RRCC Portal Introduction Aleksandar Belić Ministry of Science, Technology and Development Republic of Serbia

RRCC – bacground information Ministerial Conference Sofia, 28.-30. 09. 2002. Decision to create the Regional Research Coordination Committee (RRCC) as a permanent body responsible to the Regional Conference of SEE Ministers for Science and Research Participating countries: Albania, B&H,Bulgaria, Croatia, FYROM, Greece, Romania, S&M, Turkey Agreed mission in the Action Plan The RRCC host country is nominated on the rotational principle with one year mandate; For the first year, the host organization is the Ministry of Science, Technology and Development of the Republic of Serbia (MSTD). MSTD should collect the proposals organize of the first Committee meeting.

RRCC tasks To organize the development of the RRCC Portal, providing relevant information about each of the countries such as: statistical data for the national research activities; specific national legislation; national scientific programs opened for other countries; current projects; announced competitions, etc. Other tasks: To coordinate the regional cooperative activities in R&D and to report regularly to the ministerial meetings To foster the establishment of consultation bureaus to help the development of joint proposals. To establish a working group of experts for identifying the fields of common interest. To develop the regional dimensions and interconnections of the national academic information and communication networks to reach adequate linking with the Gigabit European Academic Network (GEANT). To advise on the appropriate measures related to regional infrastructure program. To strengthen the regional dimension of the network of the NCPs. To organize regional training seminars and comparative analysis of the evaluative activities on scientific innovative projects. To develop a common format and establish a database of peer reviewers for national projects from SEE countries. To propose measures and/or schemes for support of young scientists in the region.

1st RRCC meeting Held in Thessaloniki on 19. 02. 2003. on the eve of the High Level Officials Meeting for the EU-Western Balkan countries Action Plan in S&T Participants: High Level Officials from 9 countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYROM, Greece, Romania, Slovenia, S&M, Turkey), and UNESCO-ROSTE Conclusions: … A meeting of experts from Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Serbia, and any other interested country from SEE has to be organized in Sofia in two weeks time aimed at drafting a project proposal for 6th FP concerning the RRCC Portal and including as participants institutions and experts from the region. The Ministries of Science have to designate the names of the expert not later than 28th of February to Minister Domazet.

RRCC Portal Organization Vision from Thessaloniki Country Editor Country Editor Country Editor Country Editor Chef Editor Data Administrator Data Administrator Portal Administrator Data Administrator Data Administrator Portal Hosting Organization (University of Niš) Portal SW SEE Countries Server

RRCC Portal Purpose Research Information Services Research Organizations National Research Service Center National Research Service Center National Research Service Center RRCC Portal Researchers Service SW

EU Action Plan Support Thessaloniki 26.-27. 06. 2003. Ministerial meeting workprogramme: “Creating a common RRCC Internet portal: this initiative could be implemented through a Specific Support Action in FP6.” Florence 11. 2003. EU Action Plan Ad hoc Group meeting; workrogramme 2004: “Strengthen the common RRCC internet portal: This initiative could be implemented through a Specific Support Action in FP6.”

SEEnergy proposal Submitted in March 2003. in as an INCO-WB SSA Duration: 24 months; Funds requested: 244.980 Euro Consortium composition: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nis, Serbia and Montenegro Ministry of Education and Science, Albania Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department for International ST Cooperation, Bosnia and Herzegovina Ministry of Science and Technology, Croatia Ministry of Education and Science, F.Y.R.O.M. Ministry of Education and Science, Montenegro, Serbia and Montenegro Ministry of Science, Technology and Development, Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro Ministry of Education and Science, Bulgaria National Documentation Center, Greece West University of Timisoara, Romania TUBITAK-Scientific and Technological Research Council, Turkey

SEEnergy proposal Abstract In order to improve regional cooperation in R&D field, the ministers for R&D of South East Europe (SEE) countries have created Regional Research Coordination Committee (RRCC) for SEE as a permanent body. One of the conclusions of the first RRCC meeting, held on 19.2.2003. in Thessaloniki, was to establish the joint web portal as an instrument for cooperation. This initiative was further supported by the High Level Officials meeting held on 20.-22.2.2003. in Thessaloniki, and incorporated in the “EU-Western Balkan countries Action Plan in Science and Technology” and Specific Actions for Candidate countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey) and Workprogramme documents adopted therein. The purpose of SEEnergy portal is to facilitate cooperation between SEE countries, as well as between SEE and EU countries in the R&D field. The portal will be managed by the portal management system SiteGenius donated by Ministry of Science, Technology and Development of Republic of Serbia. The SiteGenius portal management system enables national portal editors (NPEs) from different SEE countries to perform remote portal content editing by using Internet. The objectives of this project are to define the necessary portal content and functionality, to organize the training of NPEs, to fill-in the content, and to establish conditions for permanent portal functioning and evolving. In order to accomplish these objectives, following action plan is foreseen: WP1 Preparation of the preliminary version of the portal content WP2 Defining portal content and functionality requirements WP3 Setting-up full version of portal WP4 Training of NPEs WP5 Filling-in the static data WP6 Filling-in the dynamic data WP7 Presentation of results In parallel with these activities, continuous management and maintenance activities (WP8) will be organized.

SEEnergy proposal The proposal has had all the political backing needed It was the only technically valid proposal in that call (with total amount available 0.6 MEuro) It was approved by the expert evaluation in June But was not supported because SSA could not support purchase of hardware EC suggestion (emphasis by AB): “Although your proposal obtained the minimum threshold scores against the evaluation criteria as described in work programme, the proposal could not be retained for funding for absence of conformity with Community policies”. “Hence, Community funding in the frame of “Specific measures in support of International Cooperation” can be provided only for the content of the portal, which, in case of resubmission should be adequately described and should correspond to the objectives of the Work programme. The possibilities for networking following the construction of such portal would then be very interesting”.

SEEnergy proposal – what next RRCC Portal has been created. HW & SW was donated by the Government of Republic of Serbia. National Portal editors were appointed, and training session organized. The proposal will be resubmitted in March 2004. The funding will be requested for the creation of content only. The relevant MoU will be sent to consortium members in beginning of February.