Service Facility in Support of the Strategic Development of International Cooperation in Research and Innovation - with a focus on cooperation with the Western Balkans

The Steering Platform on Research for the Western Balkan (SP) aimed to support the enhanced integration of the Western Balkan Countries (WBC) in the European Research Area and, in that spirit, facilitated the regional interaction as well as the interaction between the WBCs, the EU Member States, the candidate and potential candidate countries and other states associated to Horizon 2020.

ZSI has been involved in a history of support to the Steering Platform:

From January 2008 until 2014, the SP was technically supported by WBC-INCO.NET, a project carried out under the specific programme “Capacities” of the 7^th EU-Framework Programme (FP7). With the closure of the WBC-INCO.NET project, a major pillar of support for the SP was no longer available, including the responsibility for logistics and administrative management as “Information Office of the Steering Platform”. Nevertheless, based on the interest expressed by the SP members to continue with the work, the European Commission, the Regional Cooperation Council and other stakeholders supported the organisation of the SP meetings from 2014 to 2016.

In 2017 and 2018, the SP meetings as well as three associated thematic R&I (policy) meetings / workshops / dialogues were organised and implemented by the Service Facility in support of the strategic development of international cooperation in research and innovation.

The service support to the Steering Platform on Research and Innovation for Western Balkan countries was delivered by partners of the joint tender core group ZSI (Austria), DLR (Germany) and TEAMWORK (France). For this specific contract, ZSI led the partnership. It is continued in a "Phase 2" until 2021.

Team:

• Dr. Maximilian Benner, M.Sc. (project leader)
• Mag. Ines Marinkovic (project leader)
• Magª. Désirée Pecarz (project leader)
• Magª (FH) Isabella E. Wagner, MA

Section: Research Policy & Development

Partners:

• Project Management Agency at the DLR (German Aerospace Center)
• European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
• TEAMWORK

Related Articles:

• News: Support for the Steering Platform on Research & Innovation for Western Balkans
• Project: Service Facility in Support of the Strategic Development of International Cooperation in Research and Innovation
• Project: WBC-INCO.NET
• Project: Information Platform | Western Balkan Countries | Research, Technology, Innovation
• Event: Western Balkans Research and Innovation Meeting
• Project: ISF Support for the Steering Platform on Research and Innovation for Western Balkan Countries Phase 2
• Event: European Science Open Forum - ESOF2020 Trieste
• Project: R&I POLICY making, implementation ANd Support in the WEsteRn BalkanS

Tags: Balkan, internationalisation, policy dialogue, research and innovation policy, Southeast Europe