Extend

Second round EXTEND Training Workshop organised in Azerbaijan

1 December 2010

The Second round of training in the framework of EXTEND project and the EECA ICT Cluster was held on 24-25 November 2010 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Training Workshop, entitled “Thematic and Hands-on Support for participation in FP7 ICT Call 7”, was organized in the framework of the International Bakutel2010 Exhibition and Conference (http://www.bakutel.az/2010/) by the Regional Innovative Technologies Academy (R.I.T.A.), partner of EXTEND project and NCP ICT FP7 in Azerbaijan. BakuTel 2010, the 16th Azerbaijan International Telecommunications & Information Technologies Exhibition & Conference, took place within International ICT Week on 23-26 November in Baku Expo Center. BakuTel brought together over 115 companies from 16 countries, including Azerbaijan, China, Israel, Lithuania, Malaysia, Turkey, USA and others.

As 2010 in Azerbaijan is proclaimed a year of ecology, Bakutel2010 Conference was devoted to ICT in environment protection. The conference was attended by about 100 participants.

On 24 November the Conference was opened by Prof. Dr. Ali M. Abbasov, Minister of Communications and Information Technologies of Azerbaijan. Presentations was made by Mr. Firdovsi Aliyev, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources; Mr. Fikret Akçura, Resident Coordinator of UN, as well as high foreign guests: representatives of Oracle and InnoVest Group from USA, Huawei Technologies (China), Türk Telekom, State Information Recourse Center (Moldova).

During the plenary sessions of the conference, Dr. Konstantinos Samiotis, Managing Consultant of Planet S.A (Greece), coordinator of EXTEND project, presented the FP7 program, the EXTEND project and the EECA ICT cluster initiative.

The formal training session officially started after the end of Bakutel2010’s plenary sessions. More than 60 ICT specialists, experts, researchers and representatives of IT organizations attended the training. Dr. Tofig Babayev, Director of Regional Innovative Technologies Academy (R.I.T.A.) opened the Workshop. Deputy Minister of Communication and IT Mr. Elmir Velizadeh greeted the guests, noted the importance of involving Azerbaijan scientists in European projects and emphasized the role and efforts of R.I.T.A. in informing the local researchers about the Framework Programme. Dr. K.Samiotis’ presentations dealt with participation in FP7 projects, finding partners, writing and submitting proposals. He gave detailed information about new ICT Work Programme 2011-2012, future and open calls, particularly ICT Call 7. The presentation aroused a great interest of participants. Dr.Samiotis answered all questions attendees asked.

Moreover, Dr. T.Babayev spoke about ICT research priorities for 2010-2015 for Azerbaijan, preliminary determined during consultations and finally approved by local experts at the Consultation Workshop on 22 April 2010. ICT Priorities of Azerbaijan which were determined on the basis of previous 2009-2010 ICT Work Programme have been considered in comparison with ICT WP 2011-2012 challenges and objectives.

During the training session, participants having ideas for new proposals took the floor for a short briefing.

The first day of the Workshop attended more than 60 researchers, scientists, students, other representatives of research organizations and universities. Among them there were not only IT organizations. So far there was only one NCP - ICT NCP in Azerbaijan, functions of which Regional Innovative Technologies Academy fulfills. Therefore all researchers interested in participation in FP7 turned to R.I.T.A. for consultations. R.I.T.A. gave consultations to specialists in different fields such as biology, air space and environmental researches, linguistics and others trying to link their activity with ICT.

At present other NCPs in Azerbaijan are nominated as well. But inasmuch as they are no experienced enough R.I.T.A. invited them to participate in Training Workshop devoted to participation in FP7. During the workshop the first meeting of all Azerbaijan NCPs with participation of newly appointed FP7 NCP Dr. Adalat Hasanov took place. It was decided that special infodays will be organized by R.I.T.A. for training new NCPs on FP7.

The second day of the Workshop took place in Cybernetics Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and was attended mainly by researchers having project ideas. 11 ideas were discussed by local experts with assistance of Dr K.Samiotis and Dr.T.Babayev and evaluated in terms of possible participation in 7FP ICT Calls.
 
Photo-Gallery