eJournal

Spring 2010

Dear readers,

We are happy to present to you the 5th edition of the WBC-INCO.NET Journal on Co-ordination of Research Policies with the Western Balkan Countries, published on the occasion of the 8th meeting of the Steering Platform on Research for the Western Balkan countries on June 24 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Spring 09

Dear readers,

• Coordination with but especially among the Western Balkan countries has been improved in the recent period and this journal provides some information on the progress. The last meeting of the Steering Platform on Research in Paris (we report on page 1 and 2) has given guidance for several follow-up activities...
• The European Commission strives to enhance the European perspectives. In this regard, also the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) has taken many efforts, e.g. organising a ministerial conference on the development of a regional research strategy. On page 5, Mladen Dragasevic from RCC presents his take on the role of research in South Eastern Europe in today’s troubled times. The WBC-INCO.NET project also presents some of its latest achievements: the study on barriers in research cooperation, information rallies which we organised and our priority setting activities (pages 3 and 4).
• Furthermore we offer a range of news from the region on pages 6 to 9. National initiatives from Greece and some EU projects are highlighted on page 10, the projects SEE-ERA.NET and SEE-ERA.NET PLUS present latest developments. In this issue, we would also like to embed the WBC-INCO.NET in the context of other INCO-NETs, namely cooperation networks with world-regions such as: Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, South East Asia and the Mediterranean Area (pages 12 to 14). Last but not least, we provide information on other projects and publications on pages 15 and 16.

Register for our e-mail-updates on http://www.wbc-inco.net.

Elke Dall

dall@zsi.at

spring 08

Dear readers,
this journal marks the transition of our work from our project see-science.eu, which ends April 30, 2008, to the WBC-INCO.NET. Many activities are therefore running in parallel and our journal is also a bit delayed: a new layout, a new logo and further increased volume of the journal are just the most superficial changes. The new project now includes 26 partners and will continue to inform you via the regular journal – but mainly through the web-newsletter, which will be initiated.

We do not only inform you about the project, but also about EC activities – progress in the association to the Framework Programme on page 2, EU communications on the Balkans on page 3 and 4. We provide an overview on the eligibility of the WBC to community programmes and recommend our updated “Needs-Offers-Matrix”. Updates on the focus of research infrastructure are summarised on page 6 and further interesting programmes and initiatives introduced on page 7 and 8. Our regional focus, starting on page 9, is placed on the one hand on Albania, as we introduce their bilateral programmes and on the other hand on Croatia, with a focus on innovation. In this issue, we invited the Stability Pact / Regional Co-operation Council to inform about the transition and effects on the education and research fields on page 12. Some articles give an insight into the project activities: our focus on global issues in RTD programmes and priorities on page 14, the INCO-NET training workshops in Belgrade and Sarajevo on page 15. On the same page, information on access to scientific literature is provided by eIFL.net, an important global network in this field.
As usual SEE-ERA.NET hosts a specific page in our journal – page 16 informs about the recent project developments. Several event announcements and reviews round up the journal (pages 17-19) and we also recommend some further reading on page 20. We hope you enjoy the new journal and we would like to encourage you to register for our regular e-mail-updates on http://www.wbc-inco.net/ejournal/list.

special 01

spring 07

fall 2006

In this autumn edition of the eJournal of the 'Information Office of the Steering Platform on Research for the Western Balkan Countries' we are introducing the latest developments on the way to a more directed and structured implementation of the Steering Platform and initiatives heading for the future (such as the INCO-NET action). You also have the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the team behind see-science.eu.

To a large extent, this issue of the eJournal follows the structure of the summer edition: the special thematic focus lies on 'Information and Communication Technologies' as the field of 'Health' was covered in the last journal. Again we take a look outside the European Union and update on Swiss initiatives towards the Western Balkans´ research community. While the summer edition's country profile presented Albania, this time we get a flavour of the S&T system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The SEE-ERA.NET project is announcing the launch of its Pilot Joint Call by the end of November 2006. Following George Bonas’ report on IPA initiatives in the previous issue, we are happy to inform on success stories from Serbia and the latest communications from Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn. Latest news on books and events are also covered again.
We strongly encourage you to participate in our dialogue on the topics of S&T in the Western Balkans and the European Union!