The project 'STI International Cooperation Network for Eastern Partnership Countries Plus (EaP PLUS)' aims to stimulate cooperation between researchers from the EaP countries and EU MS and enhance the active participation of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries in Horizon 2020 Framework Programme.

Building on the results of the predecessor FP7 project 'IncoNet EaP', the project will eliminate remaining obstacles to EU-EaP STI cooperation through a number of innovative and targeted actions. Amongst others, the project has also dedicated actions targeting the promotion of the research-innovation interface and supporting communities of excellence (i.e. co-patenting analyses, clustering schemes, promotion of the technology platforms concept to EaP countries.)

The cluster landscape in EaP countries is still in the initial phase of development, despite expressions of  political will and initiatives aiming to cluster policy makers, association of businesses, innovative enterprises and academia (such as the light technology cluster established in Belarus that started in January 2015; the innovative agro-clusters initiatives in Ukraine; etc.). In this framework, EaP PLUS aims at strengthening clusters and cluster-like organisations in EaP countries by transferring EU’s good practices and facilitating sustainable inter-cluster cooperation between EU and EaP clusters or cluster like organisations.

To this end, EaP PLUS has implemented:

• a review of the cluster activity in EaP countries
• a grant scheme for six EU – EaP cluster collaborations, each being reimbursed up to 10,000€
• a matchmaking event in Ukraine in March 2018.

These activities will be followed-up by a workshop involving the grant recipient clusters to share their experiences from collaboration with EU clusters under the scheme. The workshop will contribute to the preparation of a comprehensive report on the cluster activity and potential in EaP countries with emphasis on the collaboration between EU and EaP concerning clustering.

The project is open to synergies within its framework to support EU-EaP collaboration and the promotion of the clustering concept within the EaP countries. For any queries or synergy ideas, please contact with Dr. Serkan Karas serkan.karas [at] ceriss.eu (serkan[dot]karas[at]ceriss[dot]eu)  (Project Manager) and Krisztina Dax k.dax [at] inno-group.com (k[dot]dax[at]inno-group[dot]com)

Find more information and fresh news on the EaP Plus project here