Montenegro has received a loan in the amount of 12.00 million EUR (equivalent to US$ 15.98 million) from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) for the "Higher Education and Research for Innovation and Competitiveness" (HERIC) project.

The Ministry of Science (MoS) intends to apply part of the proceeds of this loan towards payment for consulting services under the contracts for Study on Capital Research Equipment and Creation of Joint Research Facility and Study on Medium Research Equipment and Creation of Joint Research Facility.

The consultants will conduct a series of field visits to the mapped research institutions that are eligible to apply for the research grants and for the pilot CoE grants, as well as for other research activities in Montenegro. The consultant will prepare recommendations to research institutions across Montenegro to enable the country to pull together and efficiently use its precious paraphernalia resources through the optimized use of research equipment. The findings will be used by the MoS of Montenegro through HERIC Project in defining new ways to facilitate equipment, to promote networking in implementing research grants and in establishing pilot Center of Excellence (CoE), so that through a combination of these efforts, scientific productivity and innovation may be significantly increased.

It is expected that the selected consultant (one per each study) will take up his/her work by January 2013 and will be completed by March 2013. The required level of inputs is estimated to a total of twenty (20) working days.

Full texts of the Requests for Expression of Interest can be downloaded from the attachment. 

Source: email by Branka Zizic, MoS Montenegro