Welcome to the website of ERA WESTBALKAN+

The ERA WESTBALKAN+ project's main objective during the 7th EU Framework Programme (FP7) is to accelerate the opening up of the European Research Area to the Western Balkan Countries (WBCs), i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Montenegro and Serbia. Main measures of the project will be well directed networking activities and specific FP7 trainings, such as the following:

• Trans-regional networking events for research centres in WBCs with their counterparts in Austria, Slovenia and Greece are foreseen during the project duration.
• A network of National Contact Points (NCPs) from WBCs and their links to NCPs in Member States and Candidate Countries will be substantially strengthened. The NCPs will participate in core events related to EU RTD cooperation and in a traineeship in Brussels, where they will deepen the contacts to EU RTD stakeholders.Trans-regional networking events for research centres in WBCs with their counterparts in Austria, Slovenia and Greece are foreseen during the project duration.
• ERA WESTBALKAN+ will enhance the participation of the Western Balkan RTD community in FP7 by providing targeted information and training for NCPs and specific RTD client groups
• One in-depth FP7 training workshop for NCPs from WBCs took place in Belgrade in May 2007 on the structure, contents and rules of FP7, including practical issues on project proposal preparation! Several national FP7 workshops shall follow in 2007 and 2008 in the West Balkan for researchers at universities and R&D institutions!

The established West Balkan Research Database supports to increase the visibility of universities, organisations and researchers active in R&D in WBCs, i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Montenegro and Serbia. Currently comprising about 650 expertise profiles, it allows European R&D players to benefit from a broad expertise pool of R&D profiles from WBCs in all themes of the FP7 for potential strategic partnerships and international R&D cooperation.

  The ERA WESTBALKAN+ project is funded by the European Commission under FP6
Project coordinator is FFG - Austrian Research Promotion Agency, European and International Programmes (EIP)