian Ministry of Science and Technological Development and the European Commission. Participants in the Steering Platform meetings are expected from respective Science Ministries of the EU27, countries associated with the Framework Programme (such as Norway, Turkey) and the Western Balkan countries.

After an analysis by all parties of what has been done since the last meeting in June 2008 (in Ljubljana), discussion will centre around the following topics:

• Mobility including presentation of Young Scientist Programme;
• Statistics and S&T indicators: state of play;
• IPA and Research.

The agenda of the meeting will be available on the webpage as soon as the co-chairs have finalised it. Official invitations will be as usual sent through the European Commission and the Council.

SEE-ERA.NET Steering Board Meeting, Paris, France

17. Dec. 2008

The SEE-ERA.NET Steering Board Meeting was held in Paris, France on December 17, 2008.

The Meeting was stocktaking of the past (pilot joint call, evaluation and benchmarking etc) in order to build new initiatives like SEE-ERA.NET Plus and the publication of the booklet on the PJCs. Out of those new initiatives the SEE-ERA.NET Plus project is certainly one of the most important ones.

SEE-ERA.NET’s International Conference on Evaluation and Benchmarking, Ohrid, FYR of Macedonia

08. - 09. Oct. 2008

There is an urgent need for a systematic approach to the different types of R&D evaluation in Western Balkan Countries (WBC). The “International Conference on R&D Evaluation and Benchmarking” organised in Ohrid, FYR of Macedonia will contribute to the discussion of approaches and criteria for evaluation and benchmarking of R&D institutions by offering expertise and European standards for a dialogue between policy makers and the science community in WBC.

Against the background of fostering the integration of the WBC into the European Research Area and to contribute to the enlargement process, the overall aims of this conference are to raise awareness on R&D evaluation and benchmarking within WBC, to introduce European “best practice” and to reach consensus on possible approaches to evaluation and benchmarking in the R&D system to be applied in WBC.

Steering Board Meeting, Bucharest, Romania

23. Jun. 2008

The Steering Board Meeting was organised under the auspices of the National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS) in Bucharest, Romania.

The objective of the meeting were:

• SEE-ERA.NET Project Management: amended DoW, 3rd prefinancement;
• WP6: update on current steps, implementation plan, outcomes of the Workshop in Bonn, Germany;
• Conference dedicated to Rep-SEE Young Scientist Programme which will take place in Timisoara, Romania; and
• Dissemination activities: update and new ideas.

Meeting of Steering Platform on Research for Western Balkan Countries

13. Jun. 2008

The Meeting of the Steering Platform on Research for Western Balkan Countries was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 13 June 2008.

For more information and practical information please conact: Ms. Slavi Krušič (Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Kotnikova 38, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Email: slavi.krusic@gov.si; Phone: + 386 1 478 46 71; Fax: + 386 1 478 47 19).

Venue: Philharmony, Ljubljana, Slovenia

More information and presentations from the Executive Steering Board Meeting in Ljubljana are available at the WBC-INCO.NET website:
* all presentations in the password protected area: http://www.wbc-inco.net/doc/5930.html
* preliminary summary of the morning session informing on "what has been done since October 2007" (no official minutes yet - under preparation): http://www.wbc-inco.net/news/6006.html
* pictures of the SP meeting:http://www.wbc-inco.net/doc/5935.html
* pictures from the cermenony of the Herman Potocnik Noordung Award: http://www.wbc-inco.net/doc/5939.html.

Please note that the minutes of the previous meeting in Thessaloniki (October 2007) were amended and adopted during the Ljubljana meeting and the final version is available at http://www.wbc-inco.net/doc/3172.html.

SEE-ERA.NET workshop on the ReP-SEE Young Scientist Programme, Bad Neuenahr/Bonn, Germany

29. - 30. May. 2008

The SEE-ERA.NET workshop on the ReP-SEE Young Scientist Programme will be organised in Bad Neuenahr/Bonn, Germany on 29 - 30 May, 2008

“One objective of the pillar Young Scientist / Mobility is to foster individual mobility of excellent young scientists – women and men – from domestic institutions in the Western Balkan countries (outward) or to host institutions in the Western Balkan countries (inward).
With reference to outward mobility, it is essential that the young scientists remain in contact with their home institutions, while building bridges to S&T institutions in EU Member States.
There are two options:

• Young scientists may be employed by institutions in the Western Balkan countries to implement R&D projects at the cutting edge of science for a three-year period in close cooperation with a host institution in an EU Member State. Short and medium term working periods in the host institution will be funded through the fellowship scheme.
• Young scientists from the Western Balkan countries may proceed with their scientific career in a host institution in an EU Member State for a two-year period, including an additional two-year return period in a domestic institution in a Western Balkan country. For the entire four-year period, a (return) fellowship will be offered.

With reference to inward mobility, special emphasis will be given to attracting young scientists from EU Member States to work in leading S&T institutions in the Western Balkan countries. Complementing the European Marie Curie funding scheme, exploratory grants for short and medium term studies of up to 6 months will be offered (cited from “Regional Programme for Cooperation with South-East Europe” (ReP-SEE): The core element of the Joint Action Plan – Summary, September 2007).

The core objective of the “SEE-ERA.NET workshop on the ReP-SEE Young Scientist Programme” is to prepare a first concept of a multilateral programme for SEE mobility, which will be initially presented at SEE-ERA.NET’s international conference on mobility in Timisoara, Romania on 3 September 2008.

Venue: Steigenberger Hotel, Kurgartenstraße 1, 53474 Bad Neuenahr, Germany

THIS MEETING WAS CANCELLED: Steering Board Meeting

Jan. 2008

SEE-ERA.NET Innovation Conference in Thessaloniki - presentations and results

29. - 30. Nov. 2007

The South East European ERA-NET (SEE-ERA.NET), under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Development, General Secretariat for Research & Technology organised a conference on Innovation November 29-30 in Thessaloniki (Greece).

The conference objectives were to prepare the field for the participation of SMEs and other innovation related structures into the future planned SEE-ERA-NET innovation activities, aiming at:

Raising awareness on the potential of joint innovation activities
Defining the scope of joint innovation activities, building on common interests of the innovation stakeholders by addressing their specific needs
Developing specific innovation related actions and tools
Attracting the interest of possible international, national and regional funding bodies to participate in the joint innovation activities

contact:
Nikolaos Sidiropoulos
Tel: +30 210 7458119
Fax: +30 210 7714153
e-mail: nsid@gsrt.gr