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Expanding ERA over Russia

Final Report Summary - RUSERA EXE (Expanding ERA over Russia)

The objective of RUSERA-EXE was to increase the quantity and quality of cooperation between Russian and EU researchers by creating long lasting 'researcher-to-researcher' RTD partnerships. The project focused on the five most promising and advanced Rusera Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) Regional Information Nodes (RINs). As a result of the project a number of actions took place.

Training workshops / seminars for Rusera RINs in Moscow (March 2007) and in Vienna were held; five RINs' managers were trained in order to improve their capacity to support Russian research teams with their participation in EC-funded programmes, in particular Seventh Framework (FP7); 911 consultations were made by RIN managers.

In addition to this, a call for proposals for working visits was launched in RU and the EU, 43 applications were received and 8 Russian and 8 EU researchers were selected for carrying out RUSERA-EXE working visits. Following on from this RUSERA-EXE project funded 15 working visits (8 working visits at EU research organisations and 7 working visits at RU research organisations), that were held to bring together European and Russian partners to keep and foster the established contacts.

All in all 47 long-lasting contacts in total were established: 18 project proposals were submitted, 17 joint EU-RU research articles published and 10 joint oral presentations at international conferences were made.

In the project duration the RUSERA-EXE consortium gained valuable experience in establishing collaboration between EU and Russian researchers. RUSERA-EXE consortium suggested and implemented the methodology and approaches for international research cooperation as well support for Russian proposers, training for RIN managers and continuous advice helpdesk.

During the project the RU R&D community proved its high interest in collaboration with EU colleagues. The Network of Regional Information Nodes will continue its activities after the project completion to support Russian researchers in their participation in EC R&D programmes.

After the project it was found that RTD cooperation between Europe and Russia is established and works well. The Russian S&T contribution to joint projects is undisputed among leading European researchers. Russian partners are in high esteem among European FP6 project coordinators because of their scientific competence and personal reliability. Scientific and human relationships among researchers are in general excellent.

However, researchers involved into EU-Russia RTD cooperation face a number of hurdles. Experience and growing participation in FP7 and other EC-programmes will considerably increase the capability of researchers to cope with some of the challenges which were identified by the present report.