The Government of Albania is responsible for creating the legal and organisational framework for the S&T activities. The Ministry of Education and Science (MOES) is responsible to manage them by supporting the activities of the relevant state institutions. But MOES encourages also the development of S&T activities outside the state institutions, e.g. in private entities (organisations and individuals), NGOs and agencies, which are specifically concerned with scientific research.

The S&T policies are developed by the MOES in close co-operation with the Academy of Science (AS), the line ministries and the other central institutions with the full participation of scientific institutions and higher schools. Subsequently, the policies are submitted to the Council of Higher Education and Science. Alongside the opinion expressed thereof, the policies are brought to the attention of the Council of Ministers in order to be included in the governmental programmes concerning the social and economic development of the country.

The Directorate of Scientific Research (DSR), part of the MOES, programmes and organises its own work in developing national and international programmes for research and development. In this framework, bilateral co-operation is very important for the scientific community.

Bilateral Agreements on S&T Co-operation
Albania has active bilateral agreements with Greece, Italy, FYR of Macedonia and Slovenia and hopes that Austria, Poland and Turkey will ratify agreements in their parliaments in order to sign the executive programmes.

Several agreements were signed in the period of 2005 to 2007, but especially the SEE-ERA.NET project has contributed to the enlargement of bilateral cooperations.
In the near future, Albania will intensify its bilateral co-operation and is in discussion with Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo and France.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the right to sign new intergovernmental S&T agreements. The MOES is, together with the DSR, responsible for the implementation.

The actions to be financed in the framework of bilateral agreements are:
1. Joint Research Projects (JRP) in priority areas. These may include mobility grants, aiming at permitting individual young researchers from both countries to stay for a short period of time, up to three months, to be trained or participate in research activities at institutes, laboratories and enterprises of the other country.
2. Technical Assistance Projects (TAP) aiming at providing assistance by exchanging equipment, scientific material, documentation, publications and various S&T information, visits of specialists and the mutual demonstration of new technologies.
3. Networking Projects (NP) aiming at the establishment of S&T networks between the institutions and companies of both countries. This may also include contacts between scientists and engineers, facilitating the exchange of S&T information and supporting the organisation of and the participation at conferences, workshops and training seminars of mutual interest.
Furthermore, those projects should promote joint publications of the research results and presentations of these results at international conferences in the two countries.

Albania’s policies on bilateral as well as multilateral co-operation are based on competitive funding of joint research projects. They are focused on the establishment of the European Research Area.

Submission of proposals
The Joint Committee of Bilateral Agreements on S&T Cooperation invites interested persons and organisations to submit proposals related to the actions and priority areas set out by the two parties.
Proposals for participation in joint projects should include at least one partner from each country, but proposals including at least two partners from each country are favoured, they should be presented using the appropriate form distributed by the relevant parties, should be well documented with clear aims and objectives and should have a duration not exceeding two to three years.
Three copies of the proposals should be submitted (one in English language and two in the national language), together with the CVs of the participating scientists, attached to each copy in the respective language. The English copies presented by both parts should be identical.

Evaluation criteria
Evaluation criteria include the participation of young researchers, the participation of the private sector, the scientific quality and the research experience of the teams, the suitability of the proposed methodology, the budget of the project as well as priorities in the project.

The above-named process goes ahead with the full consent and consensus of the other country. The projects will start after signing the Protocol of S&T
Cooperation.
During the period 2005 to 2007 Albania had 25 common research projects and 40 mobility projects with Italy, 32 common research projects with Greece, 6 common research projects with FYR of Macedonia and 6 common research projects with Slovenia.

Please see the next article illustrating the Italian-Albanian co-operation as
an example.

Author Edmond Agolli http://www.wbc-inco.net/users/169.html
Ministry of Education and Science http://www.wbc-inco.net/org/70.html