An EU-funded twinning project with Georgia was launched on 1 April 2020. The 'Supporting inter-sectoral collaboration possibilities between Research and Industry' project aims to overcome the lack of cooperation between science and business in Georgia by enhancing the capacity of the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG).
Team of the new twinning project with Georgia © European Commission
The aim of this project is to enhance the capacity of the SRNSFG by revising and improving existing programmes and operational activities of SRNSFG in response to national priorities and socio-economic challenges, considering regional and international context. The Twinning-project specifically adresses a series of recommendations towards reforming the Georgian S&T landscape. These recommendations have been defined through the Horizon 2020 Policy Support Facility report 'Specific Support to Georgia Improving the Effectiveness of Georgia’s Research and Innovation System through Prioritisation, Selectivity of Funding and Science-Business Links' (2018). One of the core observations have been the lack of cooperation between the science and enterprise sectors in Georgia
The project will address the absence of the science-business collaboration, promote intersectoral multidisciplinary research opportunities and support advancement of the science, technology and innovation system in Georgia.
Two years long project will be implemented by the lead partner Umweltbundesamt GmbH (Austria), together with Joanneum Research (Austria), the Austrian Science Fund, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency, the Project Management Agency of the German Aerospace Center (DLR-PT, Germany), and Daugavpils University (Latvia).
The European Commission has allocated EUR 1.3 million for the implementation of the project, in which Austrian, German and Latvian experts will work together.
Background
Twinning is a European Union instrument for institutional cooperation between Public Administrations of EU Member States and of beneficiary or partner countries.
Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and beneficiary countries with the aim of achieving concrete mandatory operational results through peer to peer activities.
Since 2004 the Twinning instrument is also available to some of the EU Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood partner countries. In this framework it aims at upgrading the administrative capacities of the public administration of a partner country through the training of its staff and the support to the reorganisation of its structure. It also supports the approximation of national laws, regulations and quality standards to those of EU Member States in the framework of Cooperation or Association agreements signed with the EU.
