The project activities and results are organized in five working packages:

WP1: Establishment of the foundations for the Research training programme for international Social Scientific Research qualifications (R&D4SSR) - to improve the methodological and managerial skills of Kosovan researchers and to make them familiar to work with primary and secondary (also European) data. The Research Training Programme applies the statistical and text analytical software tools which are installed at the Empirical Social Sciences Lab (ESSL) established by project in the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Prishtina.

WP2: Implementation of the research training programme for international Social Scientific Research qualifications (R&D4SSR) - 35 Younger Kosovan social scientific researchers working at different Kosovan research organizations through participating in Research Training Program, will have capacity to understand, apply and exploit advanced state-of-art empirical social-scientific research methods and European databases.

WP3: Launching Conference “Horizon 2020” in Kosovo* - aiming to contribute to the breaking-up of the scientific insularity of Kosovan social scientific research.

WP4: Establishment and implementation of the International Mentoring Programme - to empower a group of younger Kosovan social scientists to publish articles in international scientific journals and publications.

WP5: Project Management.

Expected Results: 

• A social sciences methods laboratory at the Institute for Social Studies and Humanities implemented in operation.
• Younger Kosovan social scientific researchers working at different Kosovan research organisations have capacity to understand, apply and exploit advanced state-of-art empirical social-scientific research methods and European databases.
• Capacities of Kosovan researchers to improve their participation in European research programmes and to overcome their relative insularity developed.
• Improved knowledge base in the fields of labour market and social welfare research (incl. inclusion, migration and integration), science/technology/society studies incl. social innovation, gender research, political participation and governance.

The final beneficiaries are the users of the improved capacities, capabilities and knowledge of the target group, which are: (a) research institutions (in particular the UP where the ESSIe will be operational), (b) students and researchers, (c) state authorities benefiting from an improved scientific evidence-base (e.g. ministries and policies, labour market offices, social service providers), (d) the international (scientific) community which will be better informed about the social fabric and developments in Kosovo than previously.

The target groups are social scientists from public and private sector, academic staff and researchers of the Kosovo* higher education and/or research institutions, researchers and research managers from NGOs and government agencies.

Name of project partners are :

• Kosova Education Center (KEC) - Kosovo, project coordinator,
• University of Pristina - Institute for Social Studies and Humanities (ISSH) - Kosovo,
• University of Vienna (UV) - Austria,
• Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) - Austria,
• Institute for Social Research and Analysis (SORA) - Austria, and Working Life Research Centre (FORBA) – Austria.