International Programs

 

Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013

The European Union's Baltic Sea Region Programme promotes regional development through transnational cooperation. Partners from eleven countries around the Baltic Sea work together to find joint solutions to common problems.


The overarching strategic objective of the Baltic Sea Region Programme is to strengthen the development towards a sustainable, competitive and territorially integrated Baltic Sea Region (BSR) by connecting potentials across borders. The BSR is expected to become a better place for investing, working and living in.

 

The Programme looks to facilitate investments and actions aimed at improving the territorial potential of the region, to close the existing wide gaps in the level of socio-economic development between different areas in the region, and to resolve issues of common concern for all countries around the Baltic Sea.

 

The Programme is based on five priority axes:

  1. Fostering innovations across the Baltic Sea Region [approximately 27.4% of total funding]. This priority is focused on core innovations in the field of natural and technical science and on non-technical innovations;

  2. Improving internal and external accessibility [approximately 18.5% of total funding]. The focus here is on promoting and providing joint transnational solutions in the field of transport and information & communication technology;

  3. Management of the Baltic Sea as a common resource [approximately 27.0% of total funding]. This priority addresses environmental pollution in the Baltic Sea. It supports operations aimed at limiting pollution inputs and impacts in the marine environment area;

  4. Promoting attractive and competitive cities and regions [approximately 20.0% of total funding]. This priority promotes co-operation among metropolitan regions, cities and rural areas in an effort to enhance their attractiveness for citizens and investors;

  5. Technical assistance [approximately 7.1% of total funding]. There is provision for technical assistance for implementation of the Programme. Financial support is also available and covers administration, monitoring and control, as well as information and communication activities.

More detailed information: http://eu.baltic.net/
E-mail.: info@eu.baltic.net

 

TEMPUS

TEMPUS is the European Union’s programme which supports the modernisation of higher education in the EU's surrounding area. Tempus promotes institutional cooperation that involves the European Union and Partner Countries and focuses on the reform and modernisation of higher education systems in the Partner Countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Western Balkans and the Mediterranean region.

It also aims to promote voluntary convergence of the higher education systems in the Partner Countries with EU developments in the field of higher education.

In addition to promoting cooperation between institutions, Tempus also promotes a people-to-people approach.Tempus provides support to consortia of institutions composed mainly of universities or university associations. Non-academic partners can also be part of a consortium.

The Tempus programme is implemented in close coordination with the Erasmus Mundus programme which provides scholarships to third country students allowing them to participate in top-level Master courses and Doctorate programmes outside the EU.
The overall objective of Tempus is to contribute to the creation of an area of cooperation in the field of higher education between the European Union and the Tempus Partner Countries.
More detailed information: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/tempus/

 

Erasmus+

 

Erasmus+ is the new EU programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport for 2014-2020, starting in January 2014.

 

Erasmus+ aims at boosting skills and employability, and modernising Education, Training and Youth work. The seven year programme will have a budget of €14.7 billion. This represents a 40% increase compared to current spending levels and shows the EU's commitment to investing in these areas.

 

Erasmus+ will provide opportunities for over 4 million Europeans to study, train, gain work experience and volunteer abroad. In addition to providing grants for individuals, Erasmus+ will support transnational partnerships among Education, Training and Youth institutions and organisations to foster cooperation and bridge the worlds of Education and work in order to tackle the skills gaps we are facing in Europe. It will also support national efforts to modernise Education, Training and Youth systems. In the field of Sport, there will be support for grassroots projects and cross-border challenges such as combating match-fixing, doping, violence and racism.

Erasmus+ brings together seven existing EU programmes in the fields of Education, Training and Youth; it will for the first time provide support for Sport. As an integrated programme, Erasmus+ offers more opportunities for cooperation across the Education, Training and Youth sectors and is easier to access than its predecessors, with simplified funding rules.

 

 

 

Cross Border cooperation Programme Lithuania – Latvia – Belarus

The Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus Cross Border Cooperation Programme within the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument succeeds  the Baltic Sea Region INTERREG IIIB Neighbourhood Programme Priority South IIIA programme for the period of 2007-2013. Latgale region in Latvia, Panevezys, Utena, Vilnius, Alytus and Kaunas counties in Lithuania; Vitebsk, Mogilev, Minsk and Grodno oblasts and Minsk city take part in the Programme.
The Programme aims to contribute to the sustainable and cohesive socio-economic development of border region to make it competitive for economic and business development and attractive for people living and visiting.
The strategy of the Programme is targeted at fostering cross-border co-operation activities in various fields, which by national laws and regulations of the participating countries can directly be addressed by regional and local actors, without requiring co-ordination with central government authorities outside the immediate border regions

The specific objectives of the Programme are:

  1. to strengthen border area economic and social base and to increase the competitiveness by establishing at regional level currently missing primary structures and capacities for development;
  2. to create favourable living conditions and to strengthen border region communities by improving quality of and access to public services/supplies, effective management of environmental resources and raising the human capacity for further development.

More detailed information:www.enpi-cbc.eu

 

DAAD

The Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)/ German Academic Exchange Service is a private, publicly funded, self governing organization of higher education institutions in Germany. DAAD promotes international academic relations and cooperation by offering mobility programs primarily for students and faculty, but also for administrators and others in the higher education realm.
DAAD is the German national agency for the support of international academic cooperation. We offer programs and funding for students, faculty, researchers and others in higher education, providing financial support to over 67,000 individuals per year

DAAD's Mission

1. To enable young academic academics and researchers from around the world to become leaders in the fields of science, culture, economics, and politics – as well as friends and partners of Germany.

2. To qualify young German elites to assume positions of leadership in a global environment by providing them with international and intercultural experiences.

3. To enhance the internationalization of German higher education institutions, by way of increasing their attractiveness for the top students and scholars from around the world.

4. To promote scholarship on the German language, literature, and the arts in universities worldwide with a view to increasing the role of German as an important cultural and practical language and creating a better understanding of Germany’s rich cultural heritage.

5. To support the process of economic and democratic reform in developing countries and in the transition countries of Middle and Eastern Europe by supporting their academic research and progress.

More detailed information:http://www.daad-ic-minsk.by/index.php

 

 

The Central European Initiative (CEI)

The Central European Initiative or CEI, is the largest and oldest forum of regional cooperation in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe. It now counts 18 member states: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. The origin of the Central European Initiative lies in the creation of the Quadragonale in Budapest on 11 November 1989 whose founding fathers were Italy, Austria, Hungary and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The Initiative aimed at overcoming the division in blocks by re-establishing cooperation links, among countries of different political orientations and economic structures.
The CEI aims at achieving cohesion in areas of mutual interest and at assisting its non-EU member countries in consolidating their economic and social development. In this regard, the CEI Plan of Action defines the organisation’s priorities within the established areas of cooperation.
Once predominantly oriented towards policy dialogue, the CEI has progressively added economic growth and human development as pillars of cooperation with a focus on capacity building, sharing experience and know-how transfer.
Areas of Cooperation: Climate, Environment and Sustainable Energy, Enterprise Development including Tourism, Human Resource Development, Information Society and Media, Intercultural Cooperation including Minorities, Multimodal Transport, Science and Technology, Sustainable Agriculture, Interregional and Cross-Border Cooperation.
More detailed information: http://www.ceinet.org

The Seventh Framework Programme

 

The complete name of FP7 is 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. The programme has a total budget of over € 50 billion.
In 2007, the EU Commission has launched the 7th Framework Programme aiming at supporting a wide range of participants involved in Research & Development: from universities, through public authorities to SMEs and researchers in developing countries

The Framework Programmes for Research have two main strategic objectives:

  • to strengthen the scientific and technological base of European industry;

  • to encourage its international competitiveness, while promoting research that supports EU policies.

  • The broad objectives of FP7 have been grouped into four categories: Cooperation, Ideas, People and Capacities. For each type of objective, there is a specific programme corresponding to the main areas of EU research policy

More detailed information:http://fp7-nip.org.by/

 

 

 

Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.

Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness.

Seen as a means to drive economic growth and create jobs, Horizon 2020 has the political backing of Europe’s leaders and the Members of the European Parliament. They agreed that research is an investment in our future and so put it at the heart of the EU’s blueprint for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and jobs.

By coupling research and innovation, Horizon 2020 is helping to achieve this with its emphasis on excellent science, industrial leadership and tackling societal challenges. The goal is to ensure Europe produces world-class science, removes barriers to innovation and makes it easier for the public and private sectors to work together in delivering innovation.

Horizon 2020 is open to everyone, with a simple structure that reduces red tape and time so participants can focus on what is really important. This approach makes sure new projects get off the ground quickly – and achieve results faster.

The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation will be complemented by further measures to complete and further develop the European Research Area. These measures will aim at breaking down barriers to create a genuine single market for knowledge, research and innovation.