News

On 22-23 January 2015, the Centre for Regional and International STI Studies & Support (CeRISS, Greece) and the Social Innovation Centre (ZSI, Austria) organized in Athens the Kick-off Meeting of the S&T Policy Mix Peer Reviews for Armenia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan in the framework of the IncoNet EaP and IncoNet CA projects.

At the meeting, senior experts and policy-makers from the field of Science, Technology & Innovation from the EU Member States and Associated Countries, and high-level local stakeholders from Armenia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan along with the IncoNet EaP/CA project partners specified the areas of Policy Mix to be reviewed and set a time schedule for the in situ visits of the three expert panels in Spring 2015.

The participation at the meeting of the national authorities responsible for STI from Armenia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan demonstrates the great interest of the governments of the three countries in the realisation of the Policy Mix Peer Reviews and their impact in the domestic reforms.

Most of the countries of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) and the Central Asian (CA) regions are undergoing a period of transition/reform of their research and innovation systems. In this respect, several EaP and CA countries have requested an outside view from European partners. The S&T policy mix peer review, suggested by the IncoNet EaP and IncoNet CA projects is a fitting support tool from which the EaP and CA countries could benefit in view of increasing the legitimacy and basis for the planned or ongoing reforms in the field of science, technology and innovation (STI).

The Policy Mix Peer Reviews will be a direct follow-up of similar successful reviews implemented under the IncoNet EECA project in Moldova and Kazakhstan, benefiting from the already developed methodology and the lessons learned. The report of the Reviews will be presented in the respective countries in Summer/Autumn 2015.

What is a PMR about?

A policy mix peer review (PMR) is a systematic examination and assessment of the national STI system by international experts which aims at improving the design and the implementation of national S&T policy. It is not an evaluation but a mutual learning process based on a critical friends approach. Special attention is put on the national challenges (and the policy response to these) in the dimensions of human resources in S&T, public science base, business R&D and innovation, and economic and market development.