5th Eastern Partnership Informal Working Group Meeting on Research and Innovation

The fifth informal working group took place on 23 and 24 May 2023 in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova.

68 participants attended the meeting: 34 representatives from five Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine); eight representatives from EU Member States (Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Lithuania and Romania); one representative from Türkiye, two EaP Civil Society Forum representatives; and the EU officials from the Commission’s DGs RTD, EAC, EISMEA, JRC, NEAR and the European External Action Service (EEAS), including the EU Delegation to the Republic of Moldova. The meeting was chaired by Ms Ruta ZARNAUSKAITE, Head of Unit at the European Commission’s DG RTD.

Reflecting on the EaP post-2020 priorities in research and innovation, it was agreed that continued progress will depend on stronger national investments and closer regional collaboration in the sector. The participants also exchanged best practices towards enhanced collaboration in the Horizon Europe programme. These include setting up Horizon Europe Offices in the EaP Partner countries, mobilising the scientific diaspora of the EaP Partner countries in the EU and focusing on the programme’s top priorities such as the green and digital transitions. 

In view of the EU’s renewed EaP agenda, the participants further discussed policy alignment with the key priorities of the European Research Area and the new European Innovation Agenda. The participants agreed that R&I reforms in the EaP countries should facilitate stronger research infrastructures, effective research assessment systems, more attractive research careers and open science. Acknowledging that innovation represents a stimulus for a tech-driven economic growth, the EaP countries expressed an interest in learning how to boost academia-business collaboration and ways to fast-track technology transfer and smart specialisation.

The meeting also included a dedicated session on Ukraine, which underlined potential benefits of a stronger regional collaboration in support of researchers and innovators of Ukraine in view of a continued brain drain into both the EU and the EaP countries, destroyed research infrastructure and the forthcoming reconstruction support.

In the margins of the meeting, on 23 May, Mr Topala, the Education and Research Minister of the Republic of Moldova inaugurated the Horizon Europe Office in Chișinău.

In addition, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia signed a Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral co-operation in the field of science and technology.

More information

International Cooperation with Republic of Moldova

Eastern Partnership