Research & Innovation
Research and Innovation Observatory – Horizon 2020 Policy Support Facility
Service tools
Service tools
An overview of the PSF’s specific support to Georgia
Despite solid economic development and a strong report card from the World Bank, Georgia faces a serious challenge as it looks for ways to improve its research and innovation performance. The Georgian Government turned to the EU’s Horizon 2020 Policy Support Facility to draw up a list of recommendations for revamping its science, technology and innovation system.
The final report of the PSF Specific Support to the Georgian government builds on the analysis done by the independent panel of experts, their discussions, and feedback from national stakeholders about the problems in the predefined focus areas. The experts’ policy messages are summarised around four groups of issues: Coordination, Concentration, Collaboration and Coherence.
This is the Georgian translation of the executive summary of the Final Report of the Specific Support to Georgia.
This background report provides an overview of the Georgian economy, an analysis of available statistics related to the research and innovation (R&I) system in Georgia, presents key players of the R&I system, and provides information on recent legislation and implementation measures. It has been prepared to facilitate further research into the key issues covered by this PSF Specific Support exercise: identifying promising research fields, narrowing the gap between research and industry/business, and a proposal for the performance-based funding of research entities.
The kick-off meeting launched the support requested by Georgia on several topics, such as: prioritising research fields where Georgia has strong capacity or great potential for economic benefits, measures for narrowing the gap between research and industry, and performance-based funding of research entities. The PSF team includes independent European R&I policy experts from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the UK, who met and discussed the Georgian research and innovation landscape with stakeholders such as the Georgian Ministry of Education and Science and the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation.
The first fact-finding country visit to Georgia aimed to assess some of the Georgian government’s specific requests for PSF support: specificities of the national science and technological innovation (STI) system, the role of various organisations and stakeholders in STI, and the country’s performance in national and international research and innovation programmes. The PSF experts met the various relevant stakeholders in the country, such as: researchers and research funding grantees, MPs and representatives from relevant ministries and agencies, the Academy of Sciences, Georgia Innovation and Technology Agency and universities, and representatives of business (e.g. Chambers of Commerce) and international organisations (e.g. the World Bank). The expert mission was organised in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia and the Shota Rustavelli National Science Foundation.
During the second visit, the expert panel met selected groups of stakeholders from governmental bodies, academia, international organisations and the private sector, as well as innovation and entrepreneurship support agencies. The programme was based around thematic meetings on the three key topics: (1) narrowing gap between research and business; (2) identification of promising research areas; and (3) performance-based funding of research entities. Discussions focused on the panel's first findings, conclusions and preliminary recommendations, based on their first mission to Georgia in December 2017, as well as various documents analysed by the experts.
During the final meeting, the expert panel presented the policy messages resulting form the study and the final report entitled 'Improving the Effectiveness of the Research and Innovation System Georgia through Prioritisation, Selectivity and Links to Business' (plus give link to it). Among the participants, there were representatives of public and private universities and research organsations, national agencies promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development, together with the Ministry of Education and Science and the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation, who were the main organisers of the event.
Download the report