'The Way Forward for the Information Society in the Eastern Europe and South Caucasus countries: Priorities and Challenges', EXTEND Regional Final Conference

TBILISI, GEORGIA
16.06.2011 - 17.06.2011

The Regional Conference: "THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE INFORMATION SOCIETY in the Eastern Europe and South Caucasus countries: Priorities and Challenges" took place in Tbilisi (Georgia) on 16-17 June 2011.

The event was co-organised by the EU-funded FP7 EXTEND project (www.EXTEND-ict.eu).

The Conference addressed Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) stakeholders such as leading researchers and experts from academia and industry and representatives of Ministries from the Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus (EESC). The conference aimed to formulate a strategy and actions for the development of ICT Research & Development in the region and for the region’s integration in the wider European effort to achieve the Information Society.

During the Conference, the regional ICT research needs, capacities and priorities were discussed, the future challenges of the EECA environment were explored and concrete recommendations/actions for enhanced collaboration both within the region and with Europe were identified.

Moreover, ideas for proposals for the ICT call 8 will were presented and discussed. It was a unique opportunity to R&D actors across the region and Europe to meet and exchange contacts.

Agenda of the Conference

Session	Thursday , 16 June 2011
09:00 - 09:30	Registration & welcome
	Opening Session CHAIR : Dr. Givi Kochoradze ICT NCP in Georgia
09:30 – 09:40	Opening - Dr. Ramaz Kvatadze Executive Director of GRENA
09:40 – 10:00	Welcome Address Tamar Beruchashvili State Ministry on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration – Sulkhan Sisauri General Director of Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation - Dr. Zurab Gasitashvili Deputy Rector of Georgian Technical University –
10:00 – 10:20	Opportunities for the EECA in FP7 and participation so far Vlassios Venner European Commission DG INFSO
10:20 – 10:40	The EU and EECA collaboration Oliver Reisner EC Delegation in Georgia
	Keynote Speeches CHAIR : Raphael Koumeri
10:40 - 11:00	The ICT R&D potential in the EECA: strengths & weaknesses Andrei Dospinescu INCE, Romania
11:00 – 11:20	The ICT R&D policies of the EECA: towards a regional approach Nicolay Pakulin Senior Researcher Institute for System Programming RAS, Moscow, Russia
11:20 - 11:50	Coffee Break
11:50 – 12:20	The EECA Cluster Svetlana Klessova Director INNO TSD
12:20 - 13:00	Success Stories of EECA in FP ICT R&D projects: - MathBridge Project (George Goguadze, Intelligent e-Learning Technology) - GEO-RECAP (Giorgi Giorgobiani, Georgian Technical University) - Combined Methods of Education Accelerating Alignment to IT Development Tendencies (Samvel Shoukourian, Yerevan State University) - EU Network of excellence PHOREMOST (S.Gaponenko, B.I.Stepanov Institute of Physics, NAS Belarus)
13:00 - 14:00	Lunch
14:00 - 16:00	Panel Discussion
	Discussion topic : Key challenges & barriers for EU-EECA collaboration Panel moderator: Raphael Koumeri, EXTEND Project Co-ordinator, PLANET S.A., Greece Rapporteur: Rodica Cujba Academy of Science Moldova The target is to discuss: · Institutional / legal / financial challenges & barriers · Higher education related challenges & barriers · ICT industry related challenges & barriers · Social / cultural & other challenges & barriers Panellists Prof. Tamar Lominadze, Georgian Technical University Prof. Azad Bayramov, Institute of Physics of the ANAS, Azerbaijan Dr. Roza Dumbraveanu Assoc. Professor, ICT Department, State Pedagogical University, Moldova Dr Olexandr Zakhovaiko, National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute", Ukraine Prof Sergey Gaponenko, Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences, Belarus Dr. Grigori Saghyan, Internet Society Armenia Chapter, Armenia Anton Yanovski, Project director, Russian Technology Transfer network, Russia
16:30 – 17:30	Panel Discussion
	Panel 2: The Way forward Strategies and Policies for future research and networking Panel Moderator: Svetlana Klessova Director INNO TSD Rapporteur : Gergana Hristozova Target is to discuss: · Refining research priorities in the EECA : · Strategies to strengthen the links with FP7 · Strategies to strengthen Networking Panellists Dr. Tofig Babayev, RITA, Azerbaijan Oleg Shatberashvili, President, Federation for Information & Documentation, Georgia Ms. Irina Cojocaru, Information Society Development Institute, Moldova Dr. Sergii Sarapuloff, Member of the Academy of Technical Sciences of Ukraine Ms Liudmila Siachko, Executive director, the JLLC "CLabs" – SME, Belarus Dr. Levon Aslanyan, IST-C, Armenia Nadia Efimova, Technology Business Incubator "Kharkov technologies", Ukraine Ruben Topchan, State University of Armenia
17:30 - 18:00	Conclusions of the first day - Report from Raphael Koumeri questions

Session	Friday, 17 June 2011
09:00 - 09:30	Welcome
09:30 - 11:00	CHAIR: Tatyana Lyadnova The opportunities of the next FP7 ICT Calls (selection of challenges open combined to the priorities selected) General introduction to the Call 8 & 9: Elena Zamsa ICT NCP Moldova, Edina Nemeth ICT NCP Hungary
11:00 - 11:20	Coffee break
	Discussion – Proposals presentation CHAIR: Dr. Ramaz Kvatadze
11:20 - 11:40	General outline of the approach
11:40 - 13:30	Brokerage Forum

Open Forum for short (3 min) presentations

by participants looking for partners for Call 8 and Call 9:

13:30 - 14:00

Closing Remarks

Raphael Koumeri, EXTEND Project Co-ordinator, PLANET S.A., Greece

14:00 - 15:30

End of Conference

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European Union, Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus

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