Twinning Light Project with the University of Pisa

Twinning is an initiative of the European Commission that was launched in 1998 in the context of the preparation for enlargement of the European Union. It was conceived as an instrument for targeted administrative co-operation to assist Candidate Countries (CC) to strengthen their administrative and judicial capacity to implement Community legislation as future Member States (MS) of the European Union. Since 1998 more than 1000 Twinning projects have been implemented in the CC and financed under PHARE or other pre-accession instruments. Twinning continues to play a vital role in the context of Institution Building in the new MS under the Transition Facility (TF) and it remains a crucial Institution building instrument in the present CC (Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Turkey).

With beginning of January 2006 the University of Pisa is responsible to execute the Twinning Light Project "Implementation of the National Strategy for Scientific Research". The twinning partner in Bulgaria is the Ministry of Education and Science. The duration of the project is 8 month. The project contains three parts:

1.) Development of a software platform, which helps researchers and SME to keep updated on available projects and which offers the possibility to apply for national research programs with links to the 6th and 7th FP. The platform will provide the functionality to evaluate ongoing as well as finished projects. A technical information database on national and bilateral research projects and property rights is also envisaged. Training on the platform and a report on best practices using similar instruments in EU member states will supplement this part of the project.

2.) A report on EU and national legislation concerning researchers mobility policies and the prevention of brain-drain phenomena will be worked out. A comparison to existing BG research mobility policy will be made. This part includes also recommendations on eventually necessary improvements. Finally a (partly online) work group, consisting of experts from universities, industry and politics, will be created to discuss measures against brain drain.

3.) A number of measures to increase the number of successful applications from BG researchers for 6th FP and the forthcoming 7th FP. Zones of competencies of BG research institutions relevant for the 6th and 7th FP will be identified. Training from experts will be arranged on several topics related to the RTD FPs. Measures to strengthen the BG national contact point (NCP) services, like organization of information days on various topics of open 6FP calls, will be implemented. Best practices of national contact point services will be summarized and made available for BG NCPs. A number of interviews aimed at improving the utilizisation of the PHARE and Structural Fund opportunities will be conducted

http://twinning.tacis.ing.unipi.it/