Dear readers,

• Coordination with but especially among the Western Balkan countries has been improved in the recent period and this journal provides some information on the progress. The last meeting of the Steering Platform on Research in Paris (we report on page 1 and 2) has given guidance for several follow-up activities...
• The European Commission strives to enhance the European perspectives. In this regard, also the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) has taken many efforts, e.g. organising a ministerial conference on the development of a regional research strategy. On page 5, Mladen Dragasevic from RCC presents his take on the role of research in South Eastern Europe in today’s troubled times. The WBC-INCO.NET project also presents some of its latest achievements: the study on barriers in research cooperation, information rallies which we organised and our priority setting activities (pages 3 and 4).
• Furthermore we offer a range of news from the region on pages 6 to 9. National initiatives from Greece and some EU projects are highlighted on page 10, the projects SEE-ERA.NET and SEE-ERA.NET PLUS present latest developments. In this issue, we would also like to embed the WBC-INCO.NET in the context of other INCO-NETs, namely cooperation networks with world-regions such as: Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, South East Asia and the Mediterranean Area (pages 12 to 14). Last but not least, we provide information on other projects and publications on pages 15 and 16.

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Elke Dall

dall@zsi.at