About SCORE

The Western Balkan Countries (comprising Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) constitute one of the eight groups of countries that the international cooperation activities of the 7th Framework Programme targets, with the aim of achieving their integration in the European Research Area.

The “Thessaloniki Agenda for the Western Balkans: moving towards European integration” reiterated the importance of opening European Community research programmes to Western Balkan countries, as a key action supporting their European integration. Moreover, according to the Dubrovnik Memorandum, one of the identified promising scientific areas for future cooperation between the Western Balkan countries and the EU, is the field of Information and Communication Technologies.

The Sixth Framework Programme comprised one of the main instruments exploited towards this direction, as international co-operation represented an important dimension of it. Under FP6, for the first time, Western Balkan countries were able to participate in the European Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development on a broad basis. Most importantly, the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), launched at the end of 2006, creates new research & development opportunities for the Western Balkan research community, in the period 2007 to 2013.

Currently there is no formulated EU ICT research policy for the Western Balkan region for the period 2007-2013.
In this context, the European Commission funded the SCORE project in order to address the need for well-defined future research priorities that will enhance research co-operation between the Western Balkan region and the EU.

Specifically, SCORE aims to contribute to the shaping of EU ICT research policy in the region, in a way that meets the interests and actual needs of regional ICT stakeholders.

The main contribution of the SCORE project will be the development of ICT Strategic Research Agendas for the participating Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia) and a Policy Paper with “Recommendations for shaping EU scientific co-operation with the Western Balkan Region in the field of ICT research: 2007-2013” that will enable EU RTD policy-makers to define realistic research policies and agendas for the region.

The SCORE project commenced on 1 February 2007 and its duration is two years.