The STI Evaluation Workshop ‘Expertise and Evaluation of Research Projects in EaP countries: Current State and Future Prospects‘ was held on October 1, 2015 in Kyiv, Ukraine.
The Workshop was organized by the TBI Kharkov Technologies (KT), Ukraine in partnership with the Center for Social Innovations (ZSI), Austria and the Center for International Programs of ASM (CIP), Moldova and was carried out under financial support of the IncoNet EaP project, which is dedicated to the promotion of the bi-regional policy dialogue in science, technology and innovation between the EU Member States (and Associated countries) and the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. The Workshop was organized jointly with the International Conference ‘Grant 2015′ and had related goals and tasks. Conference organisers were the State Fund of Fundamental Research of Ukraine, the Ministry of Science and Education, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and the embassies of Germany, France and Poland in Ukraine.
The workshop involved representatives from science support funds, ministries, organisations, and centers responsible for the evaluation and financing of research projects. Among the speakers were IncoNet EaP project partners from EU countries who have experience in introducing evaluation and expertise systems.
In general 30 participants took part in the Workshop; among them there were representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Austria and Germany.
The workshop was opened by Felix M. Gajdusek, IncoNet project partner and task leader from ZSI, Austria, who presented the IncoNet EaP Project. His talk was followed by a presentation of current state of science evaluation and financing systems in Ukraine made by Borys Grynyov, Director of State Fund for Fundamental Research of Ukraine. Then Igor Yegorov from Institute of Economics and Prognosis of the NAS of Ukraine highlighted problems of using science-metric indicators for evaluation of science and technology projects in Ukraine, after which Henriette Krimphoff from German Aerospace Center shared the extensive experience of DLR in international cooperation in joint project evaluation process including information on peer reviewers’ database, instruments and services. After that Diana Grozav, from ASM-CIP, Moldova made a debriefing from the Chisinau meeting in May 2014 emphasizing results and achievements on the creation of the regional platform for research evaluation and reviews. Finalizing the first part of the Workshop, Felix Martin Gajdusek introduced the IncoNet EaP STI Evaluation Roadmap which was presented at the EaP panel in the EC in March 2015.
The second half of the Workshop was devoted to discussions of the Letters of Intent on joining the EaP Regional research and evaluation Platform and finalizing the Memorandum of Understanding between EaP countries. The representatives of each participating country presented the situation in their countries emphasizing the potential and synergies as well as country’s motivation in terms of joining the initiative, discussed mechanisms, procedure and commitments for joint capacity building actions for better review procedures. This afternoon interactive session was moderated by Felix Martin Gajdusek and involved active participation of all participants.
The STI Evaluation Workshop in Kyiv outlined the number of next necessary actions on development of EaP science evaluation network.
