In the following, we would like to give you an insight into the work POLICY ANSWERS has done in Bosnia and Herzegovina to further develop various skills in the economy.

Support for the preparation of Horizon Europe partnerships and proposals

Project partners UNIBL and UNSA organised workshops with the same objective: to strengthen the capacities of relevant institutions and other stakeholders in the field of research and development, in accordance with identified needs, strategic documents, and above all with the key priorities of the WB Agenda.

In the first half of 2023, UNIBL organised special workshops with two groups of researchers led by the Faculty of Philosophy and by the Faculty of Political Sciences. The first team created and submitted their first Horizon project proposal ever, in which they were lead partner and in addition, they created another proposal in which they took part as partners. Even though they did not win the grant, the entire process served as valuable experience. The second team prepared the proposal for the Horizon Europe WIDERA Twinning Bottom-Up call (ACCESS-02-01). UNSA organised similar workshops on 15-16 December 2022 with the 30 researchers who learnt about Horizon Europe as well as the COST programme.

Capacity building in research management and administration

UNIBL kicked off this activity with a three-day workshop on project proposal writing held at the Faculty of Philosophy between 21 October and 9 November 2022. More than 25 representatives of the academic and administrative staff as well as advanced students from six different faculties of UNIBL participated. This training resulted in more active involvement of UNIBL staff members in the development of project applications and implementation of projects at the local, regional and international levels. The second part of this Action was implemented by UNIBL on 27 and 28 February 2023, when a two-day workshop on the creation of project proposals for larger-scale EU projects was held.

UNSA organised two study visits, to the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) (Denmark) and to the University of Rijeka (Croatia). The study visit to CBS was organised from 21-25 November 2022 with a focus on enhancing the capacities of research administration and support staff. The study visit to the University of Rijeka was realised between 12-15 June 2023 and aimed at improving capacities in the field of science, research and innovation management. The focus of the visit was on the activities of the University Innovation and Research Centre, and on support activities for research projects, innovation, transfer and valorisation of knowledge and technologies. During 2024, further training will be organised and evaluated.

Capacity building in monitoring and evaluation

UNIBL organised a workshop on monitoring and evaluation that gathered participants from the Ministry of Scientific and Technological Development, Higher Education and Information Society and the Ministry of Education and Culture. The aim was to work together on demands and good practices that connect the processes of strategic planning and monitoring of evaluation, as well as on the process of monitoring and evaluation of strategic documents.

The workshop is planned to be continued in the next phase of the project. while in-depth training for selected employees of the ministries on the topic of monitoring and evaluation is to be implemented later together with UNSA. UNSA organised a study visit to the University of Ljubljana related to this topic in November 2023. UNSA plans to continue with the events in this activity during 2024. UNIBL organised a one-day workshop in May 2023, to be followed by another one-day workshop in 2024.