The ERA WESTBALKAN+ project (a Specific Support Action, financed by the European Commission under the Sixth EU Framework Programme) started its operation in January 2007, having as overall objective during the Seventh EU Framework Programme (FP7) the acceleration of the opening up of the European Research Area to the Western Balkan Countries (WBCs), i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The two main measures of the project are on the one hand to strengthen the position of National Contact Points (NCPs) in WBCs by deepening and enlarging their network with their counterparts in the European Union. On the other hand, the Western Balkan RTD community shall be supported in its participation in FP7 by offering researchers and research institutions hands-on information and training on FP7 relevant
issues.
For more information on the ERA WESTBALKAN+ project, its activities and project partners, follow /link/2186.html to the project website.
A valuable and useful tool, already established during the previous project ERA WESTBALKAN, is the West Balkan Research Database. It provides ongoing support to increase the visibility of researchers as well as universities and organisations active in R&D in WBCs. Currently
comprised of about 650 expertise profiles, it allows researchers in the Western Balkan to present their expertise and their research ideas/projects to other European R&D communities and players, who themselves benefit from a broad pool of R&D experts from WBCs in all themes of FP7 for potential strategic partnerships and international R&D cooperation. Using the tool, the region’s scientific landscape can be searched by thematic area, as defined within FP7, by organisation type and by geographical region. Registrations in the West Balkan Research Database in all thematic areas of FP7 and partner searches are possible under the following link: /goto/578.html

Information provided by Elli B. Tzatzani-Stepanovic

Article published in eJournal summer 2007.