Final Report Summary - ERA WESTBALKAN+ (Intensifying ERA in Western Balkan Countries) The ERA WESTBALKAN+ projects overall objective during the Seventh EU Framework Programme (FP7) was to accelerate the opening up of the European Research Area to the Western Balkan Countries (WBCs), i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Main measures of the project were well directed networking activities, specific trainings and workshops as well as increased visibility in the European Research Community.These activities comprised:- trans-regional networking events for research centres in WBCs with their counterparts in Austria, Slovenia and Greece;- a strengthened network of National Contact Points (NCPs) from WBCs and extended links to NCPs in Member States; the NCPs participated in core events related to EU RTD cooperation and in a traineeship in Brussels, where they deepened the contacts to EU RTD stakeholders;- enhanced participation of the Western Balkan RTD community in FP7 by providing targeted local information workshops and training for NCPs and specific RTD client groups;- one in-depth FP7 training workshop for NCPs from WBCs took place in Belgrade in 2007 on the structure, contents and rules of FP7, including practical issues on project proposal preparation, and additionally several national FP7 workshops in 2007 and 2008 in the West Balkan for researchers at universities and R&D institutions were arranged.This overall aim was realised through the following five objectives that were executed through seven work packages.- Networking measures for researchers in WBCThe accomplished aim of all 3 ERA WestBalkan+ Get In Touch meetings (Vienna, Athens, Ljubljana) was to offer researchers well organised bilateral meetings with potential cooperation partners from the respective fields. To make the procedure of choosing partners for bilateral meetings easier and more efficient, FFG established an individual web tool for matchmaking purposes for all three events.With the matchmaking webtool (see http://www.matchmaking.at/athen2008 online) the participants register by inserting a personal researcher profile with the contact data combined with a description of the expertise offered and the potential project idea. The researcher should indicate what FP7 area of activity he is interested in, according to the topics open in the respective calls. He/she should choose what type of cooperation he is looking for if he is offering a RTD cooperation or if he is requesting one. Each participant can adjust their profile themselves trough a password. The profile is open to other participants, who can choose suitable networking partners on the basis of the profile.- Strengthening of the NCP system in WBCIn May 2007 a big training workshop on FP7 topics for WBC NCPs took place in Belgrade in Serbia. The programme of these two days workshop has been focused on the general structure and practical issues of FP7. It had a focus on practical and interactive elements, i.e. a quiz on FP7 rules for participation and a cost calculation example for practising FP7 financial regulations, the concept of an FP7 project life cycle and the structuring and writing of a project proposal rounded up the agenda. At the end of the workshop, the participants were asked to evaluate the FP7 workshop for NCPs. Based on the results, 31 participants who filled in the questionnaire (from the total number of 41 participants of the workshop), have evaluated the workshop as very satisfactory in regard to structure, content, sufficient time for discussion, speakers and their presentations, useful materials supplied and organisation of the event.One task in the project, in strengthening the WBC NCPs, was to implement a new customer relationship management system in the NCP organisation of the Western Balkan countries. The WBC NCPs will use the database in their daily work as a dynamic tool for a targeted client approach and dissemination of information. The status quo at the end of the project was that the NCPs from Serbia, Bosnia. Herzegovina and Albania implemented new CRM systems. The NCPs from Croatia, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia and Montenegro already had good modern systems and did not see the necessity in implementing new ones.- Measures of enhanced visibility and partner search possibilitiesThe established West Balkan Research Database (found at: http://www.westbalkanresearch.net online) supports to increase the visibility of universities, R&D organisations and researchers active in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Montenegro and Serbia. Currently comprising about 930 expertise profiles, it allows European R&D players to benefit from a broad expertise pool of R&D profiles in all themes of the FP7 for potential strategic partnerships.The online database offers several advantages:- enhancement of international visibility of WBC researchers;- possibility for international clients to find partners in WBC for common research projects;- dynamic tool with data being constantly updated and newly enriched.In a final networking conference in November 2008 in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina at the end of the project the EU NCPs have exchanged experiences and best practice on how the NCPs in the WBC countries offer targeted services, approach national clients with what focus and what best practices that they have collected trough different international projects. The main aim of this meeting was to present results of the project with focus on NCP experiences.- Dissemination and promotion activitiesThroughout the project a constant dissemination of project activities have taken place. Local information material has been prepared this includes compilation and publication of:- project's standard presentation;- ERA WESTBALKAN+ FP7 guide;- ERA WESTBALKAN+ Guide for Open Calls updated monthly;- ERA WESTBALKAN+ Guide with useful links for proposal preparation and submission;- a project overview of the participation of the Western Balkan partners in FP7 projects.All documents are found at the ERA Westbalkan+ homepage, see http://www.erawestbalkanplus.net/html/links.html online. Related documents Final Report - ERA WESTBALKAN+ (Intensifying ERA in Western Balkan Countries)
