Workshop on Evaluation of Research and Universities

A regional workshop on evaluation the evaluation of research and universities took place from July 6 to 8, 2009 in Kotor, Montenegro. It was one of the knowledge gaining activities within the project Evolunimont (Evaluation and strategic planning of research at the University of Montenegro), financed through the FP7 call REGPOT-2008-2.

The organiser and project coordinator, the University of Montenegro (UoM), intended to take advantage of this opportunity to disseminate the project activity among the university community in the Western Balkans, raise the awareness of the necessity to establish research evaluation practices and raise the visibility of the project, the EC activity under the FP7 – REGPOT call and the UoM itself.

The workshop was held by the Institute for Innovation Research of the University of Manchester, at the premises of the Faculty for Tourism and Hotel Management in Kotor. The lecturers were Prof. Katherine Barker, also a project’s Advisory Board member, and Prof. Maria Nedeva.

There were 35 participants, among whom there were four staff members, 15 participants from the UoM, two from other institutions in Montenegro, two trainers from the UK, while the remaining 16 participants were from higher education and research institutions in the region (WBC - SEE): Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244), the FYR of Macedonia, Romania and Serbia.

The workshop provided a good knowledge base about the state-of-the-art in the field of evaluation of research, measuring scientific output and impact, the present historical moment in the development of European universities and in the region and its relation to the research function and the third mission of the universities. Lastly, the workshop provided a framework for considering different methodologies in strategic planning of university processes. During the interactive sessions, mainly those related to topics of universities, the participants exchanged views about what universities are today, how the universities in the region relate with regard to the ‘third mission’, what the implications of current changes are for research etc.

One issue should be particularly pointed out for the readers of WBC-INCO.NET journal – the WBC-INCO.NET mailing list was the main tool for inviting participants to the workshop. The project team received more than 200 applications in a few days, which created a great pool to select the most appropriate participants.

The Magic of Doing Science

Hiša Eksperimentov is the first Slovene “hands on experiments” center. Experimenting happened in Ivanova Korita, Montenegro, during a summer school for physics talents on August 25 to 26, 2009.

Miha Kos, director of Hiša, a scientist passionate about science communication and a man of knowledge and creativity was a guest of the Ministry of Education and Science and Montenegrin Science Promotion Foundation in the preparatory phase of the project “Researchers’ Night in Montenegro”.

He gave a two-day workshop on how to communicate science to the wider public, with lots of experiments, do-it-yourself demonstrations, examples of how they work in Hiša Eksperimentov and Sciencetival in Slovenia. His shows with gasses, pressure, sound and focus were accompanied with plenty of laughter, joy and applauding of the impressed public.

The young were intrigued by questions left unanswered, undemonstrated and were approaching Miha Kos, asking for more knowledge and offering answers to brain-twisters. Two days to learn, have fun, but also recognise that it is a virtue to admit not to know something as a push to start investigating and learning. Researchers, who took part as well, could gather many ideas about how to present their field of science and their job at the upcoming festival.

Flash News Montenegro

• The Ministry of Education and Science and MONSTAT arranged a TAIEX expert mission from May 11 to 15, 2009 on the reform of science statistics. An action plan was developed, with preparatory activities and the goal of conducting a new statistical survey in 2011.
• In April 2009, the government of Montenegro commissioned the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts with the preparation of a development document “Montenegro in the 21st Century”. The document should define the road of Montenegro towards a knowledge-based society.
• The Montenegrin public administration received the questionnaire on the fulfillment of candidate status conditions from the European Commission, in July 2009. The team of the Ministry of Education and Science was engaged in the preparation of answers to 33 questions from the chapter on science and research during August and September 2009.