The training workshops are free of charge and are conceived to foster an increased successful participation of the local ICT researchers in EU ICT FP7 initiatives. Thus, the training workshops both offer an insight into FP7 and its ICT Work Program, and additionally focus on the necessary information for the successful development and management of EU projects.

On a demand base, a one-to-one coaching is also offered to the participants by the EU WINS-ICT project partners. Themes such as the optimisation of project profiles and project proposal in view of specific calls are just an example of topics that can be discussed.

A total of seven training workshops are foreseen between September and November, one in each of the Western Balkan countries covered by the projects. The first event was scheduled for Skopje on September 11, 2009. More information on the workshops is available at each project’s website.

Furthermore, two networking events were also scheduled this autumn aside of well-known international conferences: a “Training and networking for WB-EU research cooperation in ICT for Learning and eLearning” workshop was held in the framework of the 4th BCI 2009 on September 18, 2009 in Thessaloniki (info: http://www.wins-ict.eu/workshop.html), and an “EU – Western Balkan countries Brokerage & Networking Session” took place in Istanbul in the frame of eChallenges 2009, on October 22.